Product Detail
Description
Classic 27-inch long racquet, but the revolutionary Q Plus System and the significant weight make this racquet very competitive and suitable for those “all-round” players who always play a driven game. The Kinetic Damping Chamber nevertheless protects against “tennis elbow”.
Technical features
- STRINGBED: 100 in2
- FRAME LENGTH: 27 in
- FRAME PROFILE: 22 mm
- WEIGHT: 315 g
- BALANCE: 310 mm
- SWING WEIGHT: 300
- RIGIDITY: 67 RA
- STRING DIAGRAM: 16 vert. x 20 horiz.
- MATERIAL: Spiraltech Graphite + Kinetic Mass
https://www.prokennex.eu/?utm_source=facebook-shop&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=facebook-shop&utm_content=PROKENNEX Q 5 PRO&store-page=PROKENNEX-Q-5-PRO-p334651365&variation=186560077&fbclid=IwAR12wutGaXA0Ry68SMNTnemlI7ZXuyy-ke0ezyzGcHmc_s3nWQENFIUYBMM
Oh my..yes - I love these specs. A little more to swing but honestly, this Banana could really deliver.
I feel like one of my hypothetical kids is going off to college. These are very complicated emotions.
Gads, you SOB, this may be your greatest work. This frame is exactly what I expected based on your comments, and it's rather fantastic. I spent 2.5 hours with it and I felt like my old self out there. It was honestly blissful and my teammates said it was the best they had seen me play as well. It was just fantastic tennis in 60 degree weather with the Rockies in the background, really something else.
Is this frame for everyone? Of course not, but for me it fit like a glove. The first thing I should mention is my shoulder doesn't hurt at all and my arm feels like I barely played tennis. The second is the feel. It's crispy and has incredible feedback so there is no vagueness at all - one of the more honest feedbacks I have experienced. I went dampener free which helps a lot but the ball feel is so accurate that I was able to hit tiny spots on the court just due to the confidence I had from the frame. I just knew I could go for small windows and never hesitated. So here is my review after day 1:
Groundstrokes - This is a very unique frame. There is honestly nothing like it that I have used. It just does not make sense to get such a stiff and crisp playing frame that feels so nice on contact and doesn't bother your arm. What I love on groundstrokes is that my 70% rally ball is not only loaded with spin, and I can change the trajectory at will, but also that I can put it anywhere I want. This was some of the best control I have experienced in any racquet, but when you add in the free pop, it just makes it a weapon that I think benefits a lot of players. It is a perfect balance of moving the ball anywhere I want, added with heavy spin and really nice pace. It allows me to basically shape the ball however I want for the situation and also choose what I want to do - drive it into a corner, loop it deep, hit a heavy slice..its all there for me. I felt like I had control on every shot, and even playing defense felt easy since I still felt like I had options then. In a way, the whippiness of the frame felt like it slowed the game down a little for me, and I was able to maximize the time I had before hitting the ball, which lead to more creative shots. I tested this out with sharp angles, down the line painters, heavy inside out forehands and neutral moonballs and it does everything. Additionally, the net clearance was more than acceptable. I had a much easier time getting net clearance than I did with the v7 Blade. I think this must be a combo of the more HL balance and stiffness coming into play because I cleared the net much more than I expected on questionable, low shots.
The biggest difference that stood out to everyone was my consistency was back. I didn't overcook shots, I didn't hit the net as much, I simply made less errors. My backhand felt great, I was able to hit DTL winners or just engage in long crosscourt rallies. The confidence the frame gave me just made me feel like I would not miss, which in turn, let me play a heavy and consistent game off of both wings.
A concern for me was the balance and lower SW may be too whippy, but somehow that only benefitted me. I did not see it as a negative at all. This is a control frame that goes to 11, it's the only way to describe it. Basically when I wanted to drive the ball with power, it was there and when I wanted to loop it safely into play, it was there as well. The power level is more than acceptable for me, in fact it may be perfect for my game.
Serve - I find the power quite nice with this frame. In fact I did not think that was an issue either. Is it as big as a PA? No, but what it does provide is that ability to be more consistent on serve and put the ball anywhere you want. It is such an easy frame to serve with that I was able to get myself out of 15-40 situations with it. I'd get some free points with the spin serves and then use placement to kick the opponent out wide and then hit i/o to the opposite corner. My DFs went down and I was able to hold serve more. In fact I won the most sets on the day. I credit that to the consistency of the frame.
Volley - I will play again tomorrow AM and give more detail there as I don't have a huge sample size yet. I can say that it's very easy to handle at net and I was able to put away angled shots and drop volleys that would be much more difficult to execute with a more HH frame that I usually use. Again, the confidence it provides is crazy. When I crashed the net I knew I was putting away the next shot, and I knew where the ball would go. There was no question there.
Serve Return - Ok this is where I think I may have actually said "Gads, you sweet SOB" out loud at one point because my god, what a great frame for serve returns, which are a real big part of my game. Dramatic difference from any racquet I have used in quite some time. I face some really good servers who can put the ball in the corners and kick it behind and above my shoulder. What this frame does, is allow me to return shots that are way out of my strike zone, and absolutely punish anything that is in it. On the tough returns, I can either get the ball in play on serves that I normally would not be able to , and on the easier returns I can take control of the point right away. As we know, this is huge during a match since the other guy will feel the pressure and start DFing, thats exactly what happened. One of the best serve return frames I have ever hit with easily.
So yeah, this is a lower twist weight frame so some will not jive with that. For me, it just reinforced that I personally play better with this type of racquet because I have more control over the shape of the shot. This also translates to serve where I found I could come over the top corner of the ball and get some square contact and heavy spin, which provides great consistency for me. The trajectory of the ball is the rather fantastic linear drive that always seems to drop inside the lines, but what is great is I can brush the ball and hit loopy and deep as well. The slices were excellent off both sides, so really I can not find a weakness with this frame that impacts me. I do think some will find it a little unstable if they like a higher twist weight, but since I am not that guy I only consider it to be a plus.
Just an amazing frame for me that opened my game back up and gave me 100% confidence in my shots again. Gads, I owe you some scotch or whatever your drink of choice is when you return to the US and the PNW.
We all know the honeymoon phase is a real thing, so I will not remove the wrapper off my second one just yet (which luckily is within a gram of my first), but I will say this - I'm 99% sure I'll be going with this PK moving forward, and I look forward to buying 2 more Bananas when they release.
PK is F'ing awesome.
