So the weather jumped up to 100 on court over the 2.5 hours I played, but it was still fantastic compared to the summer swamp I am used too.
I jumped in with the VCP97 right away and this frame indeed has an amazing feel. Just super buttery and the sweet spot feels fantastic. To me this feels as good as any Blade pro and very close to the UT. The UT may win there because it has the small sweet spot (which is always the best feeling), but the VCP gives more power and forgiveness while still feeling blissful on contact.
On feel alone, this is a keeper for me since I really want to have a soft frame that can replace my Blade v7s, and this is it. What Yonex has done is made this frame thicker and it's noticeable. This frame is much more like a 16x19 Blade with the stability and feel of the 18x20 version. So if you used to buy blades and rebalance them to make them HL, and go down that rabbit hole - I suggest demoing this frame instead. Its essentially a Blade suited more for an all-court player.
When I say this frame is butter, I mean it. With full Tour bite, it gives off a crisp sweet spot but soft flexible response. I suspect that the SW may be around 325, but I am not sure yet until I get the SW1 setup. The other thing is that the frame is very stable and amazing at net. This thing rules at net, and is the best volleying frame I have used in a while. It just has a lot of touch so I can punch the ball anywhere I want and also hit drop volleys that just die off the bounce.
Off the ground is where I struggled a little. It's really an adjustment to go from an attacking frame that I am dialed in with now and then to a soft frame that will take some time for me to sync up to. Good news is I was able to hit really deep rally balls off both sides with a lot of spin, but when I wanted to jump on a ball and attack it, I did not have the accuracy yet.The ball can fly a bit with this racquet compared to the direct, perfect laser beam of the VC95. That said, some of this may be that the specs need a little tweaking and I just need more time with the racquet. Regardless, I was comfortable hitting big grindy groundstroke, but not as much hitting my attacking shots. The one thing I will say is that this frame has nice power for being so soft.
On serve I struggled a bit as well, but this frame was coming through pretty early which made me suspect the SW is a little low like the stock VC95 was. That said I found the serves to have a lot of power and spin so there is no problem there, but dialing in the serve in set 1 was too tough and I lost a close set 6-4. It came down to me missing some key serves that I don't normally miss so I didn't feel too bad about it.
Set 2 I went to the vc95 and after a couple of games to adjust back, I was in cruise control again. I had confidence in attacking right away and controlled the set with my serve and groundstrokes. The Vc95 gives me the confidence to go after any shot, and a good example was on the backhand side. I was getting a lot of balls to my backhand side that I could just go for and rip cross court for clean winners. I had one of those shots to get to set point and those are always tight points to play. In this situation I trusted the frame and ripped it into the back corner.
Also the VC95 is one of those frame where someone will hit me a high deep ball to my backhand, and I will just run around it and uncork an I/o winner into a super tight window. I notice when I start hitting that shot, it always changes the momentum of the next few games. It just rattles the other player because now they feel like they can't hit safely to my backhand side and don't really know what to do. I don't have that level of confidence with the VCP97 yet to execute those types of pin point shots, but it was only day 1.
So the differences I notice between the 2 frames - the Vc95 just knifes through the air and is an extremely inspiring frame to play with. I put away short balls without mercy and can ramp up the pressure on the opponent to where they feel they need to hit higher quality shots than they are capable of. I dialed in the serve with it once I added a little lead, so I don't get broken very often.
The VCP97 wins in the feel department. It is super soft and classic, and you can feel that sweet flex on contact. Coming from the 6.1ish direct Wilson feel of the vc95 I do think that is an adjustment I have to get used to off the ground. Also at the net the VCP is super stable and pretty much rules. When it comes to manuevrablity , the VC95 is the winner here. The VCP97 feels clunkier, like the V7 blade, which is not the end of the world, but again it is an adjustment.
I will get specs on these frames and report back. I am really happy with both of these frames, but I still would choose the VC95 right now. Let's see if that changes over time. The VCP97 is very addictive to play with due to its feel and the VC95 is honestly one of the most complete and fun frames I have ever owned, so this is really a win for Yonex with both racquets.
Most likely I plan to keep both. The VCp97 will allow me to unload my blades and I can definitely see myself getting better and better with it over the next few weeks.
(wish me luck)
