D
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My Prince Ignite showed up in the mail Monday and I now have five hours of hitting in with it, so it is time for some opinions:
I usually use the K90 or my N6.1 95s. I recently have been hitting a friend's Kprostaff, I think it is wonderful for hitting ground strokes and volleys, but I found hitting my heavy TopSpin serve to be impossible. I pretty much had to hit hard flat ones or put in sitters. Thus the K90 is my usual raquet, because it has great control and really lets me rip both monster top spin and flat serves. So when the new prince ignite frame came out, I wanted to give it a try, I just broke down and ordered one strung with a full bet of PHT at 60 lbs. Here is my review:
Cosmetics: Although it is only supposed to be a 22mm beam, I think it looks larger than that due to it being a boxed beam. The thing looks really mammoth where the throat connects to the pallet. The paint job is really nice and looks very sharp. It is a very unusual racquet, because to just pick it up you think it would be unstable and hollow, but when you hit with it, it may be muted, but it is pretty dang stable given how light and easily it swings.
Ground Strokes: I was rather impressed, the open pattern let me take some huge topspin cuts and the work I was putting on the ball was rather impressive. I could also flatten them out and they would scream off the racquet like bullets. I feel like the KPS and K90 hit heavier balls, i.e. I am getting more RPMs on my shot, but I found the pace and control I had over this racquet to be insanse on my forehands. I have not found quite how to hit decent one handed backhands with it, as I am used to a flat stable swing with the Wilsons. I think I could get away with more topspin and hitting a harder ball on my backhand than with the Wilsons....but that would take some time and quite a few hoppers of balls. Slice was decent, but I found the K90 and the Prince EXO graphite 93 to be better, the pure storm limited is probably the best ever in terms of ones I have hit-(if only that one came in an open string patter-sigh). I think what held the prince back a little is the thick beam and I would probably need to spend some more time with it to get them to bite hard. In sum, the racquet is very stable and you can hit some shots that have great angles, good pace, and great spin. I found it overall to be a wonderful jack of all trades on the grounstrokes as whatever I requested it did very well.
Serves- I can really knock the cover off the ball with this racquet, I can generate tons of pace and spin. In fact I think the quality of my serve probably rivals my K90. I would love to get a radar gun and see which one hits a harder ball. I would guess my K90, but it should be close. The open string pattern and head light balance make this an exceptional raquet to serve with.
Volleys and overheads- I found my reflex volleys were pretty good, and I could easily punch most volleys deep. I love the wilsons, because I am not terribly affraid of soemone trying to take my head off in doubles. I would be a little bit more concerned with the prince, as I could see a crushed forehand twisting this one out of my hands. That is specualtion, I need to play some competatitve doubles and see what happens. Overall volleys were good, but I am just a little more used to a heavier racquet, so I was not quite in the groove with it yet.
Return of Serve- I struggled here as I found I was constantly out in front of the ball when reacting due to the weight of my usual frames. But what I found is if I hold off and take a nice large cut, I could really lace hits down the lines. I found while playing singles I could really start the points out by being on the offensive and I was rather impressed by that. I need to hit with my usual partner, who can hit them in the 100+ range to get a feel for how it handles chipping and blocking serves back. But against the majority of the tennis world, if you have the right timing you can hit some surprisingly nice return of serves.
Overall I think it is a really nice racquet. It reminds me alot of my N 6.1 95. I think the ignite gives me a little bit more zip and control on ground strokes and serves. But my Wilsons volley a little better. I think anyone who likes the Wilson 6.1 95 line of frames should give this one a shot and I think you will enjoy it. Overall I found it a little easier to control. It has a more muted string bed, but the sweet spot is enormous, in fact I may have shanked one ball on a high reaching volley, but that was about it. It also makes a wonderfully aggressive "thwack" sound everytime you hit it. which really pumps up the ego.
I need to hit with it way more to decide if this is something I want to switch to, but so long as I don't develop any forearm pain, I may just do it.
I usually use the K90 or my N6.1 95s. I recently have been hitting a friend's Kprostaff, I think it is wonderful for hitting ground strokes and volleys, but I found hitting my heavy TopSpin serve to be impossible. I pretty much had to hit hard flat ones or put in sitters. Thus the K90 is my usual raquet, because it has great control and really lets me rip both monster top spin and flat serves. So when the new prince ignite frame came out, I wanted to give it a try, I just broke down and ordered one strung with a full bet of PHT at 60 lbs. Here is my review:
Cosmetics: Although it is only supposed to be a 22mm beam, I think it looks larger than that due to it being a boxed beam. The thing looks really mammoth where the throat connects to the pallet. The paint job is really nice and looks very sharp. It is a very unusual racquet, because to just pick it up you think it would be unstable and hollow, but when you hit with it, it may be muted, but it is pretty dang stable given how light and easily it swings.
Ground Strokes: I was rather impressed, the open pattern let me take some huge topspin cuts and the work I was putting on the ball was rather impressive. I could also flatten them out and they would scream off the racquet like bullets. I feel like the KPS and K90 hit heavier balls, i.e. I am getting more RPMs on my shot, but I found the pace and control I had over this racquet to be insanse on my forehands. I have not found quite how to hit decent one handed backhands with it, as I am used to a flat stable swing with the Wilsons. I think I could get away with more topspin and hitting a harder ball on my backhand than with the Wilsons....but that would take some time and quite a few hoppers of balls. Slice was decent, but I found the K90 and the Prince EXO graphite 93 to be better, the pure storm limited is probably the best ever in terms of ones I have hit-(if only that one came in an open string patter-sigh). I think what held the prince back a little is the thick beam and I would probably need to spend some more time with it to get them to bite hard. In sum, the racquet is very stable and you can hit some shots that have great angles, good pace, and great spin. I found it overall to be a wonderful jack of all trades on the grounstrokes as whatever I requested it did very well.
Serves- I can really knock the cover off the ball with this racquet, I can generate tons of pace and spin. In fact I think the quality of my serve probably rivals my K90. I would love to get a radar gun and see which one hits a harder ball. I would guess my K90, but it should be close. The open string pattern and head light balance make this an exceptional raquet to serve with.
Volleys and overheads- I found my reflex volleys were pretty good, and I could easily punch most volleys deep. I love the wilsons, because I am not terribly affraid of soemone trying to take my head off in doubles. I would be a little bit more concerned with the prince, as I could see a crushed forehand twisting this one out of my hands. That is specualtion, I need to play some competatitve doubles and see what happens. Overall volleys were good, but I am just a little more used to a heavier racquet, so I was not quite in the groove with it yet.
Return of Serve- I struggled here as I found I was constantly out in front of the ball when reacting due to the weight of my usual frames. But what I found is if I hold off and take a nice large cut, I could really lace hits down the lines. I found while playing singles I could really start the points out by being on the offensive and I was rather impressed by that. I need to hit with my usual partner, who can hit them in the 100+ range to get a feel for how it handles chipping and blocking serves back. But against the majority of the tennis world, if you have the right timing you can hit some surprisingly nice return of serves.
Overall I think it is a really nice racquet. It reminds me alot of my N 6.1 95. I think the ignite gives me a little bit more zip and control on ground strokes and serves. But my Wilsons volley a little better. I think anyone who likes the Wilson 6.1 95 line of frames should give this one a shot and I think you will enjoy it. Overall I found it a little easier to control. It has a more muted string bed, but the sweet spot is enormous, in fact I may have shanked one ball on a high reaching volley, but that was about it. It also makes a wonderfully aggressive "thwack" sound everytime you hit it. which really pumps up the ego.
I need to hit with it way more to decide if this is something I want to switch to, but so long as I don't develop any forearm pain, I may just do it.
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i'm gonna have to seriously think about switching to this frame.
