Hey y'all, this is my first post on talk tennis, but I wanted to share my thoughts as I'm thinking about swapping over from PAVS to PA98. I'm around a 4.5 level and am trying to really think through whether I want to drop the cash on a matched pair of these.
I'm seeing most people say that it plays really similar to PAVS but for me, they're decently different. The PAVS is a lot whippier and obviously stiffer. I think this makes it just a more aggressive racket overall and I would say that if ripping winners is what you want then stick with PAVS. The PA98 on the other hand is much better in longer rallies because it's doesn't totally throw you off on a mishit like the more hollow PAVS. The higher swing weight was also welcome for me because it made me feel like I could just redirect pace more easily especially at the net where I feel like this is much better than PAVS. When I had time to set up my shot, the weight didn't slow me down either because the aero beam really does provide that smooth feeling through the air.
That said, my biggest concern with the PA98 is the maneuverability on defense. I found that especially when defending deep, wide shots on my forehand wing, it was really difficult to get the racket around in time to put a good shot in play. This could be due the higher swing weight which I like overall, but I'm afraid it's due to the higher twist weight. I don't know if y'all looked but TWU has the twist weight on this at 15.4 which is about as high as it gets. Normally twist weight means greater "stability" at the cost of maneuverability. I definitely felt the stability because deep forehand returns were so much each with this racket than PAVS. I'm wondering if I would get used to the loss of maneuverability.
All of that said, I would love to hear more feedback from people that are trying it. I'm wondering if the TWU twist weight for this is accurate because as I said, 15.4 is really high. Even with that, I really do like this racket because after playing with the PAVS for some time, it's almost exactly what i wanted with the slightly reduced stiffness and increased swing weight.