just got some donnay pro stocks

[thejackal]

these were demos sent out by the company for a pro to try. instead of letting them collect dust in a closet somewhere, I'll take them out for a spin in the coming days.

figure I'd share some pictures and info here.

all-black PJ except for the "donnay" brand name in the throat and on the side of the head.

no idea what the exact headsize or layup is, having never played with a retail donnay. looks close enough to a pro one 18x20, though.

they were weighed to approximate the kblade. there is some lead under the stock synthetic grip. what I found interesting is that the pallet seemed to be reinforced with kevlar or something similar.

there are stickers in the throat indicating RA rating. one is 71 and the other is 73

will hit with the strung one tonight and report back

 

[cluckcluck]

Those are some pretty sweet sticks you got there. How did you get them?

 

[thejackal]

lets say I got them from a fellow board member...

 

[thejackal]

hit for an hour with two 4.5-5.0 players, we just hit groundstrokes 2 vs 1 and rotated every 10 minutes or so.

one of them happened to play with the 2013 blx blade so I had him try it the donnay out first. he said it played pretty close to the blade and liked it overall.

when he was done, I put down my prince rebel (original green model, leather grip and 5 grams of lead at 12 o'clock, strung with alu power at 48lb).

the donnay is strung with luxilon original in the low-50s. I didn't really expect much considering it's a good 15-20 grams lighter than my usual racquet (and around 3pts headlight with a leather grip instead of 6pts for the rebel). plus the 73 RA rating written on the throat of the racquet was a bit worrisome, considering the rebels started out at around 60 and probably got a lot whippier over the past 2 years I've been using them. all that being said, the donnay played really nicely - getting depth was not a problem at all, it was more responsive and didn't feel harsh at all.

I went back to the prince after about 10 minutes, but over the weekend I'll probably weigh the donnay up a bit more and give it another shot.