Kalinskaya Racket

lidoazndiabloboi

lidoazndiabloboi

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People have noted Kalinskaya is using a 16x20 racket, which many equate to a Steam 100. But since the racket had PWS, it is more likely a NTour 95 style racket. In the pic above, you can see the special head guard for this racket? Does any one know which version of the Tour 95 had this sort of headguard. Qinwen Zhang's Tour 95 racket had the Ncode headguard as you can see the nCode print stamped on it.

Edit: Upon further research, it looks like Kalinskaya's head guard is from the nCode NTour 95, same as Qinwen's and Petra Kvitova's
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good question Dirk. are they usually 27 inches because most players play with standard length frames? I believe Henin's Hammer mold (predecessor to Tour) was extended, but I have to imagine the mold as it's been offered to players has changed since then...
 
swish41 said:
I wonder their rackets are 27.25 inch length. NTour's pro stock usually 27 inch long
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The retail one I had was extended .25
I loved this racquet, a rich kid never played it and his father who I worked for gave it to me

After a bit of lead and a liter of silicone it was a weapon
 
oldmanyellingatcloud said:
glad to see the Wilson Tour mold alive and kicking on tour.

Kalinskaya's great to see too
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It's nice to see these old yet classic wilson frames still used on the tour. And to see AK and Zheng hit so well with this frame, which is Henin's famed ntour frame she won the 2005 FO with. Maybe it's good for AK's flatter forehand and I'm amazed how she can blast crisp fh winners with it.

Which I think helps confirm these up to 19 year old frames are not necessarily obsolete for the game compared to modern frames the manufacturers keep iterating with new versions marketed to the retail masses.

(and 12 year old frames in the wilson blx Steam 100 and 99's. Almost 20 wta players used the steam 100 under blade paintjobs at this year's AO. And a few used the Steam 99. ADMinaur uses an extra string modded 99. )
 
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Looks more like an ultra 95 or 100 tour

jp.wilson.com

ULTRA TOUR 95CV V4.0

薄いフレーム厚でレクタングル形状のハンマーバランス設計。スウィングからの走り出しは格段に高い弾道で、相手コートでのバウンド後の伸びを加速させる。ボールインパクト時につぶれることで、スイートエリアの拡大、パワーUPを発揮する「クラッシュゾーン」を搭載した、錦織圭が世界で勝つためにたどり着いた答え「日本発・世界基準の侍・スペック」。
jp.wilson.com jp.wilson.com
 
Ntour 95 Technical Specifications

Length 27.25 inches 69 centimeters
Head Size 95 square inches 613 square centimeters
Weight 10.7 ounces 303 grams
Balance Point 13.625 inches
35 centimeters 0pts Head Light
Construction 22 mm Straight Beam
Composition 25% nCoded Hyper Carbon / 75% nCoded Graphite
String Pattern 16 Mains / 20 Crosses

Ultra 95 tour spec
Material: BLX+Counter Veil+High Performance Carbon Fiber
Country of manufacture: China
Weight: 309g
Frame thickness: 22.0/22.0/22.0mm
Grip: PRO PERFORMANCE
Face area: 95 square inches
Size/length: 27.25 inches
Grommet part number: WRG064700
String pattern: 16x20
Butt cap part number: WRG164411
Appropriate tension: 50-60p
Balance: 32.5cm

I got both to feel the differences. The swing weight for nTour is much lighter. I cannot tell if Anna is using a 95 or 100 ultra. nTour came in 105 also but her frame doesn’t seem that big.
 
Adidas tennis said:
I got both to feel the differences. The swing weight for nTour is much lighter. I cannot tell if Anna is using a 95 or 100 ultra. nTour came in 105 also but her frame doesn’t seem that big.
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Are there any major differences in the outward surface of the frames? It's interesting how the ultra 95 tour cv looks so close. A main reason why I tend to think AK is using an ntour 95 is because the headguard of her racquet is the same as the original ntour 95's.

8wf2OM6.jpeg


(AK at AO), (at Grand Prix, Stuttgart) , and start of thread pic.
 
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Where did you get a picture of her at Stuttgart? Can’t watch the tournament here in the US.

That bumper guard is unique to the ntour. Ntour 2 has a different bumper. But I would be surprised if Anna plays with an ncode tour repainted as an Ultra since the ncode is almost as old as her lol. And if Wilson still has these laying around and repainted just for her who wasn’t even in the top 50 last year. Maybe some stringers has to get the info from her directly.

I don’t see any ATP players with Ultra paint job in disguise. They all have PS or Blade paint jobs. I don’t get Wilson’s marketing with the Ultra. It is a different racquet in Japan which is an older mode 95 16x20 while in the U.S. it’s 97 16x19 or 18x20.in the end it is ultra confusing lol
 
According to another site she uses an Ultra 100. The nCode came in 95 and 105 but it doesn’t look like a 105 in her hand.

Strings looks like hybrid gut?
 
Adidas tennis said:
Where did you get a picture of her at Stuttgart? Can’t watch the tournament here in the US.

That bumper guard is unique to the ntour. Ntour 2 has a different bumper. But I would be surprised if Anna plays with an ncode tour repainted as an Ultra since the ncode is almost as old as her lol. And if Wilson still has these laying around and repainted just for her who wasn’t even in the top 50 last year. Maybe some stringers has to get the info from her directly.

I don’t see any ATP players with Ultra paint job in disguise. They all have PS or Blade paint jobs. I don’t get Wilson’s marketing with the Ultra. It is a different racquet in Japan which is an older mode 95 16x20 while in the U.S. it’s 97 16x19 or 18x20.in the end it is ultra confusing lol
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"Popular" old molds and layups are still produced and offered in various paintjobs. These have their own SKUs and barcodes.
Promising upcoming players depending on brand can have quite a vast choice of what they want to play with.
Also "just for her"? In this thread the mentioned WTA players are Qinwen Zheng and Petra Kvitova.
 
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Automatix said:
"Popular" old molds and layups are still produced and offered in various paintjobs. These have their own SKUs and barcodes.
Promising upcoming players depending on brand can have quite a vast choice of what they want to play with.
Also "just for her"? In this thread the mentioned WTA players are Qinwen Zheng and Petra Kvitova.
Click to expand...

She can play with a wooden racquet pretty good
 
slipgrip93 said:
It's nice to see these old yet classic wilson frames still used on the tour. And to see AK and Zheng hit so well with this frame, which is Henin's famed ntour frame she won the 2005 FO with. Maybe it's good for AK's flatter forehand and I'm amazed how she can blast crisp fh winners with it.
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Not to divert too much but I could’ve sworn Henin used a Hammer 5.3 with Power Holes?
 
Adidas tennis said:
Where did you get a picture of her at Stuttgart? Can’t watch the tournament here in the US.
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Those cuts I posted are from getty images. Usually during a high profile pro tournament the getty photographers take and post pics of the players on court in whatever round matches within a day or two. Sometimes with their high-def stills, the racquet details are closer to view and able to made out easier. Others on this site had been using and posting tennis related getty images (like OP post) for years, so I started to check getty since a couple of years ago.

I would like to know what type of strings AK uses too on her frame. And I wonder if AK should try or switch to a steam 100 or 99 BLX, if she's injury prone with the heavier older ntour 95 assuming it is.

Automatix said:
The stretch model to be exact, yes.
After retirement Steam 99.
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Oh nice! and fun to hear this about the Steam 99 being Henin's post-retirement frame. It's been my secondary frame for the past year,
which I hardly use except for an emergency, but keep it in the bag. I'd gotten it from the bay, and there are some paint chips and a partial
worn headguard, but most all of the rest of the frame and the throat is still in smooth glossy paint condition, and comfy for me to swing as a
early gen wilson BLX and amplifeel frame.
 
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We need a close up of the bumper guard if it has written n code on it. But the head size doesn’t look like a 95 nor 105. They never made a 100 n code.
 
slipgrip93 said:
From another getty still taken during AK's match vs. Samsonova, July 6th. It has that old ncode symbol logo next to the word.

wrnVPZb.jpeg


The original still, linked here: ("LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 06: Anna Kalinskaya plays a backhand against Liudmila Samsonova in her Ladies' Singles third round match during day six of The Championships Wimbledon 2024")
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Thanks for the close up image. The head size does not look like a 95 or 105 which has a thicker beam also. Very mysterious lol
 
Adidas tennis said:
Thanks for the close up image. The head size does not look like a 95 or 105 which has a thicker beam also. Very mysterious lol
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sure, I can't really tell myself and I have near-sighted vision. Like sometimes I thought Sampras' ps85 on video looked bigger than my own ps85. Another fun example. DiMinaur's racquet said to be a steam 99 blx and looks so much like it , yet has an extra cross string. For a wild guess maybe they have custom layups of these old base frames by wilson for them.
 
slipgrip93 said:
sure, I can't really tell myself and I have near-sighted vision. Like sometimes I thought Sampras' ps85 on video looked bigger than my own ps85. Another fun example. DiMinaur's racquet said to be a steam 99 blx and looks so much like it , yet has an extra cross string. For a wild guess maybe they have custom layups of these old base frames by wilson for them.
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Let’s assume it’s a 95. I have both the n code and ultra tour 95 which feels a lot more solid frame. But like I said it’s odd she is using a frame older than her.
 
In general it's always been hard for me to gauge whether a frame looks like it's 85 vs 90, or 95,98 vs 100 headsize when I see the racquets on tv or these isolated photo images. Like Djokvovich uses a 95 old mid 2000's Head racquet mold, and I can never tell on tv it's not a typical 100. Only when it's up close, like I'm putting a 95 and 100 headsize frame close together can I see it, and noticing the extra sq in of a 100 head size is often the lower part of the racquet hoop and to the sides like my past steam 100 vs. my blx tour 95 collectible.
Adidas tennis said:
Let’s assume it’s a 95. I have both the n code and ultra tour 95 which feels a lot more solid frame. But like I said it’s odd she is using a frame older than her.
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I looked back on Kalinskaya's older getty pics. It seems she was using a babolat in her junior to ITF years. Then from teen years on the WTA tour until 2022 she was using an EZone. The first getty pic of her using a wilson was in Oct, guadalara open 2022, and it seemed to be the ncode ntour with the then ultra paintjob. So yeah, it's a mystery how or why she switched to it. In an old interview article she said Myskina was an idol player to her and she watched a lot of her matches. So a wild guess, maybe she saw her playing Henin with the ntour95 as an early exposure to the frame, or who knows if she also tried it out in her junior years at some point, as some juniors were possibly still using the ntour95 in the early 2010s. And when she switched over to Wilson as a racquet sponsor from Yonex in 2022 , Wilson allowed her to use the ntour95 mold with the disguising paintjob.

1DtzM9O.jpeg
QJ2K2Ho.jpeg


("OCTOBER 18: Anna Kalinskaya of Russia celebrates match point against Barbora Krejcikova of Czech Republic on day two of WTA Guadalajara Open Akron 2022")
 
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Great find! In 2022 she wasn’t even in the top 100 I am surprised that Wilson would have given her an endorsement and paint the n code racquets to look like an ultra. Rare to see females using 95’s now a days. They even put the silver sticker on the throat like the real ultra tours which I’ve said feels a lot more solid than the n code even with counter vail.

Any guess what string setup she uses?
 
Thanks, yeah, I like that it's a good view of the bumper guard and of the frame itself in the pic. As for the strings, gosh, if I had to quickly guess in no way being certain, it could be the tour common silver looking ALU power strings.
 
Maybe she can go back to Adidas since it seems like she's not doing as well with the Nike gear
Also, a racquet change since the game is more physical and powerful than before. Can try the real Ultra Pro, the one she endorses which is more powerful than the Ncode.
 
Adidas tennis said:
Maybe she can go back to Adidas since it seems like she's not doing as well with the Nike gear
Also, a racquet change since the game is more physical and powerful than before. Can try the real Ultra Pro, the one she endorses which is more powerful than the Ncode.
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She just started with Nike at the end of Sept '24. Her results have not been bad, but injuries unfortunately derailed her AO '25 campaign. If you ever tried the real Ultra Pro, you would know it is the complete opposite of power. Super flexy and low powered, not exactly what she is looking for.
 
It is a great find. However I still believe she and Zheng are using a larger than 95 Ncode model that was un released. Or we could be wrong the entire time. It could be a completely different Ncode model. I don’t know.
 
lidoazndiabloboi said:
She just started with Nike at the end of Sept '24. Her results have not been bad, but injuries unfortunately derailed her AO '25 campaign. If you ever tried the real Ultra Pro, you would know it is the complete opposite of power. Super flexy and low powered, not exactly what she is looking for.
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I have the Ultra Pro both 16x19 18x20 and Ultra Tour 95, 100, Ncode2 95, K Factor 95, and Ncode Tour 95.
Out of all of them, the Ncodes have the least power. Every reviewer of the Ultra Pro said it needs lead tape.

I don't think she was injured, she had some virus. She calls the trainer every time she starts losing to change the momentum and gives up when it becomes out of reach. She needs a new coach that can take her to another level but she is the kind of person who is loyal so she probably won't switch.
 
Alexh22 said:
It is a great find. However I still believe she and Zheng are using a larger than 95 Ncode model that was un released. Or we could be wrong the entire time. It could be a completely different Ncode model. I don’t know.
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Zheng's looks like a 95 but Ana's does not, it looks like a 100 but the bumper guard has Ncode on it.
Apparently, a new Ultra will be released around the US Open.

Maybe she can go back to Yonex, the ezone is doing well on tour
 
Adidas tennis said:
No pro uses 289g racquet
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1) it's not true, number 1 wta Iga used to use 290g prince at the highest level
2) pro players use prostock that comes around 250g and then they lead it up, so the base weight of the retail model is totally irrelevant
3) Nfury could be a base and she could swing a 350g custom Nfury if she liked to
 
I had k court 264g 100 16x20 and I added lead tap to get it to 320g to match the ultra tour 100 since it is only sold in Japan. The thing still felt flimsy and not as solid. So Lead tape can’t really change the flex/stiffness.
 
Adidas tennis said:
I had k court 264g 100 16x20 and I added lead tap to get it to 320g to match the ultra tour 100 since it is only sold in Japan. The thing still felt flimsy and not as solid. So Lead tape can’t really change the flex/stiffness.
Click to expand...
noone said lead tape can change the stifness
 
Adidas tennis said:
Zheng's looks like a 95 but Ana's does not, it looks like a 100 but the bumper guard has Ncode on it.
Apparently, a new Ultra will be released around the US Open.

Maybe she can go back to Yonex, the ezone is doing well on tour
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2023-china-open-day-6.jpg
wta-1000-national-bank-open-presented-by-rogers-2024-day-3.jpg

For comparison, Kvitova's racket vs Kalinskaya. They seems similar in size.
 
Great find says Ncode on the bumper
I don’t know what so great about this mold. It does not feel as solid as the 95 ultra tour. The 100 ultra tour feels solid also with a little more power and spin but sold in Japan only. The ultra 100 on TW is not the same
 
Here's a screencap of the old tw ad page and specs, circa 2005.

Gf0YZIF.jpeg


I have an old ntour 95 I got secondhand. It can do a fast swing and felt light enough to maneuver despite its more oldschool type of graphite. Some interesting or unique characteristics about it is that it's also extended an extra quarter of an inch to 27.25 similar to its spiritual descendent of the steam 100 blx which is also 16x20 and 27.25 length. It also has a higher swingweight significantly higher than its strung static weight. While it may not have as much free power as racquets today with their modern materials, it felt like light enough handling with a smooth swing. The 'tennis spin' guy had some commentry about it: ("WILSON NCODE NTOUR: ONE OF THE MOST DIFFICULT RACKET'S TO REPLACE")
 
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