srvnvly
Hall of Fame
From Racquet Sports Industry June 2020 magazine, page 11, “World no. 57 Lucas Pouille of France has joined the Babolat Team and will play with the Pure Drive racquet.” http://www.tennisindustrymag.com/issues/202006/index.php
Lucas Pouille to Babolat
- Thread starter srvnvly
- Start date
He moved to Babolat in January (and to Le Coq Sportif too instead of Adidas). Indian Wells was supposed to be the first tournament with his new sponsors but Rona decided otherwise.
Btw he was out for a while due to an elbow injury. Not sure playing with the Pure Drive is a smart move...
Btw he was out for a while due to an elbow injury. Not sure playing with the Pure Drive is a smart move...
Nostradamus
Bionic Poster
will Prince go out of business ??
Nostradamus
Bionic Poster
why didn't he go with Aero pure line of rackets? why did he choose pure drive ?
D
Deleted member 768841
Guest
I wonder which model, maybe the 2018/2021?
Nostradamus
Bionic Poster
dang this is a good magazine. it saids US open will be changing to Lacroid surface ?? what is lacroid ?
D
Deleted member 768841
Guest
Sparkling water?
D
Deleted member 768841
Guest
LOL. Maybe he’s using an older pure drive?Another player to the dark side
smalahove
Hall of Fame
D
Deleted member 768841
Guest
The mold looks like the 2018, especially that beam. I bet he had them lower the RA.
edit: anybody see that tag/paper in the throat?
smalahove
Hall of Fame
D
Deleted member 768841
Guest
The beam definitely looks like the 2018.
travlerajm
Talk Tennis Guru
That beam does look suspiciously narrow.
D
Deleted member 768841
Guest
I’m willing to believe it’s the 2018, the grommets and beam look almost the same as the 2018.
lefty10spro
Semi-Pro
So Pouille is gonna be a big star and sell a bunch of rackets? He was very inconsistent (on his bad days) with the 18x20 Prince T100P. This is a sweet but low-powered frame. The Babo switch could be a disaster like it was for David Ferrer. Unforced errors thru the roof and a blown elbow are the risks even for the pros.
He was very inconsistent (on his bad days) with the 18x20 Prince T100P. This is a sweet but low-powered frame. The Babo switch could be a disaster like it was for David Ferrer. Unforced errors thru the roof and a blown elbow are the risks even for the pros.gutfeeling
Hall of Fame
Anyone know which version of the pure drive he is using underneath the 2018 paint?
D
Deleted member 768841
Guest
The mold looks to be the 2018, the beam and grommets are very similar to the 2018 from a close look.
TennisHound
Legend
Yep
Frans Bleker
Professional
Couldn't agree more. T-Fight DC 305 with his custom specs would have been great for him, and for Tecnifibre obviously.
Moonballballer
Semi-Pro
Lol going from powerful rackets to that one is a nice step
Nostradamus
Bionic Poster
pouille totally suck in that Exo in france. so not sure what he is doing with this racket
AM75
Hall of Fame
He has an elbow surgery soon according to his IG. I still can't understand why he switched to Babolat with his elbow problem.
Frans Bleker
Professional
It's a nice racket, but given his racket history he would never play with it. Given that, I think in general its a misleading that players endorse frames which don't even come close to what they are playing themselves.
Nostradamus
Bionic Poster
i think it's really about the money. whoever pays the most. "Show me the Money"
Frans Bleker
Professional
I may hope a professional tennis player grabs a racket that he likes over 20% extra contract money, but yeah, I think indeed that history has proven that that is not always the case.
and there were cases of players using a frame that they like painted as something completely different, from a different manufacturer.
Frans Bleker
Professional
Verdasco right?
David Le
Hall of Fame
How come? Wasn’t most of his Prince racquets back then are 18x20? I would think the VC97HD would do him wonders cause of the thin beam, flex, and control.
Frans Bleker
Professional
His recent years he played with a 100 sq inch racket with a 22/23 mm beam. That is world of difference with a 97 with a 20mm beam.
haqq777
Legend
Head size and beam width are considerably bigger factors here. The VC97HD is a much thinner beam and smaller head size. The 18x20 Pouille played with was a pretty open pattern 100 sq in 18x20 with 6 mains in throat anyway and practically had the same string spacing as usual 16x19 patterns.
haqq777
Legend
I agree. Honestly, I never understood his switch from his Rebel/Tour 95 to TT100P. Was a pretty drastic move in my opinion, especially when I feel like it wasn't really needed. He obviously knew something we all don't, I guess.
Frans Bleker
Professional
Yeah, indeed, that makes sense, but yeah, I think he wanted more pop considering he switched to a Pure Drive. But in general I know that there is a trend among pro players that they think bigger is better nowdays. I heard this from some Pro Players that they are all considering going bigger. In that sense I think tennis is going the same direction as Table Tennis is in right now, max power and use spin to control that power in order to get maximum energy into a ball.
Lavs
Hall of Fame
Nowadays majority of Pros play with 100 sq rackets which have >=23mm beam. That's how they think they would get desired Pop and Depth on their shots. Keeping in mind that they can control the ball pretty well. I think Lukas went good direction with Babolat because staying with Price with his style of play he would never jump into Top10.
Moreover, majority of retired Pro switched to bigger frames, most of them to Babs (Chang, Kafelnikov, Agassi and Muster also played APD for some time).
I think among the most notorious cases I read about Agassi and Becker.
But something tells me that it is not limited to these 2 players.
