PJ Agassi is using right now in clay court champs.?

A

am8622

New User
I just put on the US men's clay court championships and agassi has a yellow or gold racquet (or pj). Almost looks like the LM instinct. Anyone else see this? Anyone know which racquet this is supposed to be? Pics?
 
Yep--Im watching---He busted up his red racquet (Head Flexpoint) in the first round match- right?----this is something definitely different...--looks to be a wider body ....
 
looks like a rounded-frame LM Instinct to me. Seems weird that he would change pj's in the middle of a tournament. Now we have more proof the paintjobs exist. Maybe that's why he **SPOILER** lost the first set **SPOILER**.
 
Think he got frustrated with the flexpoint and broke it out of frustration(pic) --and has switched?
 
It definitiely looks like a LM Instinct. It is really easy to see on my parents big screen tv. Definitely an Instinct b/c it looks pretty wide unlike any racquet Agassi has ever used. They decided to go away from the tennis for about 5 mins and showed some of Chris Myers' show with Roger and then Chanda due to technical difficulties. SPOILER-Andre broke for a 3-1 lead in the 2nd. He is definitely using an Instinct. He is sitting on the changeover holding it up as he towels off. Wow! Andre is using MY racquet!!! Cool!!!!
 
I'm thinking he was trying a real Instinct for a while, but when he switched racquets back in the 2nd, he went back to whatever he normally uses.
 
I saw him get a new racquet in the second, too, but it is the same Instinct-looking stick he's been using all match, not a flexpoint or radical pj. He's got it (instinct) right now in the third.
 
on a change over he held up the racquet for a while - almost like he was tyring to show that he was not using a Flexpoint.
 
It was a really strange sight not seeing him w/ a Radical PJ.

Maybe this is his actual quote concerning the flexpoints, ""When I hit it, I feel like I had no idea what I did"
 
I dont think he would be using a LM Instinct PJ so soon after the Flexpoint just got released. Why would HEAD go thru all the trouble of marketing the new racket, just to have him switch after a month or two. I'd guess he really is using the Instinct.
 
It doesn't seem right business-wise, but Andre's business is playing tennis. I've never hit w/ an Instinct or an FP Radical, but my guess is the Instinct has a bit more power, correct? Maybe Andre thought he needed a little extra kick on clay and went with a more powerful racquet. I mean when you're going up against some big hitters in the world of clay, it might help to get any advantage you can. Plus he's not gettin' any younger. (Not knock on Agassi, I love the guy, just bein' honest)
 
capt.htw11104220252.us_mens_clay_court_htw111.jpg


capt.htw11004220244.us_mens_clay_court_htw110.jpg


capt.htw10604220043.us_mens_clay_court_htw106.jpg
 
Craig Shepherd hit the nail in the head on this one.
That was exactly my guess when I tuned in and saw
Andre playing with an Instinct. Probably experimenting
before the French Open.
 
am8622 said:
Maybe he thought he'd give Gasquet's racquet a try (w/o the leather grip).
Click to expand...

Yeah, maybe he thinks that if Gasquet can beat Federer with the LM Instinct, then maybe he could, too! :D
 
somebody in another post who was working at the tournament confirmed this....it is a real LM instinct...wouldn't be surprised if it is the Tour XL version...27.5"/100 sq. in./11.8 oz./336 sw
 
I play with LM Instinct, and from photos it appears a REAL Instinct.
Instinct is a frame totally different from Radical and Prestige. It really gives more power to the shoot... Somewhat similar to Babolat Pure Drive: same idea, different way to apply to reality. It's a nice frame to play 1 mt ahead of the baseline, to put the opponent under pressure.
 
oh geezz, how desperate.... instinct, NOW ?!?! oh wait it is like the aero drive, maybe he should switch to that instead.... oh wait, I know, the surge. Look, if Agassi wins the french using an instinct with Lux strings, then everyone on this board would switch, but I doubt it, it is too late, stick a fork in him he is done. Monekying around with his set up at this stage shows how desperate he really is, I mean he can't be more in physical shape, it is impossible, maybe it is his gear ;-) Never see sampras with all LUX job right before he retired, right
 
michael chaho said:
oh geezz, how desperate.... instinct, NOW ?!?! oh wait it is like the aero drive, maybe he should switch to that instead.... oh wait, I know, the surge. Look, if Agassi wins the french using an instinct with Lux strings, then everyone on this board would switch, but I doubt it, it is too late, stick a fork in him he is done. Monekying around with his set up at this stage shows how desperate he really is, I mean he can't be more in physical shape, it is impossible, maybe it is his gear ;-) Never see sampras with all LUX job right before he retired, right
Click to expand...

Yeah, can you imagine if Sampras had switched to a Pure Drive during his slump of '01-'02 before he won the '02 U.S. Open? :o As desperate as he was, I don't think that ever even crossed his mind, since, if anything, he didn't want to send a glaring signal to his opponents that he was that desperate!
 
Agassi's racquet

Agassi's new racquet is the Head Liquid Metal Instinct. He came in the pro shop at the Westside Tennis Club Thursday morning and bought 6 of them and had the stringer sting them up. I was there and saw the whole thing. I couldn't believe it.
 
jwdickens1962 said:
Agassi's new racquet is the Head Liquid Metal Instinct. He came in the pro shop at the Westside Tennis Club Thursday morning and bought 6 of them and had the stringer sting them up. I was there and saw the whole thing. I couldn't believe it.
Click to expand...

What????!!! He had to buy them out of his own pocket? You would think he could just call his Head rep and they'd FedEx as many of them as he wanted to him by the next morning or have them hand couriered to him no matter where he is. I mean he's their #1 endorsee isn't he and they pay him millions?

On second thought, they pay him millions to use the Flexpoint Radical so they may disapprove of him using a LM Instinct. So maybe he did ask his Head rep to send them to him and they said "HELL, NO!!!!", so he had to buy them himself?
 
jwdickens1962 said:
Agassi's new racquet is the Head Liquid Metal Instinct. He came in the pro shop at the Westside Tennis Club Thursday morning and bought 6 of them and had the stringer sting them up. I was there and saw the whole thing. I couldn't believe it.
Click to expand...



Unbelievable!

Do you know if he bought Instinct or Instinct XL?
 
it looks regular length in the pictures to me. also string pattern is of regular length racquet. guga played with the regular length instinct as well briefly 1 or 2 years ago at the los angeles tournament.

mabye andre will switch back to his old racquet after such a tight match with it
 
I can think of two (more) reasons why he would do this:
1. he has a long term wrist injury and maybe he just had to use a lighter racquet with better vibration dampening because of that.
2. he is fed up with guys like us moaning because he uses a 10 year old racquet painted to look like the newest model, and just wanted to prove he could use an off the shelf racquet...
 
He did something like that yrs. ago at the same tournament he used a Donnay widebody and cleaned up went to europe at the french and broke everyone of them and had his regular beam Donnays over nighted to him.
 
nytennisplayer said:
capt.htw11104220252.us_mens_clay_court_htw111.jpg


capt.htw11004220244.us_mens_clay_court_htw110.jpg


capt.htw10604220043.us_mens_clay_court_htw106.jpg
Click to expand...
wow im surprised, i mean in mid tourny. i think he had to pay for them b/c head wouldnt want him to change racquets. the fp is brand new and jcf isnt doing siht. theyd rather fp than lm
 
It sure looks like a LM Instinct. I think his old radicals were to demanding for him at his present age. Like so many of the mid thirty crowd, we had to switch to tweener rackets to get a little more humf. If it helps him win, who cares what racket he uses. I bet he needed that extra power and was practicing with it in his off time. Who knows, he may finish winning another slam.
 
Deffintly The instinct. I received acouple of tickets from my work place from Tony ( thanks man ) and we were 3 rows away from the wall. Deffintly the instinct, he did however still have the FP bag. -Pdang
 
Guys, guys, guys, this is not Andre's new racquet. Andre does stuff like this every so often to improve his game, or add a little extra sometimes. As we all know Andre hasn't had a lot of success in the past couple of years at the French or any clay court tournament to say the least. So I just think it's just an effort to help his game out in some way. The Instinct, because it's more of a widebody racquet, will give him more pop to his strokes. Andre likes to hit through the court that's why he plays so well on the hard courts. He can hit through the courts and keep a lot of his shots nice and low so his opponents have to hit up on the ball, thus giving Andre the ability to put a lot of balls away in his comfort zone. Someone earlier posted something about Andre years ago using a widebody racquet at the tune-ups before the French Open, and he won most of them. He was on fire and the racquet seemed to be adding to this run. Remind you that these were faster green clay courts in the U.S.. The racquet was the Donnay Ultimate Pro. I remeber cuz I used it for years. Anyways, when he got to the slow red clay courts of Europe, especially the French, things did not go so well. He had an awful first or second round match, that he won, but ended up breaking quite a few racquets on the way to winning the match. Just an off remark, I remember him breaking a racquet, receiving a warning from the chair umpire, and right after the umpire gave him the warning Andre broke another racquet pretty much right in his face. Pretty much to say, here ya go, you want me to break one, I'll break another one. It was kinda amusing.

So anyways, Andre is not changing racquets, he will continue to use and promote his newest frame, the Head Flexpoint Liquidmetal. He is just trying to add something else to his game during the clay court season. Which I commend him for even playing, cuz if you remember, he didn't play one warm-up tournament last year before the French Open. Oh yeah, sorry he played the week before at that St. Poelten in which he lost in the first round. Then went on to lose again in his first round match at Roland Garros. Which started that awful streak that Andre went through up until the Summer circuit on the hard courts before the U.S. Open. But when he broke out, he really broke out in a big way! It's just temporary guys, and it will only last the clay court season, if it lasts that long. Who knows Head might make a special Flexpoint widebody prototype for Andre to use during the clay court season. It''s possible. They did it before. Later
 
Well, he obviously has done it for a reason, the exposure that has been generated from this is huge, maybe Head wanted some exposure for this racquet to boost sales? There's no way Agassi would have used them if he was in breach of his contract. Maybe he's waiting for the paint to dry on his new shipment of racquets, and so he's using these in the meantime?
 
AJK1 said:
Well, he obviously has done it for a reason, the exposure that has been generated from this is huge, maybe Head wanted some exposure for this racquet to boost sales? There's no way Agassi would have used them if he was in breach of his contract. Maybe he's waiting for the paint to dry on his new shipment of racquets, and so he's using these in the meantime?
Click to expand...
Since there is a Flexpoint Instinct available to Head's tour players, which a 14 year old girl is shown wielding on these boards, I think we can dismiss the pre-planned scenarios. He obviously was being overpowered and bought 6 of them to give him the option of using them for more than one match. He can go back to his painted flexpoint OS, switch to the real Radical Tour, have Jay customize the ots Instincts - decisions, decisions.
 
I wonder if instead of being overpowered, he did it because he was not getting the pace he likes on the hardcourts.

instead of taking huge cuts with his normal frame, maybe he wanted to slow his swing down and get more spin instead.

dunno his reasons.. wish a reported would have asked him directly about the obvious racquet switch.
 
I think Andre knows he has to change something to get back on top, racket is a good place to start. He needs more pop on the ball and learn how to volley. If he does not shorten points, then he cannot win against top 20 opponents.
 
Andre's one handed slice backhand seems to be an adjustment to help him out in a jam... glad he is willing to try new things to contend with the best!
 
If this is true, this wouldn't be the first time he's changed racquets mid tournament, or ever. I remember in 1998 when he played Wimbledon he was playing with a supposed "prototype" Head racquet that sure looked like an old Prince Oversize Graphite, but with a black paintjob. Obvious reason why is because of the stabilization bar. I guess as long as it's a Head racquet, the company could care less.
 
He did use a so called "protoype" around 98 and it did appear to be a Prince Graphite. I have pictures of it. Its absurd how many people on these boards are convinced that he really used the Donnay Pro One. Get real! The stock one was made so cheap. I know for a fact that when he signed with Donnay he never used that racquet. I do believe that the current ones that he uses are in fact the first Radical Trisys 260 or of some moderation. But in no way is it a Donnay Pro One. He absolutely hated that racquet.
 
Thepunisher said:
He did use a so called "protoype" around 98 and it did appear to be a Prince Graphite. I have pictures of it. Its absurd how many people on these boards are convinced that he really used the Donnay Pro One. Get real! The stock one was made so cheap. I know for a fact that when he signed with Donnay he never used that racquet. I do believe that the current ones that he uses are in fact the first Radical Trisys 260 or of some moderation. But in no way is it a Donnay Pro One. He absolutely hated that racquet.
Click to expand...

The Pro One was engineered, and re-engineered specifically for him, Dickie Dillon, his team of engineers, his brother and father spend a lot of time working on that frame. What do you think he was using in 1989-1991?
 
It was not a pro one. Sure it looked similar. I should know, I played with his racquet once. For one, the butt cap on the stock came out as opposed to the one that he used. When he first used the donnay, he tried using his prince graphite with a donnay stencil.
 
Yes, Punisher, it was well known that the butt cap was not the stock Donnay Pro One which had an unusual cap. However, I think it was the Pro One and the question remains, if it wasn't the Pro One, what do you think it was?

Yes, he did use a Prince Graphite for 1 tournament after debuting the Pro One, he lost early with the Pro One a few times, then showed up with the Donnay stenciled POG for one tournament (which of course all the media and fans instantly noticed). Donnay then met with him and upon experimentation with him and his father, the Donnay was remolded for extra torsional stiffness. Then Agassi switched back and was said to be happy. Again, I'm willing to entertain the idea it was not the Pro One, but frankly, there are no other plausible contenders.
 
Here's some food for thought. Dre's original weapon of choice, the Prince Original Graphite Oversize was designed and engineered by Howard Head.
 
in a article about pro racquets in tennis magazine it said agassi used the exact pro one you can get off the shelf with the exception of the rounded butt cap and replaced it with a flat one
 
I watched many pictures of his donnay. I think That the company really put his rackets in the shops when they started to sell the Pro One Limited Edition. That's the frame he used between 1989-1992. Unfortunately they started to sell it in the red-grey colour. So it's impossible to find the blue and yellow version (you can find it only in the pro one standard version that he never played). It could be interesting to do a paint job in a Pro One Limited Edition and paint it like the Blue Yellow one that he used.
 
I've seen AA using everything from the original 107", to 100 tour, 98", 100" Instinct, like Gilbert said, he likes to tinker all the time.
 
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