Prince Tour 100p thread

Trip

Legend
1. I have played with previous edition, I felt that it was powerful but too light so I couldn't feel any plow even the ball had depth/spin etc. Same winrate as my Ezone 100 (vs lower if I use harder control racket like Blade Pro/RF97/etc)
Then I don't really see that changing with the current PD. I would focus on other sticks. One less distraction.

2. Yes, but it feels so plush and connected haha.
All well and good, but if serve is still a glaring-enough negative, then you'll probably scapegoat on that eventually. I would go for the stick that has negligible to zero downsides, from the get-go.

3. Maybe I can agree to that premise. I need to restrain myself to order the Ezone 98+ though. AC Tennis reviewed it has benefits of 98+100, better than 2022.
Judging from your take-aways with the regular '22 and Tour, and your sensitivity to higher swing-weights and/or balance points, I'm not sure the 98+ would be the silver bullet you're hoping for. The main thing I would wait on is to see what the average real-world swing weights look like on the '25's. If they're low enough, it might be worth a try.

4. The EZ98 was too whippy, I once used DR98 too but my wrist hurted even with multifilament. I used EZ Tour but it was a bit sluggish on net.
Fair enough, but I presume if you found it at least agreeable enough in most other areas, that you tried adding a bit of hoop lead at various places? That would decrease whippy-ness, in the hopeful attempt to help you find a happier medium there. If you didn't try that, it might be something worth revisiting. Or maybe the '25 will give a better middle-ground straight away.

Maybe I will try to go back to 100p with Multifeel black 50/PT Air 46 (my favorite soft poly for cross, any other recommendations? Isospeed Cream is hard to find in my area)
Could very well be your goldilocks frame.

As for hybrid cross strings, aside from Air and apart from Cream, I would look at the following:
- Head Lynx Touch
- Prince Warrior Response

Hope that helps again.
 
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Then I don't really see that changing with the current PD. I would focus on other sticks. One less distraction.


All well and good, but if serve is still a glaring-enough negative, then you'll probably scapegoat on that eventually. I would go for the stick that has negligible to zero downsides, from the get-go.


Judging from your take-aways with the regular '22 and Tour, and your sensitivity to higher swing-weights and/or balance points, I'm not sure the 98+ would be the silver bullet you're hoping for. The main thing I would wait on is to see what the average real-world swing weights look like on the '25's. If they're low enough, it might be worth a try.


Fair enough, but I presume if you found it at least agreeable enough in most other areas, that you tried adding a bit of hoop lead at various places? That would decrease whippy-ness, in the hopeful attempt to help you find a happier medium there. If you didn't try that, it might be something worth revisiting. Or maybe the '25 will give a better middle-ground straight away.


Could very well be your goldilocks frame.

As for hybrid cross strings, aside from Air and apart from Cream, I would look at the following:
- Head Lynx Touch
- Prince Warrior Response

Hope that helps again.
Nice info once again! What is the benefit of Lynx Touch? I once liked to use Lynx Tour full bed and Lynx Tour/Hawk Touch, never tried Lynx Touch

PS. What do you think about Prestige MP 2.0? 18x19 99 sq in. I demoed it but cannot fathom why it was so sluggish
 
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Trip

Legend
@tophersuwita - Very welcome. The benefit of Lynx Touch is that, like Air, it's a very soft-playing partial-poly, though unlike Air, it's differently constructed, with an elastomer core surrounded by an outer co-poly shell, which may give you certain playability benefits over Air. Plus, being a Head string, it's likely available in most markets. Definitely worth a try.
 

mihu86

New User
Re. soft poly crosses, I would add MSV Swift. I like how it plays with Triax mains (they say it is roughly the same as Cream).

Re. 100P in general, Pouille is just playing with one now at the AO. This time it is not the old black-green paintjob, but the new ATS Carbon. Any info if this is a paintjob only or an actual ATS?
 

aus89

Hall of Fame
Re. soft poly crosses, I would add MSV Swift. I like how it plays with Triax mains (they say it is roughly the same as Cream).

Re. 100P in general, Pouille is just playing with one now at the AO. This time it is not the old black-green paintjob, but the new ATS Carbon. Any info if this is a paintjob only or an actual ATS?
Assume its a paintjob of whatever he was using before
 
@tophersuwita - Very welcome. The benefit of Lynx Touch is that, like Air, it's a very soft-playing partial-poly, though unlike Air, it's differently constructed, with an elastomer core surrounded by an outer co-poly shell, which may give you certain playability benefits over Air. Plus, being a Head string, it's likely available in most markets. Definitely worth a try.
Trip, I use Hyper G hybrid prepackaged and it really accentuates the colorway and the racket's feel. Nevertheless, now I'm insecure: the 100p is HL, maneuverable, good in defense, serve, and I can hit all out in my forehands. For the first time (then second, third time) I won against my grinding clay specialist friend. But my Ezone 100, even with its net weakness, is still a bit better in serve and pressuring forehands. I won my double match in clay against my senior (first time winning too) with it. I even tested myself with another racket because 50% sale: VCore 100+ that gives same vibe to Ezone and wins against my double senior (it is a bit launchier but more maneuverable, sometimes I'm late though because of higher SW and longer throat). If you can do well with all of these power rackets and tweener control rackets, which type of rackets will you bring to your important matches?
 

Trip

Legend
@tophersuwita - Sounds to me like you need more time to figure out which frame you truly play best with. Get feedback from hitting partners, coaches and/or SwingVision stats over several matches with each frame if you can. Especially the latter: video and stats don't lie (usually, anyways). Presuming your most winning tennis is the ultimate decision maker, I think the conclusion should avail itself once you get enough matches under your belt with each frame.

Following on that, if winning tennis really is the primary goal here, beyond just dabbling with frames for the fun of it (which is perfectly fine by the way), then at some point, you'll obviously want to commit to one frame exclusively, as most further insights, upsides and/or trade-offs from yet another frame switch will be clearly outweighed by the value of simply staying the course with what you have. And it sounds like you're close.

If I had to venture a guess as to which frame that should be, it sounds like the best option bet might be the EZone 100, and learning to maneuver/control it as best you can. Why? Because quite frankly, you're on the wrong side of 30 (as are most of us in this forum, myself included!), and if the level of your competition is as high as I think it might be, then the most sustainable strategy would likely be learning how to control the most forgiving, most powerful racquet possible, rather than learning how add forgiveness and power to a control frame (which, for all its upsides, is more of what the 100P is). As for standard vs extended length, my stance is usually: unless you can really build a case that shows, without a doubt, that you benefit more from an extended length frame than you suffer from it, I would stick with standard length. That said, if 27.5" does end up being a game-changer for you, then you might want to consider a playoff between the VC100+ and an EZ100+, then declare a winner and commit.

Hope some of that helps.
 
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@tophersuwita - Sounds to me like you need more time to figure out which frame you truly play best with. Get feedback from hitting partners, coaches and/or SwingVision stats over several matches with each frame if you can. Especially the latter: video and stats don't lie (usually, anyways). Presuming your most winning tennis is the ultimate decision maker, I think the conclusion should avail itself once you get enough matches under your belt with each frame.

Following on that, if winning tennis really is the primary goal here, beyond just dabbling with frames for the fun of it (which is perfectly fine by the way), then at some point, you'll obviously want to commit to one frame exclusively, as most further insights, upsides and/or trade-offs from yet another frame switch will be clearly outweighed by the value of simply staying the course with what you have. And it sounds like your close.

If I had to venture a guess as to which frame that should be, it sounds like the best option bet might be the EZone 100, and learning to maneuver/control it as best you can. Why? Because quite frankly, you're on the wrong side of 30 (as are most of us in this forum, myself included!), and if the level of your competition is as high as I think it might be, then the most sustainable strategy would likely be learning how to control the most forgiving, most powerful racquet possible, rather than learning how add forgiveness and power to a control frame (which, for all its upsides, is more of what the 100P is). As for standard vs extended length, my stance is usually: unless you can really build a case that shows, without a doubt, that you benefit more from an extended length frame than you suffer from it, I would stick with standard length. That said, if 27.5" does end up being a game-changer for you, then you might want to consider a playoff between the VC100+ and an EZ100+, then declare a winner and commit.

Hope some of that helps.
This is a crazy good advice that is very practical. Thanks a lot Trip! I think you may be right, after I get into 40s, I won't get bigger power, will I? Maybe the 100p is useful only for training to cement the sweet feeling when I'm hitting propetly.

The VC+is still a bit controversial, because I feel that it is a bit sluggish so even I get more points in serve/forehands, I lose a bit more in net and half volley approach. The OHBH is even more sluggish. Will follow your advice to try the EZ 100 counterpart: Vcore 100. Hopefully I can settle once and for all. I am a holic that like to change my racket regularly, but now I'm focusing on winning more.
 

Trip

Legend
This is a crazy good advice that is very practical. Thanks a lot Trip! I
Very welcome!

after I get into 40s, I won't get bigger power, will I?
Only if your current physical shape right now is poor enough that in several years time you actually improve your fitness and strength, more so from repairing/recovering your overall state of wellness than anything else. Otherwise, if you've been more or less maintaining peak condition all along, then it's quite likely you're at or just beyond your max output already. Welcome to aging my dude! :)

The VC+is still a bit controversial, because I feel that it is a bit sluggish so even I get more points in serve/forehands, I lose a bit more in net and half volley approach. The OHBH is even more sluggish.
Well that may be what it is, but you need to weigh anything in context. In the case of performance, it's a simple question: with which frame do I play my most winning tennis? Period. Whichever frame that is, is the one you choose. Beyond that, if you're experiencing any extended amount of cognitive dissonance, it usually stems from a clash between your opinion of yourself and the reality of what's really going on; ie. between the racquet or type of racquet you want to play with, and the one/type you should be playing with. And that's the place where people can easily lose weeks, months, even years, of would-be-best-performance, in time spent vacillating. At some point, you reach a place where you just realize, "OK, I'm not going to fight it any more. I'm just going to play with __________, because that's what I perform best with." Then you buy in, and deal with it. For better or for worse. But usually for the better, if you give the commitment enough time and patience. Kind of like marriage, really.

These days, needless to say, tennis has, in large part, devolved into a bash fest, won by the best movers and athletes, largely irrespective of the racquet as long as it's something made in the last 20-30 years. BUT, if whatever racquet in question helps the most in making your opponent's life is as hard as possible (ie. easiest and most consistent amount of depth and spin with pace, that lands in the court) while making your life as easy as possible (the least amount of fatigue with the highest amount of applied consistency), then why wouldn't you want that frame in your hands? Otherwise, you're just leaving free performance on the table.

Again, this is all under the guise of playing your most winning tennis. If we're talking about what feels best in the hand, or on contact, or on the OHBH, or what makes you feel the most like Federer with ballet slippers on, or whatever, then we're having a different conversation. And mind you: one that's just as worthwhile having, as we all want to feel good while playing, and that's a huge piece of why we play, of course. But in the confines of simply finding the winningest tool for the job, I think facing the facts is the best way to look at it, even if some of those facts are a bit inconvenient. I'm sure you agree.

Hope that helps again.
 
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Julian.Peter

New User
Dear all,

I just brought a brand new 2019 100p for a very nice price and am looking forward to receiving it and stringing for the first session with this racket. Any string recommendations or are there any strings known not to be a good match with this frame?

I like it stiff, low powered, clean and less dampened feedback and controlled. No preference on round strings or shaped ones. I've got available: Alu Power, Alu Power Soft, Hawk Touch, Lynx, Lynx Tour, Moto, Hyper G, Tour Bite, all in gauge 1.25 and some in 1.30.

What would you start with? I am thinking about to start with Tour Bite 1.30. Maybe also try Hyper G for the colour match.

Would string a little tighter 25/24kg as I am used to closed pattern 16x19 in 98si heads, currently playing the Head Graphene 360+ Radical MP and also loving the PS97V13, so it should be very controlled, not to launchy, crispy feedback. Start with Tour Bite 1.30 or any of the other strings to try first in this frame?

Cheers!

Julian
 

Trip

Legend
@Julian.Peter - The 100P has arguably the industry's most open 100" 18x20, but even so, I find it still works best with 1.25-ish gauge, to keep it balanced enough between feeling solid and having enough bite and natural trampoline. Additionally, it also has fairly conventional drilling angles and string chaneling, which lead to a more static, locked together bed and a bit higher DT per unit reference tension than one might suspect. As such, I know you say you like a more firm, controlled feel, but if you use any of the strings listed (apart from regular Lynx, which is fairly soft), at the tensions you're thinking of, you're going to end up with a very boardy, inflexible overall "system" in your hands, with little to no free pop, a heavily constricted sweet spot and minimal off-center forgiveness. The 100P really functions best when you allow the racquet to open up and "breath", by stringing thin enough in gauge, soft enough in string stiffness and low enough in tension, to create enough sweet spot, trampoline and forgiveness over most of the face area. So you're welcome to try the tensions you're thinking of for starters, but I think you'll find yourself dropping tension in fairly short order, and/or looking to relax the bed a bit by crossing with something like regular Lynx. Either way, I would suggest starting closer to 20kg in tension and modulating from there. Especially in the more firm, crisp and raw 2019 TT100P, I think the above approach will be a better overall match for the racquet.

Hope that helps. Any questions, feel free.
 

Julian.Peter

New User
Hi Trip,
thanks for your detailed feedback. I am a bit sceptical regarding low tensions in open pattern 100si rackets, coming from closed pattern 98s with stiff strings. I like it crispy, low powered and more stiff overall incl the stringbed. The only rackets I found feeling boardy were my Pure strike 18x20 with a stiff string at 26kg for the first couple of hours when strung fresh and the same with my Radical MP Auxetic 18x20 even with a Tour Bite 1.20 at lower tension.

I think I will try regular 1.25 at medium tension 23/22kg first which should be a good starting point and see if that's fine or I should go lower / higher / thicker / thinner gauge.

Cheers.


Julian
 
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Lavs

Hall of Fame
Guys, how do you find Textreme Tour 95 (2019, in more firm layup)? How does it play? Solid, comfortable, controllable? Any thoughts are welcome
 
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