Pros using "clayracquets"

[Marvel]

Agassi > Trying out the Instinct
Chela > Back to his Pure Control
Costa > Back to his Prince

How come clay is THAT special that pros need a different stick? These guys a top notch - but nice to see that pros a mortals like the rest of us - demoing other sticks in the search for the Holy Grail. Maybe Prince should make a racquet called Prince Mary Magdalene.

BTW... don't these guys sign af contract? I would sue their butts!

 

[BreakPoint]

Even Sampras the Great, had he not retired, wanted to switch to a different racquet for the clay courts. Good players wear different shoes for clay and for grass, so why not use different racquets? Makes sense to me. The vastly different court surfaces really do make tennis a very different game on each surface IMHO.

 

[Marvel]

Let me take the chance to thank you for all the good reviews you have posted here at TT your reviews are honest and straight up - two tumbs up!

But maybe TW should make a clay section in the raqcuet categories to help byers in ex. Europe pick the right stick on their 80% playingtime surface?

Is power the main search for the pros in finding an alternate claystick?

 

[BreakPoint]

Let me take the chance to thank you for all the good reviews you have posted here at TT your reviews are honest and straight up - two tumbs up!

But maybe TW should make a clay section in the raqcuet categories to help byers in ex. Europe pick the right stick on their 80% playingtime surface?

Thanks for the compliment! I do try my best.

Actually, TW having a page that lists all the racquets preferred for clay court play might not be a bad idea. Why not post the suggestion in the "TW Questions/Comments" forum?

 

[NoBadMojo]

there really isnt such a thing as clay court racquets IMO....most often players may merely adjust their strings with a looser tension or perhaps a more powerful string for the clay season. many of the beter players are very reluctant to change and certainly wouldnt change just because they are going to play on clay. now if you are talking baseliners racquets, there are some tendencies there. from what i understand agassi has always been tweaking his gear and trying new things...i am sure that at the twilight of his career he is looking for any little thing to help him compete better.

 

[BreakPoint]

NBMJ.
I hear what you're saying. However, didn't you yourself say that the T10VE MP is better suited for clay than the T10 Gen II? That for clay you prefer the T10VE MP but that for hard courts or indoors you prefer the T10 Gen II? If that's indeed the case, then wouldn't the T10VE MP be the "preferred racquet for clay" between it and the Gen II?

 

[NoBadMojo]

sure but i always play on the dirt, so that is really different..i dont have a hard court season..if i was playing on all surfaces i would use the Gen2..besides...it's more a function of baseliners frames than clay court frames, and i say baseliners often prefer a diff type of frame than all courters or serve/volleyers..you're getting v-e-r-y picky here BP..is that all you got?

 

[Colpo]

there really isnt such a thing as clay court racquets IMO....most often players may merely adjust their strings with a looser tension or perhaps a more powerful string for the clay season. many of the beter players are very reluctant to change and certainly wouldnt change just because they are going to play on clay. now if you are talking baseliners racquets, there are some tendencies there. from what i understand agassi has always been tweaking his gear and trying new things...i am sure that at the twilight of his career he is looking for any little thing to help him compete better.

NBM: I'm sure you recall a time in the industry (say about 20-25 years ago) when there were far more racquet brands around, some of which were geared toward the Euro (read: clay court) market. I'm thinking in particular about the behemoth Volkls with the colorful, German-sounding names that simply did not translate to the American game or our tastes. No joke, those Volkls (Big Diagonal, World Cup, Polygon, Servo series, etc.) were often stock-balanced head-heavy with a 13+ oz. static weight. If you needed to ask about swingweight, it was probably not for you. These racquets were engineered from the ground up for slower baseline play on a clay court. I personally believe that Volkl could get away with such extreme design because the typical Teutonic male was perceived to be a Becker-type, over six feet tall and hefty build, who could handle that kind of a frame spec. Now, you're right, you don't see that and it's all about chopping a more universal frame to suit your needs.

 

[BreakPoint]

it's more a function of baseliners frames than clay court frames, and i say baseliners often prefer a diff type of frame than all courters or serve/volleyers..you're getting v-e-r-y picky here BP..is that all you got?

Agreed. Then I guess you'd agree that the T10VE MP is more of a baseliner's frame and that the Gen II is more of an all-court or serve and volley frame? That would also be the way that I'd categorize them.

Perhaps then TW should have a function that allows one to separate and categorize all the frames into three categories - baseliners, all-court, and serve-and-volley. This way it would be easier for customers to narrow their choices based on the style of game that they play.

 

[NoBadMojo]

exactly breakpoint....since serve/volley has become too difficult to play even on hardcourts, and i play on the dirt, the VE made better sense for me..it hits a more massive ball than the Gen2..there are other elements involved as well such as my age (i dont generate the racquet head speed i used to) and the extra work from the racquet is something i appreciate, and it is nice to have putaway power on the clay. claycourt frames=baseliners tools to me..typically they are heftier and have more mass in the head..i think we're talking about the same basic thing here. i guess in the old days the europeans did have frames more suitable to baselining and the americans having been raised on faster courts used more headlight, but now the sport is pretty much global rather than national and is large part a baseline game, altho the evil dirtballers should all be given full frontal cortex lobotomies :O

 

[bamboo]

Agassi > Trying out the Instinct
Chela > Back to his Pure Control
Costa > Back to his Prince

How come clay is THAT special that pros need a different stick? These guys a top notch - but nice to see that pros a mortals like the rest of us - demoing other sticks in the search for the Holy Grail. Maybe Prince should make a racquet called Prince Mary Magdalene.

BTW... don't these guys sign af contract? I would sue their butts!

I think with Agassi you may be seeing something as significant as JMac giving up wood in 1984 after losing to brother Pat wielding graphite. The juniors mostly play tweeners and the fact that Head painted these Instincts means Agassi isn't likely to go thin beam again. On the pro tour, if you're not Fed or Safin, why be outgunned? Feel only counts for so much - there are no baseball players who wouldn't use metal bats if they were legal, and there are no golfers on the PGA tour anymore using small-headed drivers. If not now, within three years, I think thin-beam racquets will be off the ATP tour. I feel outgunned even at the 4.0 level with my POG OS and am looking to switch now that my wrist is ok.

 

[eyedropper]

Thick beam racquets don't necessarily give any more power do they?
It seems the manufacturer's can make very stiff thin beam racquets which should be just as powerful.

 

[jura]

I think with Agassi you may be seeing something as significant as JMac giving up wood in 1984 after losing to brother Pat wielding graphite. The juniors mostly play tweeners and the fact that Head painted these Instincts means Agassi isn't likely to go thin beam again. On the pro tour, if you're not Fed or Safin, why be outgunned? Feel only counts for so much - there are no baseball players who wouldn't use metal bats if they were legal, and there are no golfers on the PGA tour anymore using small-headed drivers. If not now, within three years, I think thin-beam racquets will be off the ATP tour. I feel outgunned even at the 4.0 level with my POG OS and am looking to switch now that my wrist is ok.

I can't agree with you. I don't think that thin beams will be off the Tour. For Agassi we have to see if he really stays with the Instinct. But except a few Instinct-players (Gasquet, Youzhny and at the moment Agassi) and the Pure Drive users there is no wide beam on the Tour. And even these rackets have maximum width of 25 mm.
You can't compare the situation with golf. In golf you can chose different clubs for every shot. If you only had to serve in tennis, most players would use longer an thicker rackets. But service is only a part of this game.
Further more thicker beams give more power only at slow and medium swings. At really high swing speed the influence of racket width, RA and also string tension is nearly zero. At this point there is only the racket weight and the swing speed what really count. So what's left is the better control and feel of the thin beams. That's why they will stay on the Tour.

 

[bruinp]

Chela doesn't use Pure Control. He plays with Technifibre

 

[Marvel]

Chela doesn't use Pure Control. He plays with Technifibre

Yep, Chela is sponsored by Technifibre but on these pics from Hamburg he plays his old Pure Control with homemade camouflage ... (Getty Images)

 

[deflori]

Btw,Schüttler is now back with his old PC too: )

http://cache.gettyimages.com/comp/5...216C2E92DE686AFB370F136264A49621B2AC3A62513D3

 

[bruinp]

@ Marvel. You are right. Stringpattern is not 18*20.
Paintjobs are pretty good though. I sat front row at the outside court and didn't recognize the racket i play myself....

 

[jura]

@ Marvel. You are right. Stringpattern is not 18*20.
Paintjobs are pretty good though. I sat front row at the outside court and didn't recognize the racket i play myself....

Chelas Tecnifibre racket has not a 18/20 string pattern. It's 16/19, exactly as his Pure ontrol, also with 8 main strings inside the throad. These two rackets are very close. Only the cross section is a bit different ad the TF T-Feel 305 has no Woofer. (Even I'm not sure if Chela uses woofer.)