Some really great points here. You are a purist and appreciate the beauty of the sport. I respect that.
But to the Pros who do this for a living...well they need to win. And most have chosen racquets larger than 90.
At our level I can understand playing with small heads to feel the beauty of the strokes....but I also like to win. I must confess even more important than the beauty.
But I really do respect your points and your appreciation for the old ways and smaller heads.
Thanks for that, seroiusly.
However, I do have to say that about 5 years ago, I got a wild hair and played an entire year of league, men's, mixed, and combo with a Head Vilas. I bought one, and wound up buying 4 more. I strung them all with natural gut at 58. I played 4.5, two levels of mixed, and two of combo. I won more than I lost by a considerable margin. I was amazed at how hard my first serves actually were.
Net of this is, I don't think the head size makes that much of a difference once you get to a certain level, even less at the pro level. Why do pros play with an average 100 sq in frame? That answer is twofold and very easy......
1.) $'s - the pros get paid to play with frames. Even if they don't, which I fully understand that the majority don't, they play with what is manufactured which brings me to my second point:
2.) the average head size manufactured now is right at 100 square inches
Guess what? A few years ago the average head size was 95 and a few years before that, the avearge head size was 90 and before that 85 and before that 80.
During each of those periods, from the onset of graphite larger than wood heads, pros have played with whatever the average was. They do this because that's what the manufacturers are trying to sell.
To prove my point, when the Prince frame was introduced, it was 110 square inches. Howard Head had no intention of making anything smaller than that. He basically had two pros, Gene Mayer and Pam Shriver. Pam Shriver, at the age of 16, got to the US Open finals and lost with a Prince which later became the Classic. It was the aluminum one with the green throat. Flexible as hell and all in all a terrible frame IMO. When the Graphite was introdcued, Prince picked up Gene Mayer who had been pretty much a journeyman until he changed.
But, there never has been a mass defection to the 110 square inch frame. If bigger really is better, why not? My point is that manufacturers drive the head size and what the 'normal' frame on tour is. To really seal the deal, they have gotten so good at building frames now that they can tailor the frame's power to whatever the pro wants regardless of what is really being sold.
