Tier One/Tru Pro Atomos 17 (1.25) Review
So I've clocked around 10 hours total with this string and I am confident that I want to switch to it. I've been playing with Black Knight for a while so I will still compare a lot to Black Knight, but I'll try to make comments more general rather than focused on that specific comparison.
Setup:
Customised Wilson Blade 98 18x20 V7, strung at 23 kg
Feel/Response/Comfort:
What is immediately apparent imo is that the string movement is very good. Even with a decent amount of play on the string the strings snap back quickly and stay aligned after every shot. This is not the case with every poly, even spin oriented ones. For instance, Black Knight starts getting slightly misaligned after shots after a few hours of play ime. Unlike many spin strings you do not feel the ball being "grabbed" much though. For instance, with Black Knight (but also a round spin string like Wilson Revolve) you have a pocketing sensation followed by what feels like the ball being grabbed. I find this gives a feeling for how much spin you are putting on the ball. This pocketing and grabbing is relatively absent with Atomos, which at first made me think I wasn't hitting as much spin, but it just had to do with how contact felt. Instead of feeling a "grabbing" sensation, contact feels flush and solid. This response is especially pleasant when you flatten out a stroke a bit, but that is not to say that spin feels bad (more on that later).
The feel reminds me a bit of RS Lyon as does the colour, albeit I am reaching way back into memory lane to make that comparison. I would not call the response of the string crisp or muted, it hits a healthy midpoint imo. The pop off the stringbed means that there is less pocketing, but the string isn't crisp to make the stringbed feel board-like. These two features in combination lead to that solid feel at contact imo. Hitting the ball feels flush and the sweetspot feels forgiving. I had no issues with comfort at all, even less so than with Black Knight. I will say that I can imagine the response being too vague in powerful racquets with less inherent feel and pocketing. It might double down on the features I find a nice balance in my Blade and make contact too vague to consistently feel confident, but I haven't tested the string in a tweener like frame to be sure.
Baseline Play:
I would say that the string comes with more inherent power than really control oriented polys like Black Knight and also provides more forgiveness. This makes offensive tennis a joy to play. The solid response when flattening out a shot gives confidence to go for that winner. But topspin shots feel really good too. You do not feel that you're putting a ton of spin on the ball as much, but the results speak for themselves. I could hit heavy dipping balls with pace deep into the court with confidence. There were multiple occassions where I thought the ball would go long but it dipped in before the line. I don't think Atomos produces more spin than Black Knight all else equal, however, the string is more forgiving and provides easier depth. I think this allowed me to swing out a bit more on my average shot, thus enabling me to play heavier spin without dropping the ball short. Switching to Black Knight I immediately felt that the depth of my shots was less consistent. Overall I loved playing topspin from the baseline, and I found the string responded incredibly well to fast swings, providing really good spin and a solid response that instills confidence.
Slice and touch was a bit more of a mixed bag. I think the both kinds of shots benefit from that pocketing sensation, and fresh Atomos doesn't have that much. I found that the response improved on the slice as the string settled in, the easy depth carrying over to this shot too and making defensive slices go deep with relative ease. But on my fresh set of Atomos I felt like the trajectory was lower than I wanted and I found it relatively harder to put the slice where I wanted. I would have to get used to the slice when the string is fresh, but considering how good the string feels on topspin shots I think it's worth it. Touch shots like drop shots were fine, but I myself prefer more ball pocketing for these kinds of shots. I could still hit good droppers and lobs and I knew where the ball is going when I hit them, but I would go for a string with more pocketing if I wanted to maximise only this aspect.
Overall though baseline play was amazing and I consider this a strength of the string.
Topspin: 9.5
Flat: 9
Slice: 7.5
Touch: 8
Net Play:
I think the response of the string is perfect for net play. The forgiving and solid feel makes for crisp volleys that are easy to put away. Lots of pocketing is a hindrance here I find, as it gets harder to control a punch volley imo, especially one where you're still moving up the court. I had full confidence even on lower volleys too and could put some good spin on the ball if I wanted. I prefer the string on punched volleys over drop volleys though, I think a more dead response off the string helps on droppers, and I'd sometimes give the droppers too much air here. Oh and special mention for half volleys, maybe it's cause they too tend to be flatter strokes, but whatever the reason they felt super good.
Punch Volley: 9
Touch Volley: 8
Serves / Returns:
Blasting serves feels so good with how the string responds. Granted, half the reason that I'm hitting aces now is that I'm playing indoors on hard and carpet, but I hit more aces than I feel I would with the Black Knight setup. The livelier response meant that my serves had more heat on them more easily, especially the slice out wide. With that serve in particular I set up a lot of points in my favour and I think it's my favourite serve with this setup. The flat serve is somewhat similar, albeit feeling more forgiving and with perhaps a tiny bit more pace on it. The kick needed some adjustment, as I was getting more depth than I wanted at first. I think I'm still working towards full confidence on this shot, but I love the results I get when I do connect - easier depth and pace with good movement on the ball. Given that I am vertically challenged at 5'7 the topspin serve is a key component of my game, and I love what the string switch did to that shot. Granted, this string will never compare to what a gut setup can do on flat serves or a gut/poly setup on spin serves, those setups are just too good for the serve, but for a pure poly setup I was mightily impressed.
Returns might be one of my favourite shots with this new setup. A forgiving and solid feel on flatter strokes, all while still giving the ball good spin to dip in? Sign me up! The return might be the shot where I felt the biggest difference to Black Knight. I could be aggressive, hitting hard and deep at the server, without feeling that I'm forcing the shot. Placing both backhands and forehands where I wanted was easy, and I felt that I got the depth I wanted without working too hard for it. I particularly need to note the string's spin potential on this shot, for whatever reason it gets more spin on the ball than I expect it to, making the ball dip in even if I'm not going for a really spinny shot. I think I am much more offensively effective on returns with this string and cannot wait to get more match play with this setup. After the string settled in the slice return when stretched on the backhand wing also felt great, but as with the baseline play, it would need some adjustment on a fresh set.
(Serves compared with other polys, not gut/poly)
Flat serve: 9
Slice serve: 9.5
Kick serve: 9
Returns: 9.5
