I have been looking for a replacement frame for my discontinued Prostaff surge for a while and found one of the new Volkl DNX 9’s. Took 9 days to get here from the U.K. but wanted to post a review of how it worked for me.
http://img374.imageshack.us/img374/644/dsc021827wa.jpg
Current Racket
Prostaff Surge, leather grip, ½ ounce lead in handle, strung Gosen Polylon 17 mains PSGD 16 crosses. Basically, a head light lively frame with dead strings and leather grip.
DNX 9
Weight strung 11.8 ounces 4 ½ size, Burnt Orange color, Strung 1 piece Gosen Polylon SP 17 54 pounds. I like the handle / grip on the DNX 9, it is flat enough to fit your hand, much better fit than Wilson or Head.
Game Style
4.5 / 5.0 player mostly singles 4 days a week. Counter puncher, with a good net game. I buy new rackets, string them myself, test them, and if they don’t work out sell them. Demo’s seldom worked for me. Either way you lose about $20 to $30, so you might as well test the frames the way you want them and pass them along.
Frames tested so far:
Prince O3 tour – loved the racket, but hated the lack of sound when you hit the ball
Head FXP Radical – shoulder problem after 2 hours hitting, not for me
Nsix-One (16x18) – Very solid frame, number 1 at this point, great for all around play
Ncode Surge – Plays much livelier than my old prostaff version, to much power!
The way I test frames:
Each Sunday we do a 2 ½ hour practice session. We do 5 drills Ground Strokes, Volleys, Service line to service line volleys, Overheads, and Serves, then play couple of sets. Today I compared the (Wilson Surge, Wilson Nsix-one, and the DNX 9). Power wise the order was Surge, Nsix-one, and DNX 9. The DNX 9 was has less power than the Nsix-one 95 which surprised me. If you swing through the ball the DNX 9 really went, and was very stable, but you had to hit it. I got use to head light rackets, both the Surge (after mod) and Nsix-one is about 10 point Head Light. The DNX 9 is more even balance and you can really crank serves and overheads. I had my partner hit a few short lobs, and with the DNX 9 it was easy to bounce them over the fence either side. Normally hard for me to do on the backhand, but it was easy. Volleys, for me I need a little help from the racket to get pace, and the Surge was the strongest followed by the Nsix-One. The DNX 9 provided more control than the other two frames.
Overall it was a good practice session; we played two sets rotating rackets every 2nd game. It became apparent during the match that the DNX 9 was not powerful enough for my game. I could serve and volley well, but it is not my style, and my practice partner mentioned I had less power on my ground strokes using the DNX 9 than the Surge. Control has never been an issue in my game, it is knocking off winners that is tough. Strange because my practice partner had more pop using the DNX 9 than the Nsix-One. The DNX 9 is one of the most stable frames I have ever hit with, and I love the handle / grip, it fits perfect. Over time I could probably learn to play with it, but at this time I plan on staying with the Surge.
http://img374.imageshack.us/img374/903/dsc021832tz.jpg
http://img374.imageshack.us/img374/644/dsc021827wa.jpg
Current Racket
Prostaff Surge, leather grip, ½ ounce lead in handle, strung Gosen Polylon 17 mains PSGD 16 crosses. Basically, a head light lively frame with dead strings and leather grip.
DNX 9
Weight strung 11.8 ounces 4 ½ size, Burnt Orange color, Strung 1 piece Gosen Polylon SP 17 54 pounds. I like the handle / grip on the DNX 9, it is flat enough to fit your hand, much better fit than Wilson or Head.
Game Style
4.5 / 5.0 player mostly singles 4 days a week. Counter puncher, with a good net game. I buy new rackets, string them myself, test them, and if they don’t work out sell them. Demo’s seldom worked for me. Either way you lose about $20 to $30, so you might as well test the frames the way you want them and pass them along.
Frames tested so far:
Prince O3 tour – loved the racket, but hated the lack of sound when you hit the ball
Head FXP Radical – shoulder problem after 2 hours hitting, not for me
Nsix-One (16x18) – Very solid frame, number 1 at this point, great for all around play
Ncode Surge – Plays much livelier than my old prostaff version, to much power!
The way I test frames:
Each Sunday we do a 2 ½ hour practice session. We do 5 drills Ground Strokes, Volleys, Service line to service line volleys, Overheads, and Serves, then play couple of sets. Today I compared the (Wilson Surge, Wilson Nsix-one, and the DNX 9). Power wise the order was Surge, Nsix-one, and DNX 9. The DNX 9 was has less power than the Nsix-one 95 which surprised me. If you swing through the ball the DNX 9 really went, and was very stable, but you had to hit it. I got use to head light rackets, both the Surge (after mod) and Nsix-one is about 10 point Head Light. The DNX 9 is more even balance and you can really crank serves and overheads. I had my partner hit a few short lobs, and with the DNX 9 it was easy to bounce them over the fence either side. Normally hard for me to do on the backhand, but it was easy. Volleys, for me I need a little help from the racket to get pace, and the Surge was the strongest followed by the Nsix-One. The DNX 9 provided more control than the other two frames.
Overall it was a good practice session; we played two sets rotating rackets every 2nd game. It became apparent during the match that the DNX 9 was not powerful enough for my game. I could serve and volley well, but it is not my style, and my practice partner mentioned I had less power on my ground strokes using the DNX 9 than the Surge. Control has never been an issue in my game, it is knocking off winners that is tough. Strange because my practice partner had more pop using the DNX 9 than the Nsix-One. The DNX 9 is one of the most stable frames I have ever hit with, and I love the handle / grip, it fits perfect. Over time I could probably learn to play with it, but at this time I plan on staying with the Surge.
http://img374.imageshack.us/img374/903/dsc021832tz.jpg
