Why has thiem never tried a different racquet?

[SpinWizard]

So Thiem has been using Babolat Pure Strike for many years now, even long before his injury. I wonder why he never tried to change his racquet to find some easy power. Especially after wrist injury.

Pure Strike is pretty good racquet, but it's incredibly demanding. It's very low power racquet so you need to combine many things to gain a lot of advantages from this racquet. You need:

• perfect timing and footwork
• powerful full swing
• extreme physicality to keep playing like this all match

Current Thiem, especially after wrist injury does not have physicality and most importantly wrist strength to generate enough power with this racquet. On top of that his athleticism is not like it used to be in the past. So that's why we can see a lot of powder puff shots from Thiem nowadays. Pure Strike offers insane control when you can generate power on your own, but we all know Thiem is not capable of doing that anymore.

Maybe he made a mistake couple years ago. Maybe he should have tried different, more powerful racquets in 2022 when he was coming back from the injury.

All great players tried to experiment with their racquets. Rafa was consistently adding some additional weight to his racquet through the years. Roger completely changed his racquet to more powerful Pro Staff R97. Novak was experimenting as well through the years.

If Thiem said that his wrist is not the same anymore why not trying some different sticks, that give you instantly more easy power?

 

[Purestriker]

So Thiem has been using Babolat Pure Strike for many years now, even long before his injury. I wonder why he never tried to change his racquet to find some easy power. Especially after wrist injury.

Pure Strike is pretty good racquet, but it's incredibly demanding. It's very low power racquet so you need to combine many things to gain a lot of advantages from this racquet. You need:

• perfect timing and footwork
• powerful full swing
• extreme physicality to keep playing like this all match

Current Thiem, especially after wrist injury does not have physicality and most importantly wrist strength to generate enough power with this racquet. On top of that his athleticism is not like it used to be in the past. So that's why we can see a lot of powder puff shots from Thiem nowadays. Pure Strike offers insane control when you can generate power on your own, but we all know Thiem is not capable of doing that anymore.

Maybe he made a mistake couple years ago. Maybe he should have tried different, more powerful racquets in 2022 when he was coming back from the injury.

All great players tried to experiment with their racquets. Rafa was consistently adding some additional weight to his racquet through the years. Roger completely changed his racquet to more powerful Pro Staff R97. Novak was experimenting as well through the years.

If Thiem said that his wrist is not the same anymore why not trying some different sticks, that give you instantly more easy power?

We are assuming we know exactly what model he is using?

 

[GimmeBackMyDog]

I think he plays an old version of the Pure Strike. He must like it.

Personally, I think he just needs to change his style of play.

Over the last year, it just seems to me that the more he goes to the net the better he plays.

Players have become accustomed on how to handle crushing baseline players.

Thiem going to the net regular creates a problem for the opponent and, when he does, he's usually winning sets.

But when he camps on the baseline and tried to crush balls, which seems to be his preferred style of play, his opponent usually finds a way around him.

Just my observation, I could be way off.

 

[SpinWizard]

We are assuming we know exactly what model he is using?

Well obviously he does not play Pure Strike from stock that every one of us can buy everywhere. Probably has some small modifications here and there, but yeah. In general he is using Pure Strike.

 

[welcome2petrkordaland]

I’ve always wondered what his FH (I guess pre-injury FH sadly at this point) would’ve been like had he tried a more open string pattern… I chalked his decision not to ever change sticks (assuming it’s not a crazy paint job) up to how vastly different his stroke productions are on FH & BH. I’d think his BH, which is flatter, would need higher tension/control whereas his FH may do better with lower tension and a more open pattern. Maybe Thiem just kept playing with a 18 x 20 pattern (tighter with more control) for the sake of his BH. His FH would definitely have benefitted from a more open pattern imho.

 

[lidoazndiabloboi]

Thiem has played with a few different rackets throughout his career.
In his junior days, he used the Pro Staff 95 18x20. Then switched to the Head PT57A for a few years before a short stint with the Head Speed, before switching to the 1st Gen Pure Strike in 2015. At the end of 2018/start of 2019, his racket had the updated 3rd Gen grommets, so it is possible he switched from the 1st Gen to 3rd Gen Pure Strike

 

[leodevlin]

Since those frames are so heavily customized, does it even matter what racket he choses?

 

[bnjkn]

These people (elite pro players) need all of those things you mention (the perfect timing etc.) to play their best (in Thiem's case, that means having a chance to win majors). If they don't have it anymore, no racquet will work. It may help a little, but "helping a little" means pretty much what Murray has been doing, maybe reaching top 30, but that's not enough for them (Murray seems to enjoy it though).

 

[tennito]

These people (elite pro players) need all of those things you mention (the perfect timing etc.) to play their best (in Thiem's case, that means having a chance to win majors). If they don't have it anymore, no racquet will work. It may help a little, but "helping a little" means pretty much what Murray has been doing, maybe reaching top 30, but that's not enough for them (Murray seems to enjoy it though).

In Murray's case I'm simply baffled that he hasn't tried to adapt to a different / more aggressive style of play. During his prime, he had phases (which were often his best spells) showing he could play more aggressively, even if only fleetingly.

 

[ChaelAZ]

Theim was playing just fine with his setup, but maybe could have adopted some changes post surgery.