Will we ever see a Shift/RF01/Clash in top 50?

Will we ever see a version of Shift, RF01 or Clash in the men’s top 50?

  • Shift

    Votes: 13 17.8%

  • RF01/Pro

    Votes: 10 13.7%

  • Clash

    Votes: 2 2.7%

  • Maybe a paint job

    Votes: 26 35.6%

  • None

    Votes: 22 30.1%
  • Total voters
    73
Plebcake

Plebcake

New User
Wilson’s three newest lines come with a premium cost for us consumers, yet still haven’t noticed any top level ATP players endorse or even test these frames. Do you think it’s likely we see these on tour? Or perhaps just a paint job with h22/steams underneath?
 
We won't - all these frames are targeted either exclusively at one player (RF) or at just lower level players by design

All the frames used by pros these days (H19, H22, P25, old Blades, 6.1, Steams etc) are all rather thin beam, low power player frame designs
The Clash is a comfort frame for people affected by injuries and the Shift is an experimental, thick beam power racket
 
yourtennisfit said:
We won't - all these frames are targeted either exclusively at one player (RF) or at just lower level players by design

All the frames used by pros these days (H19, H22, P25, old Blades, 6.1, Steams etc) are all rather thin beam, low power player frame designs
The Clash is a comfort frame for people affected by injuries and the Shift is an experimental, thick beam power racket
Click to expand...
I do not think that the Steam 100 is either a thin beam or low power frame...
 
Feel like juniors would just now be adopting the Shift.
So 5-10 years maybe we'll see it.

They had Sakkari on it and then immediately didn't. Weird
 
mavsman149 said:
I’m actually surprised there aren’t Shift pj racquets on tour, they have Roddick pushing the Shift
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Sakkari used it for about 5 minutes and then scrapped it. They probably are wise not to force the paint job on totally different rackets, easier folded into Ultra or Pro Staff.

Maybe a solid V2 helps the racket grow, I have yet to see a high level junior or college player use the shift, only influencers lol
 
The problem with the shift is 2 different type of flex profile depends on the swing motion. Easy to scare lots of pros.
 
bobeeto said:
Sakkari used it for about 5 minutes and then scrapped it. They probably are wise not to force the paint job on totally different rackets, easier folded into Ultra or Pro Staff.

Maybe a solid V2 helps the racket grow, I have yet to see a high level junior or college player use the shift, only influencers lol
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Who knows, Head gets away with crazy pj’s that are definitely not what the players are using.

We should have
Djokovic with a Radical
Musetti with an Extreme
Coco with a Speed
Etc

Never forget Berdych with an Instinct PJ, that was hilarious. Previously endorsed Dunlop 200’s and then……the Instinct??!
 
mavsman149 said:
Who knows, Head gets away with crazy pj’s that are definitely not what the players are using.

We should have
Djokovic with a Radical
Musetti with an Extreme
Coco with a Speed
Etc

Never forget Berdych with an Instinct PJ, that was hilarious. Previously endorsed Dunlop 200’s and then……the Instinct??!
Click to expand...
Technically Berdych with the Radical ala Youtek Radical MP aka TGK260.2 Pro Stock Code but yeah it was funny how he was endorsing the Instinct. Same goes with Sharapova using the Youtek Radical Pro underneath the Instinct paintjob
 
David Le said:
Technically Berdych with the Radical ala Youtek Radical MP aka TGK260.2 Pro Stock Code but yeah it was funny how he was endorsing the Instinct. Same goes with Sharapova using the Youtek Radical Pro underneath the Instinct paintjob
Click to expand...

Oh for sure, I remember he actually briefly played with the Youtek Radical PJ, I believe it was unstenciled. I just mostly meant that someone coming from a 200G would never use an Instinct. He should’ve had a Radical PJ too
 
mavsman149 said:
Who knows, Head gets away with crazy pj’s that are definitely not what the players are using.

We should have
Djokovic with a Radical
Musetti with an Extreme
Coco with a Speed
Etc

Never forget Berdych with an Instinct PJ, that was hilarious. Previously endorsed Dunlop 200’s and then……the Instinct??!
Click to expand...
I’m always a fan of the cross paints so hopefully they find some way to give it identity. They have such a crazy cash cow in blade so I doubt they’d rather take players from that silo, ultra is the closest I could think of, but I bet they sell more ultras to club players than shifts
 
honestly they should’ve just made the RF a speed mp clone but 98 with varying SW’s. at least then it would sell…
 
I’m waiting for the reverse shift technology to come out.

I tend to like racquets that flex in normal direction but are stiff in lateral direction. Opposite of shift.
 
mavsman149 said:
Who knows, Head gets away with crazy pj’s that are definitely not what the players are using.

We should have
Djokovic with a Radical
Musetti with an Extreme
Coco with a Speed
Etc

Never forget Berdych with an Instinct PJ, that was hilarious. Previously endorsed Dunlop 200’s and then……the Instinct??!
Click to expand...
Nothing beats the Djokovic with a Screech paintjob.
 
I dont think so but if they wanted to expand the pro labs line then i would think making the Steam 99 and 100 as the pro Labs shift would work well and get the pj out there
 
AndrewUtz said:
honestly they should’ve just made the RF a speed mp clone but 98 with varying SW’s. at least then it would sell…
Click to expand...
What do you mean at least then it would sell? They are selling quite well from my understanding. I watched an ex GA Tech player using it last week and he seemed to love it, as do others who aren’t at that UTR 12 level around here.
 
taylor15 said:
What do you mean at least then it would sell? They are selling quite well from my understanding. I watched an ex GA Tech player using it last week and he seemed to love it, as do others who aren’t at that UTR 12 level around here.
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idk, maybe it’s different where I’m at. No joke my local tennis superstore M!dwest sports has a shint ton of shifts in store in sharonville ohio marked down to $100 and they say they can’t hand them out. and then the RF like they say was quite a flop, sold well the first month but fell off hard after that.
 
AndrewUtz said:
idk, maybe it’s different where I’m at. No joke my local tennis superstore M!dwest sports has a shint ton of shifts in store in sharonville ohio marked down to $100 and they say they can’t hand them out. and then the RF like they say was quite a flop, sold well the first month but fell off hard after that.
Click to expand...
To be fair, this kid (guy, he's like 26 now) and some of the others did buy them at launch. I know two juniors playing the RF Future and a couple of older guys that were playing the previous version. I could see it being a quick sale and then flop afterwards, though I felt that they were selling pretty well still. I should ask at TW when I go by there later and see.

As for the shift, I figured it wasn't doing well when our Wilson rep was trying to hard to push them on junior players at our club. They had a demo day and just kept saying "the shift suits your game really well" to everyone. Pure drive users, strike users, radical, blade...doesn't matter, you need a shift! I gave it a try and didn't like it at all.
 
taylor15 said:
To be fair, this kid (guy, he's like 26 now) and some of the others did buy them at launch. I know two juniors playing the RF Future and a couple of older guys that were playing the previous version. I could see it being a quick sale and then flop afterwards, though I felt that they were selling pretty well still. I should ask at TW when I go by there later and see.

As for the shift, I figured it wasn't doing well when our Wilson rep was trying to hard to push them on junior players at our club. They had a demo day and just kept saying "the shift suits your game really well" to everyone. Pure drive users, strike users, radical, blade...doesn't matter, you need a shift! I gave it a try and didn't like it at all.
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i didn’t mind it. but it’s just not my bag, i use 21.5mm beam or less control oriented box beam type sh#t
 
aus89 said:
played for a few months at the start of last year and quickly went back to her Pro Open paintjob
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Yeah but the change was really to the 16x20 Shift and then back to her previous frame
Only player to ever touch it on a professional court I guess

The 99 is crazy unstable imo though - I literally sprayed shots everywhere with it
The 99 Pro is ok, but pretty sluggish overall
 
I have the 285.g model which I strung and omitted the top & bottom cross making it a 16 x 18 that plays find for me.
 
bobeeto said:
Closest is shift. No ones gonna be playing a RF racket, and clash sells well enough without endorsements
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I think eventually a teenager using the Shift may break through the pro ranks (there's probably at least a 5+ year lag time between a new model release and how long it would take to see players using them on tour) but I never see young players use Clashes and I think the RF01 was a swing and a miss for Wilson and will disappear.
 
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Shift is a good enough racket that it can work, but it’s so different from a lot of things on the market that it’ll probably take a junior coming up with it (like heavyD said) since convincing a pro to switch will be difficult. It’s kind of a chicken and the egg where a junior might not pick it up because they don’t see it on tour, and they can’t get it on tour because juniors won’t pick it up. Time will tell, but as a shift fan I’m worried it will become just another defunct Wilson line

Hard to see a pro using the RF series unless it were with a different paint job. They don’t need a pro endorsing it, they have Fed, but could be painted to look like a shift if a pro liked the mold.

I’d be shocked if a pro actually used the clash. Not saying it’s not possible, I just think most juniors on track to play professionally probably would switch off the frame once they hit 14-16 yrs old
 
It's likely easier to get the Clash and the Shift in the hands of some women pros. Madison Brengle and Nicole Gibbs played with the Clash on tour, but I think they're both retired now. Sakkari and Shuai Zhang played with the Shift PJ for a few weeks when it was first introduced, but then quickly went back to their Ultra PJs.
 
lacoster said:
It's likely easier to get the Clash and the Shift in the hands of some women pros. Madison Brengle and Nicole Gibbs played with the Clash on tour, but I think they're both retired now. Sakkari and Shuai Zhang played with the Shift PJ for a few weeks when it was first introduced, but then quickly went back to their Ultra PJs.
Click to expand...

Again, Sakkari actually played the Shift, not just the paintjob
But the racket just isn't anywhere near pro material - the mold is just clunky and the tech is not very reliable for consistent groundstrokes, so I highly doubt someone playing this
 
When will we see a pro using a Head Ti.S6?

or

ProKennex Ki Q+ 30?​


Will we ever see a top jr using one of these racquets?
 
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