Wilson Blade V9 2024

Blade_X

Blade_X

Professional
Insiders of Talk Tennis shared the greatest news: V9s are going to have higher stiffness. On the photos below there is also a pro staff mold painted on V9 PJ and having a 16x20 pattern. Is this Kordas custom racquet ?

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IMG-9771.jpg
 
Those photos look like V8 Blade Pro's or pro stock with the gloss finish. The gloss pops and changes color in the light much more than the matte finish of the retail Blade.
 
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-im def interested on this update (w.blade v9)!
-so far ive read release date, jan/2024
-i def. would like to see the new paint scheme
-ive read thats its all 1 color, no more black top
-final paint job should be interesting
 
Blade_X said:
So you didn’t enjoy the GOAT feeling V5 ? It was harsh for your hand i guess.
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I joined the Blade parade around 2017/2018 and bought v.6. 98L 16x19. I actually bought two.
I got the 98L because it was the only non-CV available at the time.
But couldn't find the love and ultimately sold both because they were too stiff for me.

Next up I bought the v.7 98 16x19 which initially I put on hold as I didn't quite gel with it.
It's only in the past year that I have returned to it after lowering the string tension.
That took out the bit of stiffness that I didn't enjoy.

So I never got to try v.5. But it sounds like it would be too stiff for me.
I am looking forward to tomorrow when I might have a chance to try the
v.8 98 16x19 and/or the v.8 100 16x19.
I tried the v.8 100L 16x19 last week (by accident) and liked it quite a bit.
 
I had a brand new Blade V9 in my hand today, with the plastic on the grip and paper in the middle of the hoop, unstrung. Wasn’t allowed to take a photo of it.
It’s going to be released February 2024. It’s not a flip flop color anymore, it’s more a forest green. The BLADE writing on the one side is raised slightly and black in color, exactly like the all black Blade Noir Edition that came out not too long ago. On the other side it just says Wilson (not raised) but theres a little yellow logo on that side, forgot what the logo was actually sorry. Also, the thing that stuck out the most for me was the grommets will have 2 grommet holes that will be bright yellow at the 2 and 10 o’clock position. Was weird and looked out of place, but it is what it is. At first glance I didn’t really like it, I‘m sponsored by Wilson and coach with the current Blade and Pro Staff. The current Blade PJ is nicer I think.

Edit:
It’s the exact same mold, no change. Can’t tell you about the stiffness, weight, balance etc as it was unstrung and I had it in my hand for only a few minutes.
 
Current Blade pj is probably the best I've ever seen in person, looks just mighty, and seeing the photos of the new Blade is a downer. Also since I have a one handed backhand and grab the throat, I just don't like this raised writing

After having high hopes for the Noir Pro Staff I ended up with the brown one instead
 
tennis_balla said:
I had a brand new Blade V9 in my hand today, with the plastic on the grip and paper in the middle of the hoop, unstrung. Wasn’t allowed to take a photo of it.
It’s going to be released February 2024. It’s not a flip flop color anymore, it’s more a forest green. The BLADE writing on the one side is raised slightly and black in color, exactly like the all black Blade Noir Edition that came out not too long ago. On the other side it just says Wilson (not raised) but theres a little yellow logo on that side, forgot what the logo was actually sorry. Also, the thing that stuck out the most for me was the grommets will have 2 grommet holes that will be bright yellow at the 2 and 10 o’clock position. Was weird and looked out of place, but it is what it is. At first glance I didn’t really like it, I‘m sponsored by Wilson and coach with the current Blade and Pro Staff. The current Blade PJ is nicer I think.

Edit:
It’s the exact same mold, no change. Can’t tell you about the stiffness, weight, balance etc as it was unstrung and I had it in my hand for only a few minutes.
Click to expand...
Color is more of a teal throughout, and the grommets are lime green/optic yellow.
 
tennis_balla said:
I had a brand new Blade V9 in my hand today, with the plastic on the grip and paper in the middle of the hoop, unstrung. Wasn’t allowed to take a photo of it.
It’s going to be released February 2024. It’s not a flip flop color anymore, it’s more a forest green. The BLADE writing on the one side is raised slightly and black in color, exactly like the all black Blade Noir Edition that came out not too long ago. On the other side it just says Wilson (not raised) but theres a little yellow logo on that side, forgot what the logo was actually sorry. Also, the thing that stuck out the most for me was the grommets will have 2 grommet holes that will be bright yellow at the 2 and 10 o’clock position. Was weird and looked out of place, but it is what it is. At first glance I didn’t really like it, I‘m sponsored by Wilson and coach with the current Blade and Pro Staff. The current Blade PJ is nicer I think.

Edit:
It’s the exact same mold, no change. Can’t tell you about the stiffness, weight, balance etc as it was unstrung and I had it in my hand for only a few minutes.
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Thanks for your great info. When you say it’s the exact same mold ? Compared to what ?
 
I have a pic of Korda’s stick in the v9 pj. Not sure if I’m allowed to share. Love my noir v8s with tour bite soft but some easy power would be welcomed.
 
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Mischko said:
Current Blade pj is probably the best I've ever seen in person, looks just mighty, and seeing the photos of the new Blade is a downer. Also since I have a one handed backhand and grab the throat, I just don't like this raised writing

After having high hopes for the Noir Pro Staff I ended up with the brown one instead
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I like the current Blade PJ but the matte doesn't do it justice. The BP gloss finish makes the paint scheme stunning. It's such a shame that the brands are fixated on matte paint. Is it cheaper (less coats?) or something?
 
heavyD said:
I like the current Blade PJ but the matte doesn't do it justice. The BP gloss finish makes the paint scheme stunning. It's such a shame that the brands are fixated on matte paint. Is it cheaper (less coats?) or something?
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I held Tsitsi's personal Blade in v8 paint, and I easily prefer the retail. But retail Blade is still glossy to me, only perhaps slightly matte. My left hand can slip on the throat if it's sweaty or raining. Pro Staff v14 brown is only very slightly more matte, still half glossy, and Shifts have a slightly slicker, only slightly matte lacquer, but it's not that visible because they are white-grey. Yonex VCPs, Vcores, Ezones and now Percepts also have a gorgeous matte transparent finish. I like it very much, although it was softish on the VCPs and Ezones, seems sturdier on Percepts. On my single handed backhand I most definitely prefer to hold it over slippery glossy that I have on the Aero VSes

And just from the aesthetic point of view, those finishes are gorgeous to me, a significant investment into good looks from the manufacturers, particularly Yonex and now Wilson too.

Matte finish was so-so on Blade v7, but mostly because it seemed low quality, but these new Wilsons, and Yonexes, are definitely very high quality finishes. Very nice finish on Head Aux Extreme Tour too, even if the paintjob is too flashy for me, although it's a nice shade of soft yellow, but Prestige's half slick and half matte is confusing my left hand a bit, they shouldn't have sacrificed the function to design IMO. But I'm never going to play with it or take any Prestige seriously so I don't care.

Perhaps if players had what we get in retail, and if we got glossy finish instead, many would then cry for the half matte haha
 
Mircat said:
Well of course you’re the reason I switched to TB Soft. I’m the dude that kept asking you to try lynx tour on your utube channel. But it was I who ended converting!
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I just play tested lynx tour again. It was my main string for 6 months. It’s not worth it mate. It’s too demanding. No help at all. You must always swing fast and freely otherwise no control, ball could launch and not enough power. It also adds lots of SW….. so i moved on.
 
I actually wouldn't care if they just increased stiffnes a little more(64ish) and kept sw the same. You can always add lead to increase sw at spots on the racquet you like, but there is no way to change the layup/stiffness.
 
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kvan said:
Color is more of a teal throughout, and the grommets are lime green/optic yellow.
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I dunno depends on your definition of teal. It’s definitely darker green than the current version. The neon yellow looking grommets just look off. No idea what they were thinking.
 
I think it’s cool it’s actually a discernible color now. The V8 was too shape shifting for me. Felt dark green, purple, and bronze all in one ?
 
tennis_balla said:
I dunno depends on your definition of teal. It’s definitely darker green than the current version. The neon yellow looking grommets just look off. No idea what they were thinking.
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Fair point- this is pretty spot on. Agree that the grommets are a bit odd though.
 
Blade_X said:
So they felt to you almost the same racquet in terms of playability ?
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Like I said in my original post, it was a brand new racket unstrung and I held it for about 5min. I didn’t play with it. No idea in regards to stiffness, weight, balance etc but the mold is the same. Layup on the other hand is probably slightly altered.
 
Now I remember after seeing one of my players with a Shift racket on court in regards to the raised logo. The Shift racket has a small W logo where it says Wilson on one side of the throat. The new Blade V9 has that as well, except it’s yellow and raised. On the other side its raised lettering as well where it says Blade, exactly like the Noir version.

Gotta say though, the Blade Noir looks awesome in person.
 
One more things the Wilson rep also told me is that Wilson will be more diligent in regards to quality control on these new Blades. He stated their goal is to have all the new Blade within 5 grams of each other and very close to same balance point as well. Reason being he stated is that Blade users buy more than one racket. It sounds like lots of people were complaining with the lack of quality control with specs being all over the place between sticks.
 
tennis_balla said:
One more things the Wilson rep also told me is that Wilson will be more diligent in regards to quality control on these new Blades. He stated their goal is to have all the new Blade within 5 grams of each other and very close to same balance point as well. Reason being he stated is that Blade users buy more than one racket. It sounds like lots of people were complaining with the lack of quality control with specs being all over the place between sticks.
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I like the sound of this on paper, but it also seems like Wilson would use it to justify another price bump.
 
tennis_balla said:
One more things the Wilson rep also told me is that Wilson will be more diligent in regards to quality control on these new Blades. He stated their goal is to have all the new Blade within 5 grams of each other and very close to same balance point as well. Reason being he stated is that Blade users buy more than one racket. It sounds like lots of people were complaining with the lack of quality control with specs being all over the place between sticks.
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Yes, the 10 Blades 18x20 v8s i tested on my sw machine ranged from 274 to 296 unstrung, that is quite a bit...
 
tennis_balla said:
I dunno depends on your definition of teal. It’s definitely darker green than the current version. The neon yellow looking grommets just look off. No idea what they were thinking.
Click to expand...
Old grommets will fit if its the same mold and drill pattern. SLide in all-black v8 grommets
 
tennis_balla said:
One more things the Wilson rep also told me is that Wilson will be more diligent in regards to quality control on these new Blades. He stated their goal is to have all the new Blade within 5 grams of each other and very close to same balance point as well. Reason being he stated is that Blade users buy more than one racket. It sounds like lots of people were complaining with the lack of quality control with specs being all over the place between sticks.
Click to expand...
That's just marketing speak. Tennis Spin on yt and others here were seriously complaining about v7 variances, then Wilson clearly said they were improving their tolerances before the v8 series, and it was then transmitted here and via youtubers. It never happened, and I don't think they ever even tried to make it happen.

Marketing managers have been 300% aware of the fact that many Blade users buy more than 1 racquet since they started selling the Blade series, about 65 million years ago. That sentence now is just a formal "looks like a reasonably good excuse, they'll fall for it" BS for suckers. Remember that only a couple months ago that same marketing manager for Wilson tennis launched Shift Labs line, where they "took feedback from the users" (rolling my eyes here..) and only then launched the retail Shifts with "modifications" as per "feedback". But obviously the whole retail Shifts production, shipping and distribution was already done by the time first Labs racquets even arrived to anyone's hands.

That same marketing manager also blocked or manipulated TW from actually measuring the Labs Shifts, so the 99 was declared at sw of 320 - never happened - and the 315 one was at 329 - that one was close. Those numbers were obviously chosen because below 320 looks weak, and 330+ looks unmanageable, and without any connection to the actual swingweight of the two models. Then youtubers produced their review without actual numbers or sw measurements, just to f*** with us some more. Plus the publishing of reviews was delaaayed, I was frankly expecting it in 2037.. Just BS nothing more.

Don't fall for it. Cheap labour costs, and max racquets produced per hour or shift is waaaay above tolerances on their priority lists. At the end of that design/engineering - production/distribution - marketing chain is a marketing manager, left to do their best with what they have, and they will spin the truth in any way they can while avoiding being sued.

Blades are actually racquets that often need added weight, so their variances aren't really a dealbreaker for me personally, because I'm going to bring them to 340sw anyway, but that's just me.
 
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Mischko said:
That's just marketing speak. Tennis Spin on yt and others here were seriously complaining about v7 variances, then Wilson clearly said they were improving their tolerances before the v8 series, and it was then transmitted here and via youtubers. It never happened, and I don't think they ever even tried to make it happen.

Marketing managers have been 300% aware of the fact that many Blade users buy more than 1 racquet since they started selling the Blade series, about 65 million years ago. That sentence now is just a formal "looks like a reasonably good excuse, they'll fall for it" BS for suckers. Remember that only a couple months ago that same marketing manager for Wilson tennis launched Shift Labs line, where they "took feedback from the users" (rolling my eyes here..) and only then launched the retail Shifts with "modifications" as per "feedback". But obviously the whole retail Shifts production, shipping and distribution was already done by the time first Labs racquets even arrived to anyone's hands.

That same marketing manager also blocked or manipulated TW from actually measuring the Labs Shifts, so the 99 was declared at sw of 320 - never happened - and the 315 one was at 329 - that one was close. Those numbers were obviously chosen because below 320 looks weak, and 330+ looks unmanageable, and without any connection to the actual swingweight of the two models. Then youtubers produced their review without actual numbers or sw measurements, just to f*** with us some more. Plus the publishing of reviews was delaaayed, I was frankly expecting it in 2037.. Just BS nothing more.

Don't fall for it. Cheap labour costs, and max racquets produced per hour or shift is waaaay above tolerances on their priority lists. At the end of that design/engineering - production/distribution - marketing chain is a marketing manager, left to do their best with what they have, and they will spin the truth in any way they can while avoiding being sued.

Blades are actually racquets that often need added weight, so their variances aren't really a dealbreaker for me personally, because I'm going to bring them to 340sw anyway, but that's just me.
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Tennis Spin. Lol.
 
Can we confirm it’s teal though?
I’m a big fan and do not want to see the retail frame be more green than blue green
 
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