Indy Tennis
Semi-Pro
I currently play, and am quite happy with, the Volkl Tour 10 V-E Mid. While the Volkl has amazing control, it is a very low powered racquet so I thought I might experiment with another players’ frame that might have a bit more pop.
The specs of the Yonex Ultimum RD Ti-80 intrigued me so I bought one to play test. Here are my impressions of the frame.
First off, as many on this board have noted before, Yonex simply has the best quality paint and construction of any racquet maker. This coming from a Volkl fan, probably the second best racquet company in terms of build quality.
The blue and red paint scheme of the Yonex makes it one of the best looking racquets ever made. I had several other players tell me that it was a great looking racquet.
http://i14.tinypic.com/42swqj8.jpg
http://i1.tinypic.com/33eh2e1.jpg
I had the Yonex strung with Yonex Tour Super 850 Pro Spin 16 at 55 lbs. (Note, the package now says Feel, but if it says Pro it is the old Spin string. No idea why Yonex did that to confuse everyone since they already have a Feel string that is totally different from the Spin).
I fitted a Yonex dampener. They are a little odd. Triangle shaped and the bottom of the triangle just sort of dangles there between the string. It doesn’t seem like a super secure set-up, but I never had the dampener pop out.
Volkl is strung with Volkl Power Fiber II 17 at 53 lbs. and uses the Volkl dampener, the best dampeners I’ve used.
With dampener and Tourna Grip over wrap the Yonex weighed in at 12.4 oz. (Note, this was a 4 5/8ths grips, which I’ve heard are heavier than grips smaller than 4 ½) The Volkl is 12.5 oz. with the same set up. The Yonex is slightly more headlight and feels a tad more manerverable.
The difference between the Yonex 98 sq. in. head size and the Volkl’s 93 is minimal. See for yourself.
http://i18.tinypic.com/2myqdcp.jpg
The Volkl’s 18mm beam is noticeably thinner than the Yonex 20mm.
http://i11.tinypic.com/2uepa43.jpg
The Yonex did have slightly more power than the Volkl, although both are fairly low-powered frames.
The Yonex is a tad stiffer than the Volkl and I found the directional control of the Yonex to be exceptional, about equal to the Volkl. I was a little surprised by this because my experience with open string patterns (16x19 on the Yonex vs. 18x20 on the Volkl) is they tend to be livelier, but less control oriented.
With groundstrokes I found the Yonex responded better with a more controlled swing. With the Volkl you can take big nasty cuts at the ball with little worry. Ultimately that may not be the best way to play. It probably tires you out quicker and may produce more wear and tear on your body, but isn’t a blast to play that way? It’s sort of like driving a racecar. Doing gnarly 4-wheel drifts and getting the thing sideways is probably not the quickest way around the track, but it gives you the biggest grins.
You know how when you come out to warm up and just concentrate on your form and take nice, full controlled swings at the ball. That’s what the Yonex likes. You have to force yourself to relax and take textbooks swings. Balls land nice and deep under that scenario. The Volkl likes controlled swings as well, but you have to put a little more oomph behind them to keep the ball deep.
One thing the Yonex did exceptionally well for me was pinpoint one-handed backhands, especially down the line. I don’t know why, but the Volkl is very unforgiving in this respect. You have to be completely prepared and lined up to strike a great down the line backhand with the Volkl. The Yonex just seems more tolerant to late hits, or less than perfect footwork on topspin backhands.
When it comes to topspin forehands I favor the Volkl. Again I could just swing out hard and the ball stays in. I had back off just a tiny bit, or hit with more topspin with the Yonex or the ball would fly long. However, if I just relax and hit a nice controlled forehand the Yonex rewards you with deep, penetrating shots. The Volkl can penalize you with those types of swings with short sitters.
Both racquets are exceptional with slice shots off either side. Nice low, driving slice backhands that you tend to use a lot in neutral baseline rallies were perfect with both of these racquets. The Yonex seemed to have a slight advantage on those really low balls that you have to dig up. I’m guessing the stiffer frame helps in this respect.
On those shots, like angle serves or sharp cross court forehands, where you are scrambling and can just get a racquet on the ball and a little flick of the wrist, the Volkl was better. It’s slightly heavier balance gave better plow through. I did feel like the Yonex could get pushed around a bit with those shots.
One area the Yonex did shine was retuning heavy serves to your body where you hit with a set wrist, firm backhand. The Yonex was very stable and just setting your wrist firmly on those close big serve returns produced really sweet deep returns using the pace of the serve. The Volkl tended to land shorter.
There are differences in volleys. The Yonex rewards forward moving, firmly punched volleys, as does the Volkl, but when it comes to touch volleys, or mid-court drop shots the Volkl just has tons of feel. I couldn’t quite get that same feeling of the ball with the Yonex so my droppers didn’t exactly drop. They tended to land long, or pop up more than I wanted and touch angle volleys were tougher to execute.
On serves the Volkl likes producing big flat bombs. The Yonex shines at topspin kickers and or quick sharp angle serves. I think I produced more aces with the Yonex with the angle serves, but the heaviness of the serves of the Volkl produced a lot of weak, short returns that you could take advantage of.
Overall I like the Yonex very much. I’m sure I could play just as well with it given time to learn to come over the ball a little more on my big forehand. It was fun to hit with the Yonex. I could be a little off my game and could still produce good shots with it. With the Volkl you have to be on no question.
It was a tough decision; both racquets have slight advantages over the other in certain areas. The Yonex actually reminds me very much of the Volkl Tour 10 V-Engine Midplus, which I extensively play-tested last year. However the Yonex does not have the hotspot that plagues the Midplus version of the Tour 10 V-E .
Since I’m so invested in the Volkl (four frames) I will stick with it for now, however I strongly encourage anyone to give the Yonex Ti-80 a serious hit. It’s an underrated frame that you rarely see talked about on this board.
The specs of the Yonex Ultimum RD Ti-80 intrigued me so I bought one to play test. Here are my impressions of the frame.
First off, as many on this board have noted before, Yonex simply has the best quality paint and construction of any racquet maker. This coming from a Volkl fan, probably the second best racquet company in terms of build quality.
The blue and red paint scheme of the Yonex makes it one of the best looking racquets ever made. I had several other players tell me that it was a great looking racquet.
http://i14.tinypic.com/42swqj8.jpg
http://i1.tinypic.com/33eh2e1.jpg
I had the Yonex strung with Yonex Tour Super 850 Pro Spin 16 at 55 lbs. (Note, the package now says Feel, but if it says Pro it is the old Spin string. No idea why Yonex did that to confuse everyone since they already have a Feel string that is totally different from the Spin).
I fitted a Yonex dampener. They are a little odd. Triangle shaped and the bottom of the triangle just sort of dangles there between the string. It doesn’t seem like a super secure set-up, but I never had the dampener pop out.
Volkl is strung with Volkl Power Fiber II 17 at 53 lbs. and uses the Volkl dampener, the best dampeners I’ve used.
With dampener and Tourna Grip over wrap the Yonex weighed in at 12.4 oz. (Note, this was a 4 5/8ths grips, which I’ve heard are heavier than grips smaller than 4 ½) The Volkl is 12.5 oz. with the same set up. The Yonex is slightly more headlight and feels a tad more manerverable.
The difference between the Yonex 98 sq. in. head size and the Volkl’s 93 is minimal. See for yourself.
http://i18.tinypic.com/2myqdcp.jpg
The Volkl’s 18mm beam is noticeably thinner than the Yonex 20mm.
http://i11.tinypic.com/2uepa43.jpg
The Yonex did have slightly more power than the Volkl, although both are fairly low-powered frames.
The Yonex is a tad stiffer than the Volkl and I found the directional control of the Yonex to be exceptional, about equal to the Volkl. I was a little surprised by this because my experience with open string patterns (16x19 on the Yonex vs. 18x20 on the Volkl) is they tend to be livelier, but less control oriented.
With groundstrokes I found the Yonex responded better with a more controlled swing. With the Volkl you can take big nasty cuts at the ball with little worry. Ultimately that may not be the best way to play. It probably tires you out quicker and may produce more wear and tear on your body, but isn’t a blast to play that way? It’s sort of like driving a racecar. Doing gnarly 4-wheel drifts and getting the thing sideways is probably not the quickest way around the track, but it gives you the biggest grins.
You know how when you come out to warm up and just concentrate on your form and take nice, full controlled swings at the ball. That’s what the Yonex likes. You have to force yourself to relax and take textbooks swings. Balls land nice and deep under that scenario. The Volkl likes controlled swings as well, but you have to put a little more oomph behind them to keep the ball deep.
One thing the Yonex did exceptionally well for me was pinpoint one-handed backhands, especially down the line. I don’t know why, but the Volkl is very unforgiving in this respect. You have to be completely prepared and lined up to strike a great down the line backhand with the Volkl. The Yonex just seems more tolerant to late hits, or less than perfect footwork on topspin backhands.
When it comes to topspin forehands I favor the Volkl. Again I could just swing out hard and the ball stays in. I had back off just a tiny bit, or hit with more topspin with the Yonex or the ball would fly long. However, if I just relax and hit a nice controlled forehand the Yonex rewards you with deep, penetrating shots. The Volkl can penalize you with those types of swings with short sitters.
Both racquets are exceptional with slice shots off either side. Nice low, driving slice backhands that you tend to use a lot in neutral baseline rallies were perfect with both of these racquets. The Yonex seemed to have a slight advantage on those really low balls that you have to dig up. I’m guessing the stiffer frame helps in this respect.
On those shots, like angle serves or sharp cross court forehands, where you are scrambling and can just get a racquet on the ball and a little flick of the wrist, the Volkl was better. It’s slightly heavier balance gave better plow through. I did feel like the Yonex could get pushed around a bit with those shots.
One area the Yonex did shine was retuning heavy serves to your body where you hit with a set wrist, firm backhand. The Yonex was very stable and just setting your wrist firmly on those close big serve returns produced really sweet deep returns using the pace of the serve. The Volkl tended to land shorter.
There are differences in volleys. The Yonex rewards forward moving, firmly punched volleys, as does the Volkl, but when it comes to touch volleys, or mid-court drop shots the Volkl just has tons of feel. I couldn’t quite get that same feeling of the ball with the Yonex so my droppers didn’t exactly drop. They tended to land long, or pop up more than I wanted and touch angle volleys were tougher to execute.
On serves the Volkl likes producing big flat bombs. The Yonex shines at topspin kickers and or quick sharp angle serves. I think I produced more aces with the Yonex with the angle serves, but the heaviness of the serves of the Volkl produced a lot of weak, short returns that you could take advantage of.
Overall I like the Yonex very much. I’m sure I could play just as well with it given time to learn to come over the ball a little more on my big forehand. It was fun to hit with the Yonex. I could be a little off my game and could still produce good shots with it. With the Volkl you have to be on no question.
It was a tough decision; both racquets have slight advantages over the other in certain areas. The Yonex actually reminds me very much of the Volkl Tour 10 V-Engine Midplus, which I extensively play-tested last year. However the Yonex does not have the hotspot that plagues the Midplus version of the Tour 10 V-E .
Since I’m so invested in the Volkl (four frames) I will stick with it for now, however I strongly encourage anyone to give the Yonex Ti-80 a serious hit. It’s an underrated frame that you rarely see talked about on this board.
