Hi, I'm new here (from the UK) and i'm looking for a little advice about my next Racket I used to play a lot from 8 years old till i was 21 - to a county standard, since then i haven't really played. I'm 27 now and I've recently started to play again (my next post will be in the training forum ) and i'm still using my old Pro Kennex IsoDynamic racket from about 8 years ago so i've decided to get a new one. Looking on the Internet i see that they're not as easy to get hold of as they used to be and some places are doing a buy 1 get 2 free deal on the Pro Kennex rackets. Which leads me to beleive they aren't a good as they used to be? So i'm probably going to end up switching brands, which is why i need a little bit of help. I used to play a lot of singles, but i'll mainly be playing doubles now. I also used to be a very good smasher, but since i've started again it seems to have deserted me with only the occasional smash truly connecting. I'm a skillful player, prefering to use drops and netplay over trying to power my way around the court. I'm looking for a racket that'll help me improve my smashing power but still allow me to use my range of "light" shots. Also, can you offer any advise of string tension? I usually play with 20, is it worth increasing this? Thanks, Craig
Simple first question Budget? If your looking too buy a couple of identical racquets which is what I would do I wouldn’t go for two racquets at £130 each, I would perhaps set a limit at £70-80 each. Then its really a case of see if you can beg steal or borrow anything new that you could in theory buy if you like because so much of this game is down to personal preference. Flex, Weight, ISO/Classic, Balance all affect the way the thing feels and plays. As to the strings, you may find the odd stringer who thinks anything over 20lbs is too hard but if you where county level you should have the ability to play with something strung tighter. But playing in the UK I would avoid going into the 30's unless you like getting your racquet restrung a couple of times a month. I have my racquet strung at 26lbs which is as much as I can comfortably use for a period of a couple of hours.
I'm just looking for the one at the moment really, so anything upto £130 is fine. I take it Yonnex is what i want to be looking at now? As for what i prefer, i'm not sure - i'm looking for something that suits my style and then i'll adapt to it. I've had Pro Kennex as they came highly recommended when i was in my teens and it was the first racket i picked up so i made the most of it
Whilst the top end stuff from Yonex is pretty hard to knock there low/mid range stuff is poor value IMO. May well be worth looking at less well known brands such as Monsoon or Inflight where you can get there leading edge racquets at half the price of an equivalent Yonex. For Example Monsoon Nano Extreme 8000 -v- Yonex Nano Speed 8000
Craig, if you have £130 to spend, just go for any of those high-end Yonex ones. But I'll have to tell you, the newer rackets (regardless of which brand) have a very different feel than the ProKennex that you have. The latest rackets, even those so-call head light ones are actually 'head heavier' than your ProKennex. When you get your new racket, you may try to experiment with tension between 21-23 to see how it feel first. If you are very used to your old racket, go for at least a 3U (the overall weight) racket. You will find the lighter rackets a bit difficult to adjust to when you are doing high clears from the baseline. That is only my experience, don't know how the others think here.
Babolat Satellite Solar seems to be the racket for you sir! check it out. I will post a thorough review of this racket in the equip sectio within the next week.
