Wang Yihan has being used N50-III during the final at least: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk5PNMsS1K8&feature=share&t=1h4m36s (maybe go to 1h4m35s and press your space button several times until you get the picture It looks white on the top with some black lines and the rest of the racket seems to be in gold which exactly looks like the new N50-III)
Indeed.I wonder how YY would react to this..cos this racket is out of production already,no point of endorsing it anymore..haha
Probably like Fu Haifeng when he used the Ti-10. Used the second gen from 2006 all they way until they switched over to Li-Ning/Kason.
For FHF, it was one tournament, probably because he ran out of 2nd gen or sth. TBH used it for a long time.
BTW are there also "paint jobs" in badminton? in tennis there are many pro players who like their old stick because they are comfortable with it but get a painted version that looks like a new stick that the company wants to endorse. or is badminton not enough of a big market to warrant such cheating strategies by the companies?