A player I was working with gave this oldie to me. It belonged to his dad who has long stopped using this racquet.
I changed the grips, restrung it and re-balanced it to my preference. Ended up almost 370 grams with swingweight about mid-350s.
Very rare for a stick from the 80s or 90s to have a trap door in the butt cap. Made adjustments very easy!
It played very well. The flex recovery was very fast. All my playing partners felt there was no flex at all. But it was there! All in the hoop, nothing at the throat at all.
Really a beast of a racket to play with. Enormous power, with surprisingly, fantastic built-in dampening.
Only problem was it was not really a 95 square inch. Probably much closer to 90. I aligned the Wilson Profile Tour with the ProStaff 90 and it was only marginally larger.
No wonder I struggled finding the sweetspot sometimes.
Nevertheless, an absolute delight to play with!
Questions I'm most commonly asked regarding modifications:
Before modifications
- I am not a pro player, does it make a difference?
- Would the racket become too heavy and unwieldy for me?
- Would it really make any difference to my game?
After modifications
- The racket played so well now, why didn't you suggest this earlier?
- Can you replicate the same mod on my other sticks?
- Why didn't you tell me earlier it was not a stroke/technique issue but racket problem?
- What did you do to my racket to make it play so well?
Here's a few I did recently...
Player #1
- 30+ years old lady using Wilson K Factor K Surge
- needed greater racket stability to hit through shots
- silicone in the handle for dampening and balance
Player #2
- regular racket scraper
- worn top grommets and badly worn-off graphite at hoop
- new grommets replaced
- lead inserted to restore swingweight to former specs
Player #3
- competitive player with Blade 98
- wanted to beef up power and add dampening
- likes to use heavy spin hence polarized racket weights
Player #4
- recreational and occasional player using Head TiS6
- needed some extra mass for stability (added 50 grams!)
- added dampening to protect old tennis elbow & wrist pain
I like the fan-shaped string pattern in the Head TiS6. Natural "built-in" proportional stringing.
Applying lead tape and silicone is not difficult. The real work is in assessing the player accurately, then determining/calculating the correct specs, while ensuring the ratios are maintained for that players' tempo, strength and style of play.
