Probably the only tennis racket to be made in Singapore till today, it became the basis of contention between Wilson and Yamaha on a copyright infringement.
What Yamaha attempted with this frame was to:
- lower total strung weight to 10oz,
- move most of the weight distribution to the top of the frame to achieve very high SW with as little weight as possible (hence EOS = Efficiency of Swingweight),
- increase stiffness with a thick beam,
- use an open 16x18 stringing pattern for spin, power and comfort.
Sounds like what Wilson did with their Hammer series in the 90s? That's exactly what they fought about. And Wilson won, leading to Yamaha completely bowing out from tennis rackets.
Despite the settlement, many online posts claimed Yamaha was the first to introduce this design with Wilson following after.
This stick came out from a long "retirement" in the closet. Someone shoved this in my face and asked me if this could still be useful for today's game. I thought, "why not"?
After a short chat about what the owner wanted, and more importantly, completing all the disclaimers (completely waiving me of any potential damage to the racket), I started my unorthodox work.
After measuring and documenting all the specs I could, the first thing is to add weight. Both the owner and myself found this too light. About 50+ grams was added to further polarize the weight. Some was used for stability and dampening.
When pressed, this frame had almost no give. Just like a steel bar. The RA stiffness could be in the 80s, or more, just like their more famous Secret 04 racket.
As with everybody else, the owner asked for more spin. So I strung it up with one of the spinnest setups I knew - a fullbed of 0.90mm fishing line.
Playtest:
- He asked me to play with the racket first and post it in this blog, so I did.
- Despite the stiffness, comfort was impressive. It could be the extra weight I added, but there was absolutely zero harsh vibrations, even framed shots!
- The very extreme weight polarization meant a very heavy dynamic swingweight with excellent maneuverability! Even though total weight was 330g+, it felt very light and fast, but powerful!
- The sweetspot was huge and easy to find.
- High stiffness meant high accuracy too. Aiming was delightful.
- Since this fishing line was proven to generate heaps of spin, what it did no longer surprised me. The usual heaps of ball fur on the string and clinging onto my shorts happened.
- As the strings was more than adept at spin, I flattened out the swing plane to get more depth. The weight placements helped with both spin and power and I adjusted after about 10 minutes.
- After about 45 minutes, a return of serve I hit snapped a mains.
- I think I now know why the owner wanted me to play with it first!
29Nov2013 update:
- After re-balancing this racket, beefing up the grip size, adding dampening, polarizing the weights and numerous strings and tension tests, the owner happily settled for a brand new state-of-the-art Babolat instead!
- He did not even try any of these setups once!
- In return for the hours of customization work I did, he gave me the racket... What's with people nowadays?
07Dec2013 update:
- I'm beginning to understand this racket after several hours of use.
- Considering its stiffness, the dampening is absolutely amazing. I can even call this a comfort arm-friendly frame!
- Seems like it was not such a bad deal for me after all...
20Jan2014 update:
- What I like about this racket is that the sweetspot is naturally quite high. So I need not adjust contact points between serves and rallies.
- After many hours of use, a dark patch of string wear appeared on the sweetspot. Good for me to take note so that I can focus on any sweetspot adjustments during my next stringing.
Is the handle hollow such that I can insert weights in it? I cannot put lead tape on the handle without making an already large grip for me even larger.
ReplyDeleteIf I recall correctly, the entire handle, including the butt cap was one-piece molded together.
DeleteI do not remember being able to remove the butt cap nor peek inside the handle.
My Yamaha had a 4 1/4 grip, so I had lots of room to wrap lead tape in addition to a leather grip, then another overgrip to make up the 50+ grams.
To squeeze out some space for the lead tape, you can try removing & skipping the base grip. Wrap the lead directly on the bare handle. Then use two overgrips instead. Some actually preferred this feel rather than base grip + one overgrip.