Category Archives: Good News!
Rare Opportunity!
Our client has asked that we offer for sale two (2) Babolat Pure Aero + racquets. The grip size is 4 ½.
One has been hit with, according to the owner, but there is no marking anywhere. The other has not been hit with.
Offered for: $350.00 the pair.
Specifications
Babolat Pure Aero+
Babolat Pure Aero+
Are you ready for a peek at the NOIR SIDE?
Are you ready for the Dark Side?
Do you dare? Of course you do!
Of course you’re ready! You have been hitting with the Wilson Blade for a while but always wanted a Noir racquet!
But why?
These Noir Series racquets represent the pinnacle of style!
When combined with the performance of the Blade and Pro Staff models the Noir aesthetic projects your determination to anyone standing in your way of success on the court!
These racquets are duplicates of the current “rust” Pro Staff and the “green” Blade so you are assured of the performance and feel of the Blade or Pro Staff you are currently using which means all you need to do is buy one…then visit the Dark Side. We have a few remaining!
A Players Perspective
We are really happy to have Jason Harne join us to review and add his comments on tennis racquets and tennis strings!
I think you will agree that Jason will be a great addition to racquetquest.com based on the following tennis bio:
Jason Harne – Tennis
- Pro tennis – futures tournaments and satellites
- Stirling University, Scotland. One of the first players to be awarded the British Universities Tennis Bursary Colors Award (equivalent to All-American)
- International home nations tournament, representing Scotland, player of the tournament award.
- England county cup, division one, representing Yorkshire County.
- Spain and UK, national league tennis
- High Point University, Big South Conference, 22-2 record.
- U21 guardian direct British futures, national champion, and fastest UK serve.
- Teaching pro, UK and Spain, high-performance players
This is very impressive but the most important component for us, and you, is Jason’s incredible interest in new things! Jason is willing to try, and honestly comment on, any performance tennis equipment.
Jason will be commenting on the new Wilson Shift series later this week.
Please leave a comment or question for Jason.
An Inside Look at String Evaluation
In this series, we will look at the various characteristics of tennis string without the tennis racquet!
Racquet Quest evaluates every string we use plus strings submitted from other sources. These evaluations are “No Prep” and “Prep”, which simply means the Prep string has been pre-stretched in the entire length. It has not been through a tennis racquet…yet!
The following images represent a string that has not been “prepped.” After these plots are fully understood we will do the same string in the”prepped” format to see if there is a difference.
Ultimate Tensile Strength
What we notice immediately is the string is very “soft” as seen in the deflection of 47.8 mm to reach 50 pounds. Also, the elasticity, the ability to recover to the original length, is fairly low.
The area under the 50-pound and 47.8 mark is the stress/strain curve that shows how the string behaves in three (3) cycles. The load and number of cycles can be changed.
The long run (linearity) from the 50-pound mark to failure is quite good and suggests consistency.
The UTS, the ultimate tensile strength, of 127.1 pounds is good for this thin string.
The following plot shows the knot strength of this string.
Knot Strength
This plot is overlayed on the previous image so a quick comparison can be made. It is common for knot strength to be lower than un-knotted string. Knot strength is primarily important to the person tying the knot. Knots rarely fail after they are successfully tied. Pulling a knot too tight or jerking can break a knot.
This plot says to us that this string needs to be handled carefully when it comes to knots! We would expect a knot strength of at least 80 pounds for typical monofilament strings, however, if this string exhibits extraordinary play characteristics anyone can learn to tie the knots!
Based on this information we would suggest this string for a player looking for extraordinary comfort, power, and relatively short life!
Pro Stock Limited Reserve
This is a high-performance string that has gone unnoticed for a while and I don’t know why!
Pro Stock Limited Reserve is a string we purchased because it has interesting characteristics that appealed to us however the client base is small. Recently, however, with the number of players that are moving away from a polyester string, this has become a popular alternative!
Pro Stock Limited Reserve
In a word, this plot looks very much like that of natural gut, and whatever you think natural gut is still considered the best performance material for racquet string!
What are we seeing here:
- Linearity, the more linear the string the more consistent (predictable)
- Elongation, at 33.1 mm at 50 pounds
- Elasticity, 71.9 %
- This is the area where the advantages of pre-stretching will be seen.
- The curve will become essentially one line meaning the string returns to a nominal length after stretching.
- Ultimate Tensile Strength, 163.6 pounds to fail (high), @107.2 mm deflection
- Knot strength, @102.4 pounds, and surpasses natural gut in this property.
What we can’t see in the plot is the construction of this multifilament string. Each strand is a thin, flat ribbon of polyolefin material. The ribbons are much like the natural gut.
The plot below is a comparison of natural gut string and is included as a visual to compare to Pro Stock Limited Reserve and show how much natural gut fibers are the same for any string manufacturer. Of course, manufacturing techniques, bonding agents, and coatings make the difference between a good gut and a not-so-good gut!
If you compare the Pro Stock Limited Reserve to natural gut you can quickly see why it may be a good string to try!
Racquet Quest, LLC
