Yonex tolerances (e.g. VCORE 98)

Word on the courts has been that Yonex was pretty much the only brand from which you can pick up sticks off the shelf and they'd be very close to spec. Meaning also one would not have to worry about matching between them. 

I was looking at the Percept 97H, as that's pretty much the only heavy racquet on the market since the RF97A had left the show. Measured a few and was surprised and disappointed to find all of then a few grams too light and a few mm too head heavy. Sure you can get close to the 330 / 310 spec again with a slightly heavier grip, but then the fiddling around begins again...

Demoing a few other pre-selected sticks, I did like the VCORE 98 and felt drawn back to it. Although even at low tension I could feel pain in and along the whole arm, which has happened close to never in >40 years of playing at least hundreds of racquets. So not sure what's going on and why a good part of the energy needs to go in that direction...

Anyways, back to spec - in a store that only had 2 VCORE 98s, there was already a 6 (!) gram diff between them. 

Struggling still and again to find an online retailer in Europe that would find me at least 3 matching sticks, I ended up ordering 6 myself, in the hope that 3 would be closer to spec and each other. 

Turned out weight and balance were pretty close between all of them, however with 1 outlier each in weight and balance, respectively. 1 more frame that seemed close to the remaining 3 did feel a bit heavier to move around (3384900 below), despite just maybe 1 mm more head heavy balance:

Serial	Weight (g)	Balance (mm)
3384900	305	315
3384899	304	317
3384898	304	314
3384897	305	314
3384905	305	314
3384908	307	314

(Still can't measure swingweight at home, so trying to at least develop a feel for it - thinking since only feeling a diff later on court as well would be a problem....)

Also worth noting that without the ~2g plastic wrap around the handle, 5/6 racquets were moving from the 305g VCORE 98 spec towards 300 grams, which at least in terms of weight is the VCORE 100 spec... 

I do wonder a bit, why as a manufacturer, one wouldn't just put thin weight strips under the grip, to make final tweaks to get the racquets to fit.

Bottom line:

I think for players who care, one currently can not (no longer?) just go and buy Yonex off the shelf and expect true to spec material. 

(I feel somewhat comfortable making that claim as at max, 1 of the 10+ racquets I measured recently seemed true to spec, and most others were quite far off. Maybe Y has fallen victim to its own success, in that regard?)

Based on my limited samples, I'd say one would have to roughly double-purchase, to then possibly end up with half the racquets to one's liking. 

However as in my VCORE batch, one would still have to tinker around with the grip and / or handle - if one wanted to get to the spec that the racquets where developed and are advertised for. 

Still not there in 2024!

P.S.: FWIW, the cardboard and rubber bands holding it that come on Yonex racquets seem to weigh ~14 grams. So with the ~2g plastic wrap around the handle, what you pick up in the store weighs about as much as a strung VCORE 98. Though obviously, compared to a string job, with that weight distributed. String would add an extra ~2g in the head (~16g total), and removing the wrap would take ~2g off the handle. In other words, you'd have ~4g more in the head, affecting balance and swingweight.

Why you might not have bought Roger's racquet

Alright, good news first. The Wilson Pro Staff RF97 Autograph generally turned out to be an amazing racquet. Official weight and balance combo is spot on, head size seems right, spacing between the cross strings around the sweet spot is even (as opposed to many other PWS frames), it's got plenty of power but also provides good touch, and I like the graphic design too. And it's probably a collector's item.

Between different interviews, Roger has indicated that he has been playing his previous racquet, the Tour 90, close to stock spec. Maybe sometimes a slightly stiffer or softer frame, depending on playing conditions, but that was supposed to be it. After 127 prototypes and about a year of testing, Wilson and Roger came up with the RF97. He committed to the switch and has been playing great since. More power, better serving, less backhand framers - and maybe one can even give the racquet partial credit for the SABR :)

The RF97 was "meticulously play tested and developed by the greatest tennis player of all time", Wilson claims.  It gets better: according to the NY Times, both Wilson and Roger confirmed that the RF97 is what he's actually playing with. Amongst the top 100 players or so, who mostly use custom frames, that would be quite a rarity. And a treat for us consumers. Between the Tour 90 and RF97, weight, balance, and swing weight are actually pretty close - Roger probably wouldn't want to adjust his swings to a new racquet.

I first experienced the RF at the 2014 US Open. I didn't get a chance to hit with it, but holding and swinging it felt right. Very exciting! However, the racquet was almost impossible get a hold of after the official launch. Roger was playing well, and for the first few months it was *the* racquet on the market.

A few months later at a Wilson demo event at Stanford, I finally got a chance to hit with it. It felt rock solid, but I just couldn't get the racquet head around. Very disappointing! The racquet just seemed too heavy.

Most prominent resources found the same. Tennis.com for example tested a frame with 348 kg cm² swing weight. That's significantly higher than the ~330 I've seen resulting from the official specs (including string). Not surprisingly, the Tennis.com author wrote "Wow, it’s heavy.", "...the RF97 Autograph feels every bit it’s 12.5 oz measurement", and it was "a chore to swing". For comparison, Midwest lists 336 and Tennis Warehouse 335. This guy was lucky though and ended up with 331.

After that Stanford hit, I dismissed the racquet. Fast forward a year, I took part in a PBI Camp at Stanglwirt, Austria. That gave me a chance to give the frame another go. Between coaches and participants (but not provided by PBI sponsor Wilson!), there were 3 racquets to try. And they all seemed very different...

During the camp, I got about 30 hours of demo time in. I found that I really enjoyed the lighter swinging frames. So I made a trip to the closest Tennis-Point store in Munich and sacrificed a Champion's Choice string job to get the naked specs of the racquet I liked. Turned out that it was slightly below the official spec of 340 grams and 305 balance, which result in a 299 kg cm² swing weight.

In the case of the RF97 (and similar "player" racquets), a true to spec frame does feel substantial and heavy when held, but due to its headlight balance it's supposed to whip around quite easily. With a true to spec RF97, I even find myself making contact or abandoning a swing path too early. For example, I couldn't see players like DelPo or Ana enjoying this frame - the racquet head would probably come around too soon for their long-arm swings.

Based on what I've seen, it's quite likely that folks have been demoing heavy-feeling versions of the RF97. Between the 20 or so frames I measured, the weight range was 6 grams, and balance differed by up to 11 mm. Put those 2 together, and you end up with a swing weight spectrum of over 20 points (measured in kg cm²). That basically means you could get a racquet that swings as light as the non-Autograph Pro Staff 97 or the 95S, or almost as heavy as an old-school Dunlop 200G.

All in all the situation is a bit unfortunate:

• I probably spent more than 50 hours and more than a grand to figure all that out, just to end up with 3 racquets that match the specs that are printed on the frame.
• In the process, I also (kindly) tortured 2 local tennis stores and put the folks at Tennis-Point.de to work. That also puts retailers in a funny spot, as they have to balance sales, customer experience, and cost on their end.
• Many of us won't enjoy the fruits of the labor that Wilson and Roger put in to develop a spot-on racquet.
• Wilson, who has such a winner on their hands, could be selling many more racquets and gain more excited fans and brand ambassadors. 
• Roger, who has gone through the whole process and given his name and autograph for the racquet, probably wouldn't enjoy hitting with most of the racquets that end up on the shelves.

So what to do? Ideally the problem would be fixed at the source, by tightening up the manufacturing tolerances. If that's too costly and/or tricky for some brands, they could provide a spec range (as Technifibre does). And maybe print the actual specs on the frame, at least for higher-end models. Might also be worth thinking about charging more for more precision, and/or less for less precision. That way players who don't care can save some money, and players who do can spend a little more to save themselves a lot of hassle.

In the meantime, serious players should pay attention to the actual weight, balance, and swing weight of the racquets we're demoing, so that we make the right judgment and purchasing decision. I recommend asking for measures and/or measuring yourself. That'll educate you more about what you like, and create further demand in the marketplace for supplying racquets how they were meant to be. Your racquet should not be a blocker, but an enabler for your performance and development - right?

If you're ready to walk the walk, I have a few posts on measuring and getting matching racquets on this blog that may help you.

Keep enjoying game and gear, and try a true to spec RF97 sometime :)

Update: on a related note, here's my long-term review of the racquet.

How to choose a tennis racquet

[BETA POST to get the content out there, will build out if there's interest]

1. Narrow down the options

Pick up as many racquets as you can (e.g. in a store), move them around, go through your swings, and then select a substet that appeal to you. And/or ask all your tennis friends who you can get a hold of if you may borrow one of their frames.

Pay attention to grip size too - they can feel different between manufacturers, models or even model years. In terms of size, factor in the overgrip if you use one.

If you're planning to identify a set of demos online, either start from the racquet of specs you know you like, or eliminate what you surely won't like - huge head size, super heavy, super light, dense string pattern etc. Tennis Warehouse for example offers a Racquet Finder (which I wish was a bit easier to use), and also shows similar racquets on each product page (RF97 example).

2. Try your favorites

Pick your favorite frames to demo, and maybe pick up 2 extremes that you think you won't like, just to get a sense for the spectrum and question your initial impression.

Any self-respecting tennis store will offer a demo program. You can also order demos online, e.g. at Tennis Warehouse, Tennis Express, or if you're in Germany for example, there's Tennis-Point.

3a. Found a clear winner?

Go for it. And enjoy it for the time being - if you discover that you don't like something, you can always adjust later. At least you got on court in the meantime :) If you just like to tweak your racquet a bit, you can find an idea here. If you're looking for a more drastic change down the line, select your future set of demos based on your current pick and adjust the spec(s) you're no longer fond of.

3b. Not in love yet?

Note weight, balance, swing weight, head size, string pattern, and any other spec that stood out to you. Even better, measure what you can. From there, figure out what you liked and what you didn't.
Then pick the next set of demos by keeping what you liked, and changing what you didn't. If you want to keep track and rate your demos, there's a template here's that you can adjust and use.

Hope this gives you some ideas so far. If you're an advanced player, here are some other things to pay attention to:

* When buying multiple racquets, get them matched to what you like and to each other. Over the years, I wrote a few posts about my matching woes - here's an example.

* If you're sensitive towards the grip, remember that there are different butt caps (somewhat easy to change) and grip shapes (not easy to change).

* If you know exactly what you want, you can order a custom racquet, e.g. at Head or Vantage. Fun playing around with this the Head customizer in any case :)

Your next racquets, matched

My latest quest for 2 matching racquets has ended.  With purchasing 3 :)  After unsuccessful measurements in a couple of Golfsmith stores, I contacted both Tennis Express and Tennis Warehouse to see what they could do.

Tennis Express didn't do well on this one.  I generally like their selection and their affinity towards new media.  I have had smooth buying experiences in the past too.  They offer Google Checkout as a payment option, which is another plus for me.  Just enter your Google password, and payment and shipment details are taken care of.

When I called, the Tennis Express rep confused matching with customizing, and quoted me $35 per racquet.  I explained matching, and it appeared that the rep wasn't aware of the common manufacturing variances.  I was put on hold, and then they quoted with $25 per frame for matching.  That seemed a little expensive.  I still had the feeling the rep didn't know what I was talking about, so I decided to send an email and see what I get back.

In 2 short paragraphs, I outlined exactly what I was looking for: can you please match weight, balance, and if possible swingweight.  Here are the spec ranges I'm looking for.  The reply was a 2 liner without greeting and 2 typos, saying they "can weight racqeuts" and that the charge would be $10 per racquet.  Different charge than quoted before, at least a bit fairer.  But they answered a question I didn't ask, "can you weigh racquets?".  So that didn't instill too much confidence, and I kept looking for other options.

Tennis Warehouse did better in my case.  I emailed an identical request, and even though it took a follow-up from me 3 days later to get an initial reply, things ended up moving pretty quickly.  It turned out that they had forwarded the request to their racquet specialist.  He replied to my follow-up saying that he had measured hundreds of these frames and that it should be very possible to meet my spec request.  That was exciting to hear, and so I said "if you can find 3 matches I'll buy 3"!  Win-win situation.

Long story short, he found 3 frames, all almost identical in weight and balance, and they even measured and matched swingweight.  Within one day, they had found the racquets, strung them up with 3 different strings as I requested, pricematched a Golfsmith promotion, and shipped with Golden Gate Overnight.  The matching charge was $10, and they put a sticker with specs on each frame:

From Racquets

What does all this mean for you?  I'd say if you need 2 racquets or more, ask to get them matched.  Create demand in the market so that stores and manufacturers respond and don't keep selling racquets that look the same but play differenty.  When your string breaks at 5:5 in the third set of your team's decisive match of the season, you don't want to pick up a different racquet :)

I'm sure Tennis Express can step up their game by educating their staff and getting the right equipment and processes in place.  But from my experience, I for now recommend Tennis Warehouse if you're in the US and your local store can't match for you.  So identify the racquet you'd like to buy, maybe measure some frames to get an idea for the model's spec ranges, and then specify and communicate what you want. 

Me, I'll try the frames without customizing for a while and see how I like them.  Since I went for the headlight and lighter end of the variance spectrum, I thought I'd quickly need to put a few grams on the head, but so far so good.  Will keep you posted :)

The adventure of finding 2 matching racquets

I've always been tempted to play with Wilson Six.One Tour BLX (supposedly "Roger Federer's racquet"). The frame has always felt great in my hand and I know that it'll allow me to pull off every shot in my skill set. I also like the thin beam and the even string spacing in the sweet spot, in contrast to some other racquets on the market today.

So far, I've never been able to get it enough power and comfort with this racquet. I made the same observation with the BLX version, despite many players stating that it feels more dampened than its predecessors.

Well, it looks like all my string testing over the last few years is finally starting to pay off. I found the WeissCANNON Silverstring very comfortable and playable at low tensions. I strung up a demo @ 44/42 lbs / 20/19 kps (yep!) for a good combo of power and comfort, and had a couple of hits with it that I really enjoyed. Not quite perfect yet, but definitely close and tweakable.

The demo I had was also a tad too head-heavy for me, with a 322 mm balance point. So I think it's time to buy a pair and give it a shot!


From Strings

As I pointed out earlier though, finding 2 matching frames is not trivial, yet quite important. I haven't seen a shop yet that proactively matches frames, so you have to take the first step. Very few stores have scales, even fewer have balance boards, and I have only seen one store that had a swing weight machine (and that was in Germany!). 

So you're on your own, and best to bring your own equipment. You can obviously ask one of the major online stores to match it for you, but I'd rather set my own min / max limits and have a little more control over what I'm choosing. I went out today to find a matching pair of Wilson BLX Six.One Tours. Armed with my digital kitchen scale and Viper balance board, I was hoping to find a match that I'd be comfortable with. I already expected that I wouldn't find a perfect match, so I was aiming to find 2 frames that were pretty close, and on the lighter and more headlight end. 

The thinking behind that is that it's always easier to add weight than remove it, and to do so in the head. If a racquet is too light and headlight, you can just add some lead tape to the racquet head. If the racquet is too head-heavy, you have to mess with grip which is usually more tricky, plus it increases the overall weight. 

So I went and measured 8 frames in total. Since I didn't want to over-annoy the respective sales reps, I started measuring with cardboard and plastic wrap attached to see if I could find any that were close. As a second step, I would take the close ones and remove the cardboard for a more exact measure.

The card board and the rubber bands usually weigh around 14 grams, not too much tolerance there. The plastic wrap around the handle plus the price tag should also be fairly consistent around 2 grams. To reduce the error a bit further, I did try to center the card board on the frames before taking the measures. 

In the first store, I measured 3 frames, and all turned out too different: weight ranged from 355 to 360 grams (which is not too bad), however balance ranged from 305 to 320 mm - completely different racquets! The heaviest racquet at 360 grams was also the least headlight, at 320 mm. On the one hand, that makes it quite easy to add some lead to another frame to match it. But for my personal taste that'll make the racquets feel too heavy to swing (= swing weight too high). So no luck here. 

In the second store, I measured 5 frames. Weight was in a pretty ok range again between 355 and 360. Judging from this limited sample of 8, Wilson's quality control seems to be ok with a 5 gram range. But the spread in balance was again quite wide, ranging from 311 to 322 mm. 

I did find 2 frames that were promising with the cardboard on. Once I took it off, the weight was off by the same amount (~ 1 gram), however one balanced at 303 and the other at 308 mm. Somewhat close, but I thought I'd regret giving up too early. So for now, the search continues. Wish me luck!

Do your racquets mix or match?

You have at least 2 racquets, so that if your strings break, you have an identical frame to fall back on, right? That's what I was thinking for a good part of my tennis life. Until I started playing with racquets that looked the same, but felt very different. 

First, I thought it was misjudgment on my end, but then I started to realize that even a small difference in weight or balance had quite an impact on my game. I found myself marking my favorite out of 5 Wilson Hyper ProStaff 6.5s and playing with it all the time. And hoping that the strings wouldn't break :)

One of my best friends who loves both gear and data was kind enough to walk us through how we can uncover (or proof!) whether our frames are different. And hopefully won't have to go on a racquet matching quest! So without further ado, here's the first guest post for Forehand.TV:

Us amateurs don't have easy access to racquet technicians that the pros do, and often times have to deal with poor racquet-to-racquet consistency for frames we buy off the shelf. Regentville tennis has a couple accounts with this problem with Wilsons in this post and this post.

As someone who loves the sports gear more than the sport, and incredibly picky about getting precise specs, I was quite worried when purchasing new frames that although they are the same make and model, their specs would be quite off. I was finally upgrading from the legendary Prince Original Graphite, a racquet that I've been using for 15 years, to the Babolat Pure Drive Roddick. However, would Babolat's quality control pass my test, given that they have a much shorter history of making racquets compared to Wilson and Prince?

Obviously, going by just "feel" of the racquet is not good enough for me, I need data. So I devised a few tricks that the amateur can use to spec their racquets.

Weight:

This is the easiest, just get yourself a digital scale that measures to fractions of a gram. Then, strip everything off your racquet (grip, grommets, etc) so that it is as bare as possible. In my case, I was very surprised to find the racquets were within 1.3 grams of each - very nice!

From Gear

Balance:

There are a few ways to do this. A cool trick I learned on the Regentville blog is to slide the racquets onto a stiff rod of some sort, and just see how they hang relative to each other. You can also do this with a pen in a store, just to guestimate which racquets may be close in balance before buying them.

From Gear

It is just the camera angle which makes it look off, the difference in balance was not perceptible using this method.

A slightly more precise method is to use a ruler and a flat level table surface, with a sharp edge. Hook the ruler or tape measure to the edge, and place the butt end of the racquet at a mark. Slowly push the racquet further off the table until it just barely begins to tilt on its own.

From Gear

Take a few measurements. Once I've gotten close to the balance point, I'll move the racquet in 1/16" increments and let go, dialing it in to the point where that small change will either cause the racquet to start tipping, or to stay on the table.

From Gear

Repeat with the other racquet to find its balance point. Try to keep everything identical, and to keep the racquet, table edge, tape measure, etc on straight lines or right angles to each other.

It's important to note both of these measurement techniques are relative. They require the racquets to be compared to be the same model. While I can get a measurement of "12.5 inches" using the latter technique, it means nothing comparing it to, say, my Prince Graphite. Even if I were to compare a Pure Drive to a Pure Drive Roddick, the comparison would not be valid.

I must have gotten lucky, as using these methods of approximation, my racquets showed the same balance. Only difference was one racquet seem to start tilting a bit faster, but the point which that occurred was the same.

The adjustment I had to make was very simple. I put 1.3 grams of lead tape at the butt end of the light racquet.

From Gear

That is only about 0.5% of the total weight (even less once I add grommets, grips, and strings) and has minimal effect on the balance and almost no effect on swing weight (when placed at the butt end) of the racquet. For comparison, the piece of rubber many manufacturers use to finish the top of a grip weighs 1.5 to 2 grams.

Swing weight?

Well, this is one thing I could not assess to a confidence interval that meant anything, so I didn't try. However, I'm lucky to live in NYC, home to RPNY, a shop that does a lot of customization for touring pros. They were nice enough to measure my racquets when they were brand new (never strung, plastic still on grip, original grommets). Specs below:

Racquet #1: Weight - 317.3 grams, Balance - 315 mm, Swing weight - 297 kg cm², Stiffness - 72
Racquet #2: Weight - 316.9 grams, Balance - 314 mm, Swing weight - 297 kg cm², Stiffness: 72

(FYI - stated spec for Pure Drive Roddick's is 315 grams and balance at 315 mm. The plastic wrap on the grip is about 2 grams. These frames were dead on spec)

Wow, that's pretty damn good! The difference in the delta of the racquet weights with my measurements and RPNY's can be attributed to variances in the grip, plastic wrap, and/or the grommets differences between the two racquets.

Color me impressed, and very lucky. I basically have two identical racquets. Am I skilled enough to require this precision, no. Am I happy, yes.

Out of curiosity, I additionally weighed two extra Pure Drive Roddicks in the store, and they came out to 319.0 and 315.9 grams. While I didn't measure balance (which is harder to correct at home than weight), I'm still very impressed with Babolat's consistency and quality control based on this little sample.