Player gear at the BNP Paribas Open: Janko Tipsarevic

Tecnifibre sponsored player, Janko Tipsarevic was on the practice courts today at the 2012 BNP Paribas Open. Tipsarevic plays with the Tecnifibre TFight 325 customized with a leather grip under a Tournagrip. The unstrung specs for his racquet are: Weight: 12.06 ounces (342g) Swingweight: 304 RDC.

Yonex RDS 003, a familar friend

I’ve been back on the courts for a few months now, and I’m loving every moment — at least in retrospect. At times I’m frustrated with myself on the court, but I still leave with a smile on my face and sweat on my brow. Coming back to the court after my first pregnancy has [...]

My Quest For A New Racquet

Throughout my tennis career, I never really paid much attention to which racquet I was using. I just would choose a racquet and take two weeks to adjust to it. My racquets in the past 10 years have been the Babolat Pure Drive, Prince O3 Speedport Black and lastly the Prince EXO3 Black. Since being [...]

Happy 40th Birthday Prince!

Today, one of the most recognizable brands in tennis turns the big 4-0. The brand in question is the one that claims to “rule the court.” Of course, we are writing about Prince. Think that catchy slogan is too tough to live up to? Consider this: Prince has sponsored some of the greatest of all [...]

How low can you go?

No matter where I looked, what I read or whom I spoke to, I kept hearing talk about very low string tensions. I guess it all started when I interviewed professional stringer and all out racquet guru, Priority One’s Nate Ferguson, in 2007. During the interview, pro player Filippo Volandri came into the stringing room [...]

The greatest racquet breaker of them all hangs it up

Being a tennis racquet just got a whole lot safer: Marat Safin has retired from professional tennis. Safin, along with having a reputation as one of the world’s most talented players, also possessed a penchant for smashing racquets. Earlier this year when TW’s Spencer interviewed Safin’s racquet customization and stringing team, Priority 1, P1’s Nate [...]

A Necessary Change. It’s Not You, It’s Me.

Take me to Divorce Court, I’m done. My body could no longer take the punishment; I had to get out before I really got hurt. It’s not because I didn’t love my old racquet, I did, and still do, but my body just couldn’t take the physical abuse. Who can I blame but myself? Like [...]

Rack-et-ing the brain

I’ve hit a road block on this tennis journey of mine. (If you missed the first leg of my “journey,” check it out here.) I am being Ms. Indecisive. I’ve rekindled my fling with the Dunlop Aerogel 4D 300 Tour, and I’m still flirting with the ProKennex Black Ace 98. Every time the playtesters head [...]

Master of my racquet universe

In the TW playtesting office, we often find racquets we like. Sometimes we switch. Sometimes we have what I’ll call an affair, which means we play with that stick for a few months then return to our original “racquet of choice,” and recently one of the playtesters found his Holy Grail, that coveted match made [...]

Taken by surprise

A tennis player’s racquet is a very personal thing. Our racquet connects us to the ball. Its combination of frame, string and grip provides us with the feel and control for our shot-making mastery. A tennis player without a racquet is like a knight without a sword, a magician without wand, Takeru “Tsunami” Kobayashi without [...]