Ryan Harrison has renewed his contract with Babolat. Ryan has been using Babolat racquets since he was 12 and really thinks the racquets will help his career (plus im sure he got a great deal of money).
Seth McKinley, Babolat International Sports Marketing Manager, commented, “”Ryan’s renewal with Babolat is a vote of confidence in the brand, the equipment and the service he recieves from Babolat. Harrison’s charisma, passion and dedication to tennis represent our brand values.””
Anyone who is the least bit interested in tennis will surely confirm that Babolat products have a huge presence on the courts. From recreational and/or occasional participants to Professional players, one does not need to look far or hard to see Babolat’s logo all over the place!
Babolat’s Pure Drive racquets have been a consistent leader in sales volume and are recognized as appropriate sticks for a wide variety of skill levels. There must be a reason…
All Babolat Pure Drive racquets feature three main technologies:
1) Cortex System
2) GT
3) Woofer
Benefits of the Vibration Filter
The Cortex Dampening System (CDS) is an active vibration filter that enhances feel. “Feel” is tough to describe and may mean different things to different people. Babolat Pure Drive racquets, however, have had great success with the Pure Drive Series and one of the most common remarks heard is “it just feels great”! The CDS is an interface between the upper half (racquet face/frame) and the lower half (racquet handle). It interrupts, or “filters” unwanted vibrations from reaching the player’s hand. This, in turn, improves the player’s sensation of ball impact, i.e., ball “feel”. Not all vibrations are removed (players need to know what’s going on). Generally speaking, high-frequency vibrations are removed while useful low-frequency vibrations are retained. Any regular tennis player seems to know the difference between “good sound” and “bad sound” upon ball impact (I was SURE that ball was going to be IN—it sounded so GOOD!). Babolat says that Expert Players will benefit from the CDS because of its enhanced feel and that intermediate players will benefit from the additional comfort it provides.
Lighter Weight through Scientific Advancements
Babolat GT refers to the materials used to manufacture Pure Drive racquets: Graphite Tungsten. Used throughout the entire racquet, GT is a hybrid technology that combines braided carbon fibers with tungsten filaments added. Babolat states that GT technology improves racquet performance in the areas of “control” and “feel”. Babolat scientifically applies different concentrations of tungsten at strategic locations on each racquet to maximize its beneficial aspects. Babolat also states that GT technology results in a 10% increase in energy recovery which provides more power.
We’re Not Making Music Here
Woofer is Babolat’s invention and is designed to increase the interaction between the frame and the strings. Part of thePure Driveracquet’s grommet system, it consists of raised areas between the grommet holes which act as cushions for the strings. When a ball hits the stringbed this allows 25% more contact time of the ball on the strings. The result is more control and a very comfortable feel.
As you can now tell, there is more to selecting a racquet than a pretty paint job. Tennis companies spend a great deal of money designing features that will give their products an edge over the competition. Babolat has been, and remains, a leader in the industry. Their racquet technology has surely been instrumental in their success—many racquets are purchased because they “feel good”. And why not?
Babolat has announced that their star player, Andy Roddick, will be wearing Propulse 3 shoes at the Australian Open 2012. The 2012 edition has great durability and has even more comfort that previous years.
Roddick’s signature shoe will be available starting January 1, 2012.
Kim Clijsters cant stay out of the headlines, this time for a good reason. Courtesy of Babolat, Kim Clijsters is giving away a free private training session.
All you need to do is head to takealessonwithkim.com and sign up. Entries close 30th September 2011.
One of the things I’ve been searching for lately is a lower-priced, but still high-quality, natural gut string. Babolat is by far the most popular, but with installed prices creeping up on $65, some resistance is being generated. So, my quest has led me to Australian-made Titan Natural Gut; I’ve decided to try the 17g version.
This string is much less expensive than almost any other gut I’ve come across, and I anticipate an installed “street price” in the $40 range, a guess I had to revise upward later (see Stringing). It’s available in 15, 16 and 17 gauge versions.
Specs
This is a true 17 gauge string, measuring 1.18mm in diameter, and the 39’6″ length should string most anything this side of 125 sq. in. I had a problem with my testing in one respect: to assign a power potential, I normally test the string’s elongation at 60 and 70#, but Titan failed (broke) twice while pulling at 70. Obviously, don’t string it at a high tension, especially in 2 pieces, as it won’t take the load. So, I had to make an adjustment.
I checked the elongation at 50#, getting 10.6%, and then at 60, receiving a reading of 20.3%, showing me that this string will have a nice power potential when installed. The knot strength is poor, as most gut is, failing long before 60#.
Stringing
I strung Titan 17 in a Gamma Tour 330X at 43# for playtesting on a Babolat Star 5 machine.
This is where I’d have to make a concession on pricing, as it took forever to install this stuff: the coating was so thin as to be almost nonexistent, and it was a real labor to weave, pull and straighten the cross strings. The dragging sound it made while doing so was most disconcerting, and I half-expected a string to snap from the effort. The issue, though, came after the frame left the machine.
It took almost as long to finish straightening the strings as it did to install them, which is disatrous to final tension, as the strings will loosen the more you have to adjust them, affecting both string bed stiffness and tension maintenance.
You could wax the heck out of the mains before starting the crosses, but then you’ll have to remove that wax from the finished racquet and from your clamps before moving on to other frames, both of which will also use up valuable shop time. I think this extra effort will add $10-15 to the cost of the job for me, making VS not too much more expensive.
The Tour 330X strung at 43# returned a DT reading of 29 on the Beers ert300 Tenniscomputer, and a string bed stiffness reading of 36 on the Babolat RDC. After 24 hours, the DT had dropped to 26 (an 11.5% drop), and SBS had declined 12.5% to 32. I feel the string straightening issue contributed mightily to this, but Titan may just not be as good as the gut I’m used to, as well.
In Play
The power potential was there, just as I thought, with shots whizzing right off the strings, and the classic, soft gut feel was there, as well. What I didn’t like was how the strings refused to even remotely realign themselves, forcing me to take countless amounts of time between points and on changeovers to attempt it. The lack of coating made it impossible to put the strings back in place, no matter how I tried; this became most frustrating, to the point where I finally gave up.
Fine Points
This problem brought up another one: the strings were showing noticeable fraying after 2 hours of play. I know it’s a 17 gauge gut, but this is unacceptable from the perspective of a player, stringer or consumer. I’m not a player who uses extreme amounts of spin, and have used other thin-gauge guts for many more hours than this without such a problem.
I had no choice but to give up on Titan Natural Gut, as it was killing me to deal with the string alignment problem. Before removing it, I checked the string bed again, and came up with a final DT of 26, and an SBS of 29, exactly where they were after the first 24 hours. Of course, it received very little use, so I wasn’t surprised to see the readings be very close.
Conclusion
The bottom line on Titan Natural Gut is this: it plays fine, but the time needed to install it and straighten the strings means much of its price advantage would be gone in a shop environment: time is money here, and the owner has to factor that time into his final price. If you’re stringing at home, you may have all the time in the world to sit around and straighten them, but the frustration will get to you, eventually.
What you’ll have left are gut strings that, while they play well, will leave you tearing your hair out as you try to keep them in place, and will also have you examining the cost/benefit ratio as it frays prematurely. If the folks at Titan could develop a coating that is even somewhat noticeable, many of these problems would go away, and I think stringers and players alike would pay up a few bucks for it. Until then, I recommend you do what I’m going to do: stay away. Titan Natural Gut will not be on my shelf.
Over at TennisIdentity they have put together a short article outlining the new tennis bags of 2009. So head over and check out the latest bags from Wilson, Head and more.
