Yonex R7

Yonex R7 with original Yonex racquet bag from early 1980s

The previous owner of this stick must have been a Navratilova fan because not only is this the racquet that she started her career with but the racquet bag is a special edition to commemorate her Grand Slam achievement in 1983 -4.  She won the Australian, Wimbledon and US in 83' and picked up the French in 84'.  Not a bad year's work!  Unfortunately, I cannot offer comments on the playabilit of this racket because the string tension is such that it feels like a trampolene.  But a nice piece of tennis history nonetheless.

Wilson Hammer 6.2 Stretch (aka 'The Skunk')

The distinctive black and white paint job of 'The Skunk'

A racket I picked up recently for a couple of euros...one that I had heard a lot about.  In fact, I used it this morning for the first time and won my match.  Firstly, it offers good control combined with good plough through due to its head heavy balance. Being a bit longer it means you can hit the ball higher/earlier on the toss, which helped me make fewer double faults because the angle of the ball leaving the racquet was narrower and so reduces the likelihood of hitting long.  Getting familiar with the longer frame will no doubt take a bit more practice because the swing pattern is slightly different from my normal game, but this stick could definitely become a favourite of mine.

Yamaha Silver 90

The Yamaha Silver 90, with sliding side bars so head weighting can be altered

Yamaha is one of the lost names of tennis racquet production, but their quality is second to none.
These are ceramic frames, which I normally do not go for since I find ceramics a bit toothless ususally. However, what makes these frames notable is the way you can alter the weight/head balance by moving plastic sliding panels on either side of the frame in order to generate more spin or more plough.  I am suprised this very innovative idea never caught on, but I imagine the patent was lost when Yamaha exited the tennis scene.  Maybe it is time to resurrect this idea...come on Wilson, give Yamaha a break and either buy the patent off them or allow Yamaha to re-enter the racquet market.

by moving the slide panel, head balance can be altered

Prince Graphite

The Prince Graphite 90 Series and original Prince Graphite (110)

The Prince Graphite is one of those sticks that often comes up in players' all-time favourite racquet lists.  Used by Michael Chang and Andre Agassi to name but two pros who swung them to great effect. With the distinctive T-bar, Prince never really made anything better than these beauties and it is not too suprising that they  recently re-introduced these classic looking frames for a new generation of tennis fans.  But these are the original early models.  For consistent and solid play I would put them right up there with the Wilson Pro Staffs.

Dunlop Max 150g and Dunlop Max 200g

Dunlop Max range : the 150g (top) and 200g (forever to be associated with McEnroe and Graf)

 Found these two at my local recycling centre and was mightily pleased, as you might expect to get a piece of tennis history for a few euros.  The smaller headed Max 150g was the forerunner for the larger Max 200g, but more about that in a moment.  The Max 150g was styled on the old wooden frame and is fairly rare to find these days. With its 63 sq. inch head size and blue paint job, it otherwise shares the same injected graphite moulding process as the Max 200g, which John McEnroe would make famous. It packs quite a punch for its size given the hefty plow through it generates.

The Dunlop Max 200g is, of course, a well known classic used by The Mac and Steffi Graf.  Hard to know what to say about this stick that hasn't been said.  It has a nice smooth feel, generates good plough through and can still give modern frames a run for their money.  That said, both these rackets are heavy for serving.  But when one considers they were up against rival wooden frames there is just no contest.  Ironic that McEnroe championed the era of graphite sticks but nowadays he often laments the passing of wood and the rise of power tennis over spin and guile that the players of eras past displayed.I didn't notice him complaining when his ground breaking Max 200g was crushing his more traditionalist wooden frame wielding opponents!

Yamaha's Hi-Flex Lite and Hi-Flex Super Lite

The excellent Hi-Flex Lite from Yamaha

Flexible rackets are my favourites to play with and Yamaha and Fox are the two brands that, for me,
offer excellent arm friendly play and also give good control.  The Yamaha Hi-Flex Lite is a personal favourite.  Despite the rather plain paintjob, this racket really sparkles on court.  Flexible frames need to be strung at a fairly high tension, in my view, for the frame to really bend and snap back when ploughing through the ball.  This one is not has high as I would like, but is sufficiently tight to really 'Feel The Difference', as Yamaha's rhetoric goes.  Unfortunately, the Superlite (see below) needs a restring because the tension is far too low for anything to flex except the strings themselves.  However, I fully expect it to perform well once this is done.  These rackets are light, evenly balanced sticks that make me wish Yamaha still made ones like them!

In need of a restring, but the Hi-Flex Super Lite is one I really look forward to using soon.

Yamaha EOS (Efficiency of Swingweight) and Yamaha EOS RZ

Yamaha EOS with weight distributed towards top of the frame to promote swingability

 The Yamaha EOS was this great company's final entry into the tennis racket market - a sad day indeed.  Having owned a few rackets I can say that Yamaha have some of the nicest constructed rackets I have come across - real build quality!  They look good too.  Such as shame they no longer appear on the tennis tour.  The word online is that the EOS led to a patent infraction with Wilson over their Hammer model, and in order to settle the dispute Yamaha agreed to quit racket production altogether.  If true, I can see why Wilson settled for this because they knew they were losing a major competitor in the market.

The EOS is a lightweight frame with nice flex, but certainly not as flexy as other sticks of theirs I have tried.  Importantly, these EOS frames can still hold their own against modern rackets, which is one of the reasons I love Yamaha so much.  Pictured above is the 100 sq. inch EOS model in sandal brown...and below is the EOS RZ, with the slightly larger 110 sq.inch frame and the much
 nicer paint job, don't you think?

a 1990s classic - powerful and light!