Equipment Update # 2

Hey tennis fans, Mario here with Tenniscast. I don’t like saying this much, but it’s true, it’s been way too long since I’ve written an article. So here I am, back with Tenniscast to provide you fans out there with equipment updates and to let you know what new technologies might be coming out for the tennis world. Now again, I do have to admit that M and I are somewhat biased to Prince and Ferrero here at Tenniscast, but no need to worry, I will also be taking a close look at Federer’s KSix-One Tour 90. Though more importantly, I will be congratulating Prince for their impressive performance on its first quarter of 2007. Finally, I will be taking a close look at the new Prince Speedport technology for the O³ line of racquets, and letting you fans out there know if this update will hurt Prince, or as it usually does, keep raising the bar for other competitors. Alright then let’s get to it.

Let’s start of with Federer’s current racquet, the KSix-One Tour 90 and compare it to the nCode Six-One Tour which was the racquet he used up till December of 2006. The new KSix-One Tour 90 uses the same nCode technology, with a few upgrades that make all the difference. The racquet gets its name from the newly installed (K)arophite Black and (K)ompact Center technologies that allow the racquet to become more stable and have more feel, furthermore the (K)ompact center improves the handling and maneuverability of the racquet which increases the feel even more. The Ksix-One Tour 90 is by far a greater racquet than the nCode Six-One Tour, and has received far greater reviews from many users. However, there seems to be one comment shared by most reviewers when having tested both the nCode and the KSix. Truth is, both of these racquets are extremely hard to handle. This makes it both a great and comfortable racquet for the likes of Federer and other touring pro’s, but not so suiting to the average tennis player. So again, if you are in search for a new racquet, and seem to like Wilson, make sure to try a demo first for the KSix before actually buying it, because it might disappoint.

Well then, let us now talk about world # 1, and I don’t mean Roger Federer, I am talking about Prince. O³ racquets, to be specific the O³ White, O³ Speedport Red and O³ Speedport Silver, are currently holding three of the top five best selling positions. The newly introduced Speedport technology has been doing extraordinarily well in its first quarter revealed by holding top ten best sellers for the quarter. This though, is talking about sales, the most impressive part is the fact that almost every player that has turned to O³ technology in the tour has moved up in the rankings. Don’t believe me? Let’s look at the stats then, 12 of top 50 players are currently using an O³ racquet, while 79 of 100 touring pros use an O³. Among these players, 49 touring pros are using the O³ Tour, 17 touring pros are using the O³ White and 8 touring pros are using the O³ Hybrid. Looking at the big picture, O³ players have gathered up more than 200 ATP and WTA tournament wins, including seven Grand Slam titles. Soon enough I believe the O³ Speedport racquets will make their way through the tour and help keep racking up more ATP and WTA tournament wins. But what exactly is the Speedport technology? The Speedport technology allows players to develop faster strokes because of its aerodynamics and unimaginably keeps increasing the sweet spot. To be specific, the O³ Speedport frames allow up to 24 % faster head speed than traditional frames allowing faster strokes, greater sweet spot, more forgiveness, and more feel. As mentioned before, the O³ Speedport red and silver are doing exceptionally well for their first quarter. Might an O³ Speedport Tour be released? When the O³ line of racquets was first released, the tour was the last to come out, and was demoed by Guillermo Coria on the tour for a couple of months before it was finally released to the public. Now the O³ tour is used by a number of players, and more notably by world # 4 Nikolay Davydenko. Hopefully, Prince has in store the O³ Speedport Tour and is waiting a couple of months before releasing it. Prince O³ racquets have all players improving their games, and have competitors stressing and struggling to compete with O³ technology. The sales show it, the players show it. Prince is indeed ruling the court.