[keroo1099]

Originally Posted by oldshivabull

Hi, I have been scouring the net for beginners' tennis racquets

1. 270 to 285 gm's unstrung is normally what most beginners/intermediate players use.

2. Get a balanced racquet, not head heavy or head light. You can always use lead weight to tweak it to becoming more head light or head heavy

3. Stick to 97-100 size.

4. The devil is in the strings and the tension. This is where you will need to experiment to find what suits your style of play but this becomes expensive at about 1000 bucks a pop till you shout eureka.

Lower the tension, you don't have to swing hard to generate pace but one needs better control and it's a lot easier on the arm. Vice versa for tight stringing.

I use an old Yonex Ezone at 52 lbs that Works for my serve and volley kind of play.

Good luck.

[Reinhard]

Originally Posted by oldshivabull

However, they still leave me confused. My coach recommends an unstrung weight of 270gm (because I am of grey-hair vintage). So I have nearly finalized a Pro Staff 97 UL or a Yonex Ezone 100L, but doubts creep in: I am wondering if I will take to the 97inch size of the Wilson racquet. A Head Speed S has also been suggested. And it seems Babolats are all the rage.

Depends on what kind of game you are looking for.

If its primarily recreational & effortless game that you are looking for, then the oversized Head TI-S6 might be the right one for you (I know you have already mentioned that you don't want a large racquet, still suggesting). It has easily accessible speed-spin & is quite forgiving on control. Will be very easy on the wrist & elbow too.

Head TI-S6 - Raquets4u
This works fine for folks who are in it for the game & don't intend to jump into club/region level competitive tennis in near future. As a beginner racquet this is fun. You can then switch to a more focused racquet in few months / an year or so.

If you have been playing for over 6 months or so, and have got the basics of tennis right (the typical coaching "circle & swing", "move your feet", "transfer your weight forward", "butt forward", "hammer grip for volley") - you may want to try your hand on 300gm unstrung graphite racquets. These offer superb balance of maneuverability, power & spin.

HEAD Speed MP (I had planned on using this originally but was out of stock for a while back then)
(If you want a lighter racquet - the HEAD SPEED LITE or RADICAL LITE is also good)
Babolat PureDrive (I use a 315gm variant of this instead, and now am in love with it)
Yonex Ezone 98/100
Wilson Blade

I'd suggest against Babolat Pure Strike range. A couple of friends from the group used it & have quickly replaced within an year. Never liked the actual feel of it. None of my co-players had good words for the Strike somehow.

If you like top-spin play - Babolat RPM Blast synthetic might be strings worth trying. Extremely easy access to good top-spin. I'm sure Solinco fans will jump for my throat at this line .
Go with 52-55 Lbs tension with above mentioned racquets if you have played tennis for a while.
If you like net-play / volleying a lot - don't go for a racquet over 300gm.

For purchase, you can try -

TennisHub India
Racquets4u India
SportsJam India

I have used all 3 and experience has been good at least in Pune/MH.

But - it might be better to visit a nearby renowned store first and take a few swings with the racquets to get a feel & check that you are comfortable with the weight of the racquet.

[deathwalkr]

Weird to see no talks about the Australian Open here

It was a surprise to see a final without any of the usual big three after so many years and i was really hoping for perennial runner up Medvedev to win this but looked like Sinner had other ideas! What a victory for him coming up from 2 sets down.

But the icing on the cake was Bopanna winning the doubles and becoming the oldest grand slam champion and oldest no1 (?). To think he contemplated retirement a couple of years back.

Amazing stuff.

[ex-innova-guy]

Originally Posted by deathwalkr

Weird to see no talks about the Australian Open here

Thank you for posting. I wanted to post earlier but didn’t.

Sadly the harsh fact now is the big three are now down to just one- Djokovic. Expected Nadal to play the AO but he unfortunately picked up another injury. Can’t imagine him retiring anytime soon. :(

Hearty congratulations to Sinner for turning the match around. The semifinal against Djokovic was also executed well. Medvedev dominated the first two sets like crazy. For once I thought it would be over in straight sets as Sinner wasn’t playing anywhere close to how he played throughout the tournament. In the end Sinner dropped just 3 sets throughout the AO! Honestly, Medvedev played a very good tournament too with very tiring matches earlier especially the one with Zverev. Feel sad for him as he lost to Nadal in AO 2022 in similar fashion but Nadal is Nadal! Must admit Medvedev's on-court attitude has changed a lot (in a positive way).

Will be an interesting season ahead with the young ones (Sinner, Rune, Alcaraz) taking on likes of Zverev, Rublev, Medvedev and of course against Djokovic. Special mention to Alcaraz on defeating Djokovic in Wimbledon last year.

Also, great to see Sabalenka defend her title but WTA players lack consistency. Too many ups and downs in rankings throughout the season.

[Venkatesh]

Amul special doodle as Rohan Bopanna is set to become the world's oldest no.1 ranked tennis player in men's doubles at 43!

[schumi_pete]

This Australian Open was very interesting, especially in the men's draw. Sinner was a worthy winner given how well he played this time around, and more generally, how well he has been playing over the last six months. Medvedev had to be ultra-aggressive to try and close the match out as early as he could given than he had played for six more hours than Sinner had through the tournament. Once Sinner got back into the match, it was pretty much game over because Medvedev was literally out on his feet by that point.

The Djokovic situation is an interesting one. He played one of the worst matches I have seen him play in a long time, and this happens to even the greatest. Is this definitively a case of time catching up with him? In my view, it is too early to say, because we don't have enough data at this stage. If Djokovic goes out in the latter stages of the French Open, even then we cannot conclusively write him off because clay is not his strongest surface, and the likes of Alcaraz and maybe even Nadal will be strong favorites on that surface. Wimbledon 2024 will show us whether Father Time has caught up with Djokovic.

[fhdowntheline]

Originally Posted by schumi_pete

This Australian Open was very interesting, especially in the men's draw. Sinner was a worthy winner given how well he played this time around, and more generally, how well he has been playing over the last six months. Medvedev had to be ultra-aggressive to try and close the match out as early as he could given than he had played for six more hours than Sinner had through the tournament. Once Sinner got back into the match, it was pretty much game over because Medvedev was literally out on his feet by that point.

Medvedev needs a good PR machine. His animosity with the crowds is making things worse during pressure situations like finals. Also needs to work on his fitness, sacrifice some movement for some "pop" on the backhand especially. Old timers will recall how Stefan Edberg managed to get out of 3 consecutive 5 setters from R4 (Krajicek), QF (Lendl), SF (Chang) to reach the 1992 US Open finals and then beat Sampras in 4. So having had back to back 5 setters is not an excuse.