Mailbag: Wearing a Watch On Court
Category: Tennis
Publish Date: 08-20-2010 02:33 PM -0400
TENNIS.com gear editor Bill Gray and his technical advisers will answer your equipment questions every Friday. Click here to send one of your own.
Do you recommend wearing a watch while playing tennis? I see a lot of the pros doing so. In my case, I wear a heart-rate monitor watch.—Patrick
Wearing a watch on the court is strictly a matter of personal preference. Mine is not to wear one—I think it hinders my two-handed backhand. I wouldn’t go by what the pros do: If they’re wearing watches, it’s usually because they’re being paid to do so by a sponsor, like Rafael Nadal with his $525,000 Richard Mille number. It hasn’t seemed to help him keep track of time between points.
I have been looking for the right racquet for the past three years and I can’t decide between heavy and light. I’m particularly stuck between the 12.3-ounce Head YouTek Prestige Pro and the 11-ounce Head YouTek Radical MP. I’m a college tennis player who lacks some power on my ground strokes. I play number No. 1 doubles, so I’m looking for a racquet that I also feel comfortable with at net.—Kevin J.
The more mass in a racquet, the more it can punish the ball, but that’s only if you have enough strength to get it around quickly. Otherwise, the mass will work against you, causing you to hit late. Most, even at the college level, will get more power from a slightly lighter frame because you can get greater racquet-head speed. We’d say the Radical MP is your best bet for that reason, plus it has power bonuses of a slightly thicker beam and a closed string pattern. It’s also slightly more maneuverable, which will come in handy at the net. But the best indicator would be to hit with both and measure the depth of your shots, using your normal swing. The racquet that sends the ball deepest into the court is the power winner of the two.
I'm a 31-year-old 4.0–4.5 singles player with a solid counter-punching game that evolved from a much less consistent power-baseline game in my younger days. Until I switched to the Wilson KBlade 98 two years ago, I played with the Original Pro Staff for about 10 years. I love the KBlade, but feel like I'm running out of room to further develop my game as I'm lacking a little depth and power on my ground strokes. I can easily hit with power and depth during warm-up, but I pull back during matches. I'm wondering if I could use a racquet with a little more power that I can still control, and am trying out the Tecnifibre T-Flash Speedflex 300, Dunlop Aerolgel 500 Tour and the Head YouTek Extreme MP. Any other suggestions? Thanks.—Vince
All three are excellent hybrids that will give you a power boost and help you maintain a lot of the control you’ve had with your prior racquets. Since you’ve grown up with Wilson, you should also playtest the Wilson Pro Open, another great choice in the hybrid family. A racquet may not fix your tendency to tighten up during matches, however. Swinging as freely in competition as in practice is something even pros struggle with.
I am a committed Yonex user, and I have used the RD-7 model for years. At this point, I’m considering trying out some new Yonex models. Out of the ones that are currently available, what one would be the most comparable with the RD-7?—Eric D. Lamore
If you’ve got solid technique—and we assume you do based on your choice of the advanced RD-7—try Lleyton Hewitt’s racquet, the RDis 100 Mid. We’re also keen on the RDiS 200 HG. It’s a little more flexible than the 100 Mid, which helps with directional control.
