A good day to you all. All this is fine and neat. What happens if you happen to be in a marginalised part of Europe, such as the one Safin or Ivanova or even Stepanek came from, and find these overly polished gibberish time-wasting for performance-enhancement...Good night.

Hi,

I am slightly embarrassed to say this, but I have been using the same racquet for 10 years...Pro Staff 6.6 Stars and Stripes Edition, 85 sq. inches. I play about 3 times a week at a 4.0 level. I love the racquet because of the feel and control, but I have never felt that it was "dead".

Is it possible that there is still life in those racquets? Or have I just adjusted to the racquet over time?

Thanks for any advice. Do you have any suggestions for any current racquets that might have a similar feel?

Don't worry too much about having a racquet for 10 years Kelly, I have had a Prince CTS Synergy MP for 15 years! ( 4.0 level ) I started playing with it again after getting an elbow problem with a Wilson. The CTS feels really good to use again ... ( now restrung with Babolat Xcel )

Any top 500 pro could beat any of us with a frying pan, or at least with a 25-inch kiddie racquet.

I get as dorked out as the next guy re racquet specs, string choice and tension, but I harbor no illusions about this being anything other than a pleasurable diversion that has very, very little to do with how well I play on a given day.

I've got you both beat! I have been using the Prince Precision Graphite Series 90 (90 square inch head) I bought in Gainesville Florida while in college in 1984! I demoed racquets last year (Babolat Pure Drive, Price Ozone, Wilson Pro Tour etc...), but kept coming back to my Graphite. I found another on ebay for $5 so now I have my backup.

I have been playing with 3 identical Prince TTT Scream frames for the last 3 years, all of which have been strung many times, until last August when something magical happened. I restrung my first non-wood racquet, a Maxima Midmax 100% fiberglass, I think 85-88 square inches, in the 13+ ounces range. I just plays super, I love the flex and the mass. I have switched completely to the old 26 year old racquet. Why don't the produce fiberglass racquets anymore? Incendentally, I still have my first semi-graphite racquet, Rossignol F230, maybe I should string that one too...

I agree, people should absolutely re-string before their strings break, because strings *do* go dead as you mention. However, by writing "—an especially gut", you imply that natural gut strings go dead more quickly than nylon or polyester. In my experience, quite the opposite is true. natural gut stays lively the longest of the three, followed by nylon, and then polyester, which tends to go dead relatively quickly.

Correction to my previous post about the Maxima racquet (which is called Maxer Mid). Typo, I meant to write "It plays super", not I play super. I wish I did!

""" However, by writing "—an especially gut", you imply that natural gut strings go dead more quickly than nylon or polyester. In my experience, quite the opposite is true. natural gut stays lively the longest of the three, followed by nylon, and then polyester, which tends to go dead relatively quickly."""

i was wondering the same thing about that part... seems opposite of reality.

A word of warning - when beating the racquet against the soft back curtain make sure there are no concrete pillars hidden right behind it.

Kelly, it happens so gradually that you will have adjusted over time and not noticed any change. You probably would not be able to determine if it was dead unless you could somehow find a never-played, never-strung Pro Staff 6.6 Sns to string up and playtest for comparison.

I don't buy the saying racquets go dead with certain amount of use. I think that racquets go dead only when they are physically damaged and become no more useable like cracks or fractures. In fact, in my experiencep, the reverse is true: as racquets age they feel better. Also, I have two occasions in which my tennis buddies (two different individuals) fractured their racquet in the middle of play because of many many years of heavy use. And they loved their racquet until the last moment it broke (so much so that they couldn't use others). Maybe that racquets have limited span of life is only a welcome story for racquet manufacturers or sellers?

"I harbor no illusions about this being anything other than a pleasurable diversion that has very, very little to do with how well I play on a given day."

Fair enough. But don't rule out the fact that dead string and frames can contribute to over-exertion and injury - and that ain't no fun.

There's a reason racquet manufacturers come out with new models faster than Microsoft comes out with new versions of operating systems, the principle of planned obsolescence. Modern racquets last far longer than the old wood racquets that went dead in no time at all. They want you to buy the latest, greatest version of your model about every 1 1 1/2 to 2 years it seems. Take Federer for example, he's going to possibly play with the 5th version of the Wilson Prostaff next year. And, like a fool I've got a copy of all the models dating back to the Prostaff 85, and I have to mention I have the original wood version that I am fond of taking out once in awhile to re-experience what we used to call 'racquet feel'. Nowadays, we have rocket launchers that pass as tennis racquets. :-) Almost indestructible to boot...Wilson you didn't hear that...ha-ha!

correction on my last post...should be 1 1/2 to 2 years...

I player with a Prostaff 6.0 85 for over 15 years and it been fine. I don't think this article is of any use other then to get one to buy something new! I have an acquaintance that has been playing with a Prince Graphic for over 20 years. He plays every day for 1 hour - 4 days a week! Sure rackets do breakdown; but it depends on what level you are playing in. But if you are below a 5.0 level just forget about this article.

This seems to be a blanket article; I was hoping for a little more insight as to why they break down over time and which composites hold up better, etc. etc.

I play at a 5.0-5.5 level with the Wilson K six-one 95 18x20 with tecnifibre black-code 18 guage. Serve in the 115-120mph range and keep 3 racquets in rotation. I'll usually get about 4 hitting sessions per string job. Love this racquet, but what I have noticed is that some of my racuets have held up longer than others.

Out of the 3 I have just rotated out, one lasted about 6 months before it felt dead, the second developed a vibration internally, and the 3rd, which is the most used and abused, still feels great. Quite strange. However, these racquets are all made in China. Depending on Wilson's QC policies, this may explain the variance as it is widely known that China doesn't have the best QC ratings and they always seem to have a large amount of disparity within a production run aith anything they produce.

The problem I see for the regular club hitter (like my mother-in-law) is that most do not carry as many sticks as I and have no basis for comparision. At this point, with my mix of play style and equipment, I'm changing out my frames about every 9 months on the average, but only when they feel dead. The beat up 95 I spoke of earlier will remain in my bag until I find a reason to put it on the shelf.

I'd like to see an article that takes racquets apart after a certain time frame and performs some sort of scientific testing on them vs. a new one to demostrate what actually happens over time.

Aren't polys supposed to be "dead"?! On a stiff frame with small headsize use syn gut, poly is overkill, syn gut and "addiction" is perfect and lasts long.

Anyway, real happy djoko took the title..

Shoot! I break ALL the rules. When I get sentimental, I break out my early to mid 1980's Wilson Sting, 85 inch head, and hit with it and its who-knows-how-old string. It almost always brings my continentally gripped game up a notch. However, the black marks it leaves on the tennis balls due to the occasional mishit, remind me that it is, indeed, disintegrating. Then, when I'm sufficiently happy with the memories it brings back, I return to my "new" original Prince Graphites and their three month old strings. I guess I'm just dull in more ways than I've been accused of.

I find it puzzling why anyone would think that an item that is subjected to weather, be it wind, rain, sun, humidity etc… and regular abuse from impact could remain the same and undamaged.

Unless you place it in some form of vacuum sealed environment, shielded from UV and temperature controlled, a racquet, like every other “regular” object out there will break down. It doesn’t mean it won’t play better or play as well as the last time you hit with it 100 years ago. It WILL “die”…it won’t have the same flex, elasticity, snap… but that dead feeling might be what your arm or game is seeking (or more likely, your advanced age permits)…thus, it feels as good as it did the first time…or so you think it does… but that’s what counts right?

I bought a racquet at the pharmacy and it melted in the sun.

the wind has NO effect on something breaking down, the sun... meh so 3 hours a day? doubt it. you play in the rain? i dont... humidity might be the ONLY factor, but what if you play in SoCal? no humidity there. this seems really bogus to me.

my racquet suffers more from me than the elements. :o

I do not understand what level 3.0 or 4.0 mean as far as tennis standard goes. I live in Chennai/India, lucky enough to have time to play 2 or 3 sets of tennis every day of the week, mostly for fun and fitness.I hit my serves / ground strokes fairly hard and in my experience, the strings( synthetic ) last roughly 20 days and the strings actually become narrower and taut towards 15th day and that is the time I get the best response out of the strings.By the way, I pay Rs140 (US$3)for the new strings which include stringing charges, think this must be the cheapest strings available on this planet!!

I played with Wilson Profile 2.7 rackets up until August of this year. I had 4 of those rackets. 2 were 20-yr old. I recently switched to Head Flexpoint rackets.

Great post! I'm totally motivated to replace my grommets (I recently begun stringing my own sticks), how much of a pain in the butt is it to do a grommet job?