Regentville Tennis Singapore

Regentville versus Bukit Regency

2010-10-17T11:27:00.004+08:00

The Regentville tennis team had our first tennis friendly match (home leg) of 2010 against the team from Bukit Regency Condo based in Bukit Timah Singapore. Despite of the haze yesterday, we were fortunate to have good sunny weather and played a staggering totally of 16 games (different double pairings) which in itself is a record as we had never played that many games in one friendly match session before. Regentville tennis fielded both our men's and mix doubles teams.

Regentville and Bukit Regency Tennis Team Photo

This is Bukit Regency's first friendly tennis match and its great for the local Singapore tennis scene that we are seeing more competitive social tennis teams being formed and participating in these social tennis friendly matches.

On behalf of the Regentville tennis team would like to personally Thank Peter (team organizer) and all the players from the Bukit Regency tennis team for coming all the way down to Hougang to have this friendly tennis match with us. Away leg for the next friendly against Bukit Regency is yet to be confirmed.

More photos of Regentville versus Bukit Regency tennis here.

Regentville versus SIM Varsity Team

2009-11-08T11:58:00.001+08:00

Regentville tennis hosted the varsity team from the Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) yesterday. The weather yesterday was perfect as it has been raining for the last couple of days. We managed to play a total of 9 men's double's matches against a team of 5 players from the SIM university team. In all, it was great experience to have played against a much younger and youthful opposition.

Regentville & SIM Varsity tennis team photo

On behalf of the Regentville tennis team, I would like to Thank Calvin, team organizer for the SIM tennis team for having this friendly tennis match with us.

More photos of Regentville versus SIM tennis team here.

Fake Babolat Aero Pro Drive Tennis Racquet

2009-09-13T17:09:00.001+08:00

I have been getting many emails and facebook requests asking to verify if a tennis racquet that had been purchase is either genuine or fake after I wrote my initial articles on the fake Babolat Pure Drive and fake Wilson K Blade 98. All these requests had one very similar thing in common and shared a common trait - They were all purchased from either online auctions sites or unknown China based websites not linked to any authorized tennis reseller or manufacturer.

I had the opportunity to get a first hand look of a fake Babolat Aero Pro Drive - APD (Cortex Version) courtesy of Lot Tan who is a moderator of Tennis Friendz Network a local tennis forum here in Singapore. He had acquired this racquet from eBay thinking it was a great buy and genuine tennis racquet. When he finally received the racquet, to much to his surprise, he discovered that there were some inconsistencies with it as I will highlight below in my review of the fake Babolat Aero Pro Drive (APD).

Can you spot the difference between the genuine APD and fake APD? The one with the Black overgrip (left) is the authentic one

Before I start with my review, I would have to say that the counterfeiters manufacturing these fake racquets are getting even better at making these conterfeit racquets. I personally rate the Babolat Aero Pro here as a "Class A" fake. Unlike the fake Babolat Pure Drive, that I had previously reviewed, which had some glaring inconsistencies that you will be able to spot from a mile away, this fake Babolat Aero Pro Drive racquet bares an uncanny similarity to a genuine Babolat Aero Pro Drive in many aspects and it would take a fair bit of scrutiny comparing it with a genuine Aero Pro Drive to spot the differences. From a distance, I hardly could tell the difference! I hope my review and images below documenting the differences between a genuine and fake Babolat Aero Pro Drive would benefit the folks doing some research on the Aero Pro Drive before making a big mistake by purchasing a fake tennis racquet.

Can you spot the difference between the genuine APD and fake APD? The one with the Black overgrip (right) is the authentic one. They look exactly identical from a distance.

Differences between a Genuine Babolat Aero Pro Drive and a Fake Babolat Aero Pro Drive

1. Racquet Balance & Weight

This is almost a dead give away if you have the opportunity to physically see and examine the racquet. A weight balance test from the throat of the racquet reveals the "fake" Aero Pro Drive to be severely "head heavy". The entire racquet tips towards the head of the racquet. The genuine Babolat Aero Pro drive should be closer to an even balance.

The fake Babolat Aero Pro Drive is totally head heavy! (racquet in front) As seen from this racquet balance test with a pencil.

2. Silver highlights versus Matte finish on wordings and logos

All the wordings and propriety Babolat Technology and brand logos on the genuine Babolat Aero Pro Drive contains a Silver finishing or gleam. The fake Aero Pro Drive only has a dull greyish finish.

The authentic APD had a silver glossy finish to all its wordings compared to a matte dull finished found of the fake APD.

3. Identical colored paintwork but different colored "Cortex" V shaped section

The "Yellow" coloring on the fake Babolat Aero Pro Drive are identical but the "White" has a more bright white coloring towards it. The genuine Aero Pro Drive has a more pearly yellowish white look. The most obvious give away here would be the more brightly yellow color on the plastic v shaped cortex section that is on the fake Aero Pro Drive compared to the more duller yellow found on the cortex section of the genuine Aero Pro Drive.

The fake Babolat Aero Pro Drive (Right) has a more brightly yellow colored plastic cortex section compared to the genuine Aero Pro Drive which is more dull yellow.

4. Totally different Grommets colors & Bumper guard design

Another dead give away here. The Grommets on the fake Babalat Aero Pro Drive are different in color. Its in black instead of grey and of low quality. The patterns on the grommets also are totally different compared to the orginal Aero Pro Drive. This comes as a surprise to me as as grommets are relatively cheap plastic and easy to manufacture. The counterfeiters went to such great lengths to fake the cosmetic look of the racquet, but didn't bother to invest any time on making a good imitation of cheap plastic grommets. The most logical reason would be perhaps they felt that the grommets would be the least looked at compared to the racquet cosmetics on the frame.

The bumper guard grommets on the fake APD (top) has a totally different design and color.

5 Different location of the Trade mark "TM" logo

The Trade Mark "TM" logo of the fake Babolat Aero Pro Drive is located inside the grommet section and the inner section of the racquet frame compared to the genuine Aero Pro Drive which has the "TM" logo visible on the outer side of the frame. Thing to also note here is the location of the spelling of "T" in the words Babolat. The fake Aero Pro Drive has the T spelling printed just stopping short of grooves where the grommets are housed. The authentic or genuine Aero Pro Drive has the "T" logo printed in the inner section of the grommet grooves.

The TM logo found logo on the fake Aero Pro Drive (left) is found on the inner section of the grommet groves.

6. Butt cap color and etched 3 letter character code.

The butt cap on the original authentic Babolat Aero Pro Drive is a deeper red in color and contains an additional product code. The genuine APD which I have had the 3 character codes "MAC" etched into it. There might be different codes etched into each genuine Aero Pro Drive but I guess the thing to generally look out for would be the deeper red color of the Babolat logo and a character code embedded at the bottom section of the butt cap.

Serial characters on the butt cap and a darker RED color on the Babolat logo (left) might indicate that you have a genuine Babolat racquet

7. Poor QC alignment in specification box.

The alignment on the specs section of the fake Babolat Aero Pro Drive is out of alignment. As you can see from the image below. The "XCEL" box and the words "COMFORT" is slightly crooked and misaligned for the fake APD. The counterfeit Babolat APD is the racquet at the bottom in the image below.

Quality control has always been an issue with fake tennis racquets as seen in the (bottom) image.

8. Paint overlay on the genuine Babolat Aero Pro Drive

A distinct paint over lay was noticed near the hologram section where the yellow paint intersects the white for the genuine Aero Pro Drive. You can literally feel the layer of yellow paint above the white paint causing an impression as you run your fingers through it and a bulge in the grip size sticker above it. In the case of the fake or counterfeit Aero Pro Drive, (APD) there is no pronounced yellow layer and it feels smooth to the touch. All these minor inconsistencies could be prevalent in other counterfeit Babolat racquets and might lead you to quickly determine if a future Babolat racquet you come across is either genuine or fake.

More differences between a fake (top) and genuine (bottom) Babolat Aero Pro Drive

9 Racquet cover and zipper

The racquet cover on the fake Babolat Aero Pro Drive is noticeably much lighter than compared to an original Aero Pro Drive cover. The genuine APD racquet cover is much heavier and chunkier in feel. The color of the words "Aero Series" is different for both the genuine and fake racquets. The one on the genuine APD has the word "series" labeled in Green. The counterfeit APD had the entire words "Aero Series" all in Yellow.

The racquet covers doesn't lie, poorer quality is evident in the fake cover (left) in terms of weight and quality.

The zipper on the genuine Aero Pro Drive has a greater quality finish, is much thicker in feel and has a matte finish look towards it. The zipper on the fake APD however has a more silvery look and feels much thinner to the touch. The logo on the zipper has a very crude look towards it indicating low quality control.

Better quality matte finish found on the Babolat genuine racquet zippers (right) compared to the silvery crude looking zippers (left) found on the fake racquet covers.

One possible way to check if your Babolat racquet is genuine.

Over the years and from experience using many Babolat tennis racquets. I realized that Babolat usually has two serial holograms on their racquets. One is located on the inner section of the racquet throat and the other is found on the handle of the racquet which is only accessible when you remove your original grip. The serial numbers of the two stickers should match. Refer to the image below of my genuine Babolat Aero Pro Drive.

Is it Real? One possible way to find out is to check that the serial numbers matches on both the racquet throat and handle (only accessible if you remove the original grip).

Why you should never buy a fake tennis racquet racquet...

As I was doing this review of the fake Aero Pro Drive and examining the grommets I noticed that this fake APD was already damaged and the frame had been already cracked. Counterfeit racquets are known to use cheaper less stronger composites and materials that are bad for you arm. You can risk serious injuries playing with fake tennis racquets and I strongly urge you to never consider buying an imitation tennis racquet or fake tennis frame. In the case of this counterfeit APD, I believe the crack on the frame was its inability to handle the stresses put on the string. The fake APD had a hybrid synthetic string setup on it. I feel that its material was never built to handle the stresses put on this racquet due to its cheap composites. I have no reason to believe this racquet was abused in anyway as a crack on the inside of the racquet usually indicates more of structural fatigue. It could be the result that this racquet was strung at a higher tension or gave way during play. I was looking for further evidence of abuse but could not find any leading me to conclude that the crack was more of a structural failure due to bad composites than anything else as a fake racquet with its poor quality materials and composites could not simply handle the stringing tension and the racquet finally gave way.

Crack frame from racquet fatigue. Fake racquets are notorious for low quality composites that can lead not only to cracked frames but serious injuries.

Conclusion

If you have already purchase a fake tennis racquet, I'm sorry that this has happened, but its at least a good lesson learnt that you should never try to shave off a couple of bucks in costs and buy from a reputable tennis dealer or store instead of auction sites that you have no way of verifying if the tennis racquet you purchase is real or fake. My advice is to know as much as possible about a genuine racquet before you buy it. Try to physically see and touch the racquet assuming you're buying it off somebody and meeting the seller. It helps to know how the racquet feels - it's weight, balance and some aspects of its cosmetics. If you cannot physically see and touch the racquet as you're buying it online, I would highly recommend that you purchase your tennis racquets from either reputable online stores, sellers or dealers of authorized tennis racquets.

I am not saying that all sellers on online auction sites are selling fake racquets. Most sellers are selling genuine items and you can get them for a good deal as they might have purchased an original authentic racquet from an authorized store and might just want to sell it after sometime. This happens in most cases, but there are always some unscrupulous sellers who wants to sell fake tennis racquets to some unsuspecting buyers so the onus is on the buyer to always be aware and cautious when buying online. Many seller of fake products will posts images of the real product and sell you a fake product later. I sympathize with folks who don't really know much about tennis racquets and buy these imitation racquets thinking that they are genuine. Mind you these fake racquets are not exactly dirt cheap and still considerably cost some money. I sincerely hope my findings on the fake Babolat Aero Pro Drive would help some folks not get conned into buying a counterfeit product.

Incidentally the moderators on our local Singapore tennis forum does not condone in such illegal activities and will not hesitate to refer this matter to the local authorities. I hope similar tennis forums and online auction sites follow suit.

More images of the genuine and fake Babolat Aero Pro Drive here.

Write up on Fake Tennis Racquets

2009-08-10T22:21:00.000+08:00

I was surfing the web today and was surprised that an online tennis store based in Melbourne Australia called World of Tennis really loved my original write up on the fake Babolat Pure Drive that they actually "stole" it and repackaged the content as if it was there's! See the stolen Regentville write up on fake tennis racquet here. Now whose the one advocating piracy here? Nobody from World of Tennis had the decency to actually write me to ask for permission for the rights to use my pictures and content. They just stole my entire content made a few replacements to suit their page copy and there you have it.

They proudly proclaim in the last line of the paragraph that "World of Tennis is an authorised dealer of every brand we sell. You can contact the Australian distributors of each brand and ask them". How ironic is this statement as they openly steal content from another site and repackage the copy as if it was their own. I am fine about sharing my content as Regentville Tennis Singapore is all about my personal research and findings on anything and everything about tennis, but stealing the content and pictures without asking for permission is really bad.

Thailand or Malaysian Open Tennis 2009

2009-08-09T13:40:00.001+08:00

For the last couple of years tennis fans in South East Asia were pretty much restricted to the Thailand Open held in Bangkok. In 2005, Vietnam did try to follow suit by hosting the Vietnam tennis Open, but that didn't really pick up as they failed to really attract big name tennis players to their event. The Thailand Open had been the only premier tennis event in South East Asia that has hosted the likes of current number one Roger Federer, Andy Roddick, Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic and most recently Rafael Nadal as well as other big name tennis players. No other South East Asian country had come close to hosting a world class ATP event in such a scale and managing to attract such big name players but this year, the outlook seems very much different as Malaysia is set to stage its first inaugural Malaysian Open held in Kuala Lumpur.

When it was announced in June 2009 that Malaysia was hosting its first ATP World Tour 250 event I wasn't really surprised. I believe tennis fans all around South East Asia wanted to see more tennis and big tennis names showcase their talents in this part of the region. Malaysia had been also slowly but surely gaining experience by having an ATP Challenger Event in 2007 in addition to bringing some exhibition tennis matches which I documented in my article on the "Clash of Times" match between Pete Sampras and Roger Federer and the "Clash of Titans" match between Rafael Nadal and Richard Gasquet.

Showdown of Champions tennis event 2008 might have set the stage of bigger things to come...

In 2008 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia was again the venue for another exhibition match dubbed the "Show Down of Champions" between Roger Federer, James Blake and former tennis legends John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg. I soon realized that this was a prelude of more to come. My guess was that the organizers in Malaysia wanted to the test the market in addition to gain the invaluable experience of organizing world class tennis events and getting all the logistics, planning and getting the right training for the event staff and volunteers which culminated to the 2009 Malaysian Open ATP World Tour event. Learning the ropes to organizing a world class tennis tournament doesn't happen overnight. It requires lots of preparation and planing unlike in the case of the one off exhibition match held in Singapore between Maria Sharapova and Anna Chakvetadze which in my opinion was very poorly organized. I felt that Malaysia did the right thing by having these exhibition matches to gain all the necessary experience to stage a world class ATP tennis event and to attract bigger name players.

All their efforts seems to be working as they have managed to get new and former players to have graced the Thailand Open in the previous years and looks to have upstaged even its more illustrious counter part the Thailand Open which until today have only 3 confirm names such as Rafael Nadal, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Marat Safin whom signed up prior the announcement of the Malaysian Open.

The Malaysian Open 2009 ATP event in KL has attracted many of the worlds top tennis players.

So far the Malaysian Open has managed to attract the likes of:

Berdych, Tomas (CZE) - Previously played at the Thailand Open
Davydenko, Nikolay (RUS)
Ferrer, David (ESP)
Gonzalez, Fernando (CHI)
Hewitt, Lleyton (AUS) - Previously played at the Thailand Open
Monfils, Gael (FRA) - Previously played at the Thailand Open
Nishikori, Kei (JPN)
Soderling, Robin (SWE) - Previously played at the Thailand Open
Verdasco, Fernando (ESP) - Previously played at the Thailand Open

The Thailand Open 2009 seems to be losing out, as up till today only 3 top level players have been confirmed.

Mind you these players are no push overs and are considered big name players. The first thought was why so many established players keen on showing up at this inaugural Malaysian Open tennis event in Kuala Lumper, Malaysia? Well the answer is fairly straight forward and simple. If you want big names to show up what's in it for them? A check on the ATP website shows the Thailand Open ($ 608,500) is paying a considerably lesser payout in terms of prize money amount compared to the Malaysian Open ($ 850,000) it is no wonder that most of the big name tennis players are flocking to the Malaysian Open!

The Malaysian Open has attracted much interest in the social media front from both Facebook and Twitter.

In terms of online marketing, I believe the Malaysian Open marketing and PR team made a very smart move. They employed social media techniques. Remember President's Barrack Obama's social media campaign during his elections which many believed was a decisive factor in winning him the US Presidency? Being a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Consultant by profession and having worked in the online industry for over a decade, I immediately realized that the Malaysian Open had addressed one of the biggest issues by engaging people and driving traffic to their website. They have been creating a social buzz and network about the upcoming Malaysian Open tennis event by having both a presence on Facebook - Malaysian Open and Twitter - Malaysian Open. There is also a blog page which is still currently under construction. The Thailand Open is unfortunately not capitalizing on any of the social media fronts. They only have a Thailand Open Events page on Facebook.

The Malaysian Open engages in social media with Twitter and Facebook

My question now is what will be Thailand Open's response to the Malaysian Open challenge? Engaging the social media aspect is a relatively easy thing to do if you have a good online marketing team to promote it. Aside from the social media aspect, how is the Thailand Open going to attract bigger names to Bangkok? The most logical answer to that would be to increase the prize money next year. In terms of competition the Malaysian Open will be a very serious threat for the Thailand Open, both the Thailand and Malaysian Open tennis events will be held on exactly the same day 28 September to 4 October. Both events clash on the same dates so in terms of ticket sales, both tournaments will be competing against each other. For a tennis fan who is based in South East Asia or Asia, I would most definitely want to go to a tennis tournament which offers me the best value for money in terms of ticket pricing and getting to see the top players in action.

Currently the Thailand Open doesn't seem to offer this and one would be more inclined to give it a pass and opt for the Malaysian Open instead. I have been a long supporter of the Thailand Open and I try to go every year (I will be attending this year) but if all the top notch players decide to play in Malaysia instead I don't see the reason in attending Thailand Open tennis events in the future where there will only be 2 to 3 big names playing against a field of relatively unknown players.

Its a pity that both the Thailand Open and Malaysian Open tennis ATP events are also held at the exact same dates. If the organizers had staggered them a week or a couple of weeks apart, there will be surely more fans like myself wanting to attend both tournaments. I am sure that there are reasons why the ATP holds both these events tournament on the same dates and have dedicated certain days that can accommodate the ATP schedule thus these dates might be already fixed and cannot be easily changed to hold these two events at two different times.

In conclusion, I hope that the Thailand Open management will work on increasing its prize money and to try to win back both the players and fans alike and engage more on the social media front to develop and increase its potential fan base that they are currently losing out to the Malaysian Open.

Haig Hills (Haig Court) versus Regentville

2009-08-02T14:09:00.006+08:00

The team from Haig Hills (Haig Court) condo hosted Regentville tennis for the 2nd "away" leg of our inter condo tennis friendly. The last friendly tennis match held at home against the Haig Hills team ended abruptly due to rain, but today's game was held in splendid weather conditions.

This was the first time most of our players had to play on a different surface besides regular hard courts, so it was a good experience for all . The courts at Haig Court condo were rubberized and well cushioned similar to that of a running track resulting in slower bounce, longer rallys and some spectacular shots on the part of both teams.

Haig Hills (Haig Court Condo) versus Regentville Tennis team photo.

In all we had 5 hours of solid tennis where both teams played a total of 15 matches comprising of 2 mixed doubles , 2 ladies doubles and 11 mens doubles matches. On behalf of team Regentville, I would like to Thank Ivan and the Haig Hills (Haig Court Condo) tennis team for hosting us and being such wonderful hosts. We look forward to having another match soon in the following months to come.

More Photos of Haig Hills versus Regentville tennis here.

mi Adidas Barricade V Tennis Shoes

2009-07-25T09:01:00.008+08:00

My second pair of mi Adidas barricade IV tennis shoes have been already worn out and I decided it was finally time to get another pair of mi Adidas custom tennis shoes. The mi Adidas Barricade IV had been already phased out, so I had to go with Adidas' latest mi Adidas Barricade V custom tennis shoes.

Tsonga had recently worn a bright yellow custom mi Adidas Barricade V tennis shoes for the Australian Open aka "TSONGA 7" and the base colors looked really cool. It sort of reminded me of "Bumble Bee" from the Transformers. I thus got the base color using a yellow and black theme. I would have love to stick to the "TSONGA 7" theme colors, but unfortunately for the mi Adidas Barricade V, you were NOT allowed to have different colored Adidas stripes for the inner and outer base section of the shoes. If I were to stick with black stripes, similar to the "TSONGA 7", the stripes will NOT stand out against the black background on the inner base part of the shoe which can be seen in the image below.

As you can see the "TSONGA 7" does not have the black stripes clearly visible on the inner base of the shoe (left shoe)

I thus choose to stick with the main theme colors but used Slime Green or Lime Green for the stripes instead and silver base eyelets instead of gold. The end result was achieved with the Slime Green stripes contrasting against the black inner base.

What I like about & what could be better improved on the mi Adidas Barricade V.

What I like about:
1. Nicer custom colors but still limited to the main base colors.

2. Lighter compared to the Barricade IV. Note this is not a mi Adidas issue but Adidas Barricade Vs are known to be generally more lightweight compared to the Barricade IVs.

3. Having the ability to go online to customize your mi Adidas Barricade V and choose your own color custom color themes. This feature however is only available on the US site and not the Singapore site.

Can be better improved:
1. No Geo Fit sock liner option. The Geo Fit Sock liner provides added stability and cushioning for the ankle and provides for a better fit. I would say that this is the main highlight which really disappointed me as I feel that the Geo Fit option is really a critical part of the shoe and stands outs from the normal off the shelf versions.

2. Customized name on the rubber sole instead of being stitched on compared to the mi Adidas Barricade IV. I liked the more customized stitched on feel of your name on the canvas material rather than the name just being embossed on the rubber sole section. The printing on the rubber is also very small and cannot be really noticed.

3. Cannot customize different names on each shoe. This option was also not available for the mi Adidas Barricade IV. But this is a very simple add on as it would be really neat to have customize words for each shoe instead of a standard word on each side of the shoe.

4. Limited international flag option for the tongue. When we did a mass customization for the Regentville tennis team, some of my tennis players wanted the Philippines flag on their mi Adidas Barricade V although the Singapore flag was available, the flag option for the Philippines, Thailand or Malaysia was not available for the mi Adidas Barricade V.

5. Not being able to customize different colors stripes on the outer and inner base. As mentioned earlier, I was not able to customize the inner and outer Adidas 3 stripes on the inner and outer base of the shoe this issue was also prevalent with the mi Adidas Barricade IV but was restricted to one standard color. I couldn't use the "TSONGA 7" theme in the end, as if I were to choose black, the 3 stripes would not stand out against the black inner base of the shoe which was indeed a pity. If there were the option to choose two colors for the stripes one for the inner and one of the outer it would be really neat.

6. The wider the feet the longer the shoe. As with my previous Adidas Barricade IV, the width and the shoe design have always been an issue with severely flat footed people like myself. Although the mi Adidas shoes fit extremely well in terms of comfort, since I was going for the wide option on my feet the shoes had to be built longer. A regular size US size 8.5 for me would have to go to a customized US size 10. So all my mi Adidas shoes would physically look longer or bigger but fits well.

7. More custom colors would be great. I love orange, and I used orange exclusively for my stripes on both my custom Barricade IV. Orange was not available for the Barricade V this time round. More color selection would be fantastic. I have had lots of questions if you can customize your mi Adidas shoes to your own color theme. The answer is NO. While you can choose your very own colors there are a standard color theme that you are allowed to choose from. You cannot customize the shoe according to whatever colors you want. I would really like to see some variations of lighter blue (i.e. Djokovic's Blue CC Genius), army green and orange from mi Adidas in the future ;)

Conclusion:

Despite having more items that can be "better improved", I still personally consider the mi Adidas Barricade V one of the best tennis shoes available in the market today. It has great stability and durability compared to any other tennis shoes that I have personally used in the market today. Remember if you have feet problems like myself, mi Adidas customization provides not only greater support, comfort and fantastic fit but will greatly save your knees and legs in the long run. I strongly advocate mi Adidas if you have flat feet problems. Do keep in mind that spending a little more on your feet is a worthwhile investment. There is no use trying to save a couple of bucks and destroying your feet in the process.

The end result... More images of my mi Adidas Barricade V here.

Incidentally, Fernando Verdasco has just recently switched to mi Adidas Barricade V as well.

Regentville versus Haig Hills

2009-07-12T00:51:00.003+08:00

The Regentville tennis team kick started the 2009 campaign with an inter condo friendly tennis match against Haig Hills tennis. The team from Haig Hills comprises of of mostly Indonesian expats based here in Singapore.

Regentville and Haig Hills tennis team photo

We were fortunate to squeeze in 11 matches as the weather had threatened to rain all along. A total of 11 matches were played. 8 mens doubles, 1 ladies doubles and 2 mixed doubles before rain finally stopped play with two hours remaining.

Ivan (right) Haig Hills tennis team organizer and me.

As always, I am grateful to Haig Hills organizer Ivan Surjadi who had been coordinating this tennis friendly with us for the last couple of months, as bad weather and other commitments had kept us from organizing this friendly tennis match earlier. On behalf of the Regentville tennis team, I would like to thank Ivan and his team from Haig Hills tennis for making this friendly tennis match a success and look forward to the return leg at Haig Courts condo.

More Photos of Regentville versus Haig Hills tennis here.

Grayling Clay Court Mixed Doubles 2009

2009-04-25T09:24:00.001+08:00

Juan and Serene represented team Regentville in the 2009 Grayling mixed doubles tennis invitational tournament held at Singapore's only clay court venue at Alexandra park. Having only just recently transitioned to clay and HAR-TRU® it was a commendable effort on the part of both Juan and Serene to make the Silver Group semi finals on their first attempt.

Photos of the 2009 Grayling mixed doubles tennis invitational here.

Regentville Tennis Birthdays Mar09

2009-03-22T12:49:00.000+08:00

The Regentville tennis team celebrated the birthdays of BK, Nick, Juan, Apollo, Jacques (overseas) and Jason our newest Regentville tennis team member. Despite of the thunderstorm and heavy showers that threatened to ruin our BBQ cum pot luck birthday celebration for our 6 Regentville tennis team members, the rain finally let up and we all could tuck in to the sumptuous spread of Local and Filipino cuisine.

A "Wilson K Six One 90" custom birthday cake!

The highlight of the evening was most definitely the custom 2 KG "Wilson K Six One 90” designed birthday cake with a tennis ball in the middle. Thanks to all who were present to make this event a memorable one despite of the bad weather. I would also like to take this opportunity to wish our team members a very happy advance/belated birthday and welcome Jason, our latest addition to the Regentville tennis team.

Regentville tennis team photo

More Photos of the March 2009 Regentville Tennis Birthday Celebration here.

Wilson K Pro Staff 88 Review & Issues

2009-03-01T17:44:00.005+08:00

I wrote an article a while back on my experiences and findings on the Wilson K Six One 95 having quality control issues. There were a lot of talks and complaints about the inconsistencies on various Wilson tennis racquets models. They either had shoddy paintwork, differences in grip sizes, differences in overall unstrung weight and different racquet balance. My last article on Wilson’s quality control issues was written about a year and a half ago on the Wilson K Six One 95 (Asian) having such alarming inconsistencies and variations which really surprised me. Based on that article, I had received lots of feedback as well as comments about the general public’s experiences with this frame or Wilson tennis racquets in general. I believe this issue might not be only restricted to Wilson, but perhaps with other racquet manufacturers as well. I was hoping that Wilson would at least try to correct this problem to silence their critics and vindicate themselves with all the negative feedback about the quality of their tennis racquets and quality control issues that have plagued them as well as some other racquet manufacturers over the years. Fake Wilson tennis racquets from China that have been flooding the markets have not helped them as well. I for one have never, will adopt or advocate the purchase or the use of these cheaper fake alternative tennis racquets and would rather get the “read deal” offering more “quality” for of course a more "premium price". Others on the other hand might have to reconsider their options now, I don’t really see the prices of Wilson tennis racquets dropping, what I do see is the poor quality control and inconsistencies of a product that so far in the spate of 2 years have been experiencing major issues with two of their flagship racquet models. The Wilson Factor K Six One 95 (Asian) and now of late the Wilson K Pro Staff 88 (Pete Sampras Signature) series which this article is about.

Weight balance issues with the Wilson K Pro Staff 88 (Pete Sampras Signature Series tennis racquet):

Images of two of my Wilson K Pro Staff 88 "BEFORE" it was replaced by Royal Sporting House. The racquet with the "weight balance issue" is the one with the sealed plastic wrapper with the "K Factor" logo on the handle. As you can see, the balance of the one with the plastic wrapper is more head light than my original racquet.

As with the image shown above, I found two issues with the Wilson K Pro Staff 88. Firstly the weight balance was totally out. I used a pencil to balance the two racquet at its throat to see if they were similar. The first K Pro Staff 88 I purchased was much less head light compared to the second K Pro Staff 88 (shown still sealed with plastic on the handle) which I purchased a week later from the same store.

I wasn't too impress by the inconsistencies and poor paintwork of the Wilson K Pro Staff 88 either.

The second difference was more to its cosmetics. The paintwork on my second K Pro Staff 88 was shoddy and the paintwork on the edges were not smooth but rather clumpy in appearance. More pictures on the Wilson K Pro Staff 88 can be found here. Take note my second racquet still has the plastic wrap on its handle while my first Wilson K Pro Staff 88 does NOT have the plastic on its handle as I have been playing with it for a week.

Comparing my Wilson K Pro Staff 88 (9 Point Headlight) with my Wilson K Blade Tour 93 (10 point Headlight). The 10 point head light K Blade Tour seems to be less head light compared to the 9 Point Headlight balance of the K Pro Staff. Perhaps this is not a really accurate comparison as both the physical weights of these racquets are differ.

I compared the balance of my second Wilson K Pro Staff 88 (plastic wrap on handle) with my Wilson K Blade Tour 93. The K Blade Tour 93 is supposed to be more head light (10 points) compared to the 9 points head light weight of the Wilson K Pro Staff 88, but surprisingly the K Pro Staff 88 seems to be more head light when I did a side by side comparison.

This might be not so much of an accurate representation as I was not doing an Apple versus Apple comparison but more to an Apple versus an Orange. I just wanted to find out which was more headlight for my own information. The balance here could have been skewed due to the fact of the different physical weight of both racquets. The K Blade Tour 93 weights 324 grams unstrung while the K Pro Staff 88 had an unstrung weight of 349 grams or 12.3 ounces.

Getting my Wilson K Pro Staff 88 replaced:

I had brought up this issue with Royal Sporting House who is the agent for Wilson Tennis racquets here in Singapore. They have been very nice in the past helping me resolve the same issue I had with my Wilson K Six One 95 previously. As with the last incident, my complaint was received by one of their marketing managers who promptly called me to find out more about my issue. From my previous experience with Royal Sporting House, up till today, I would have to say that the level of service that they provide to their customers is second to none! There had been numerous complaints about customer service and support has been sadly lacking in Singapore. But I am glad to say that the staff at Royal Sporting House are extremely committed to customer satisfaction. They were polite and listened intently to my complaint. What’s most important was that they tried their very best to resolve the issue with my K Pro Staff 88. In fact, I have received about 3 to 4 follow up calls from Royal Sporting House and numerous emails updating me on the status of getting a suitable replacement for my K Pro Staff 88 and on Wilson’s take on this issue. Due to the already very limited supply of the Wilson K Pro Staff 88 here in Singapore, Royal Sporting House still managed to source out for two additional K Pro Staff 88 (most of them are out of stock here in Singapore already). They made a very special exception to obtain two K Pro Staff 88 (most likely from their store or warehouse) for me to select from. To top that up, their customer service representative advised me in her email that should I not be happy with the two racquets that were offered for replacement, they will inform me of when their next shipment of Wilson K Pro Staff 88 will arrive so that I can have a look at the racquets again until I find an identical frame that is to my liking. Royal Sporting House has clearly left no stone unturned to assist with customer satisfaction. This effort on the part of Royal Sporting House and their absolute commitment to customer service is indeed commendable and I personally applaud them for this. True customer service and after sale support is sadly lacking here in Singapore and other retailers should learn from Royal Sporting House’s example (Feedback to Royal Sporting House Here). At the end of the day, Royal Sporting House had managed to resolve the weight balance problem of my Wilson K Pro Staff 88 in about a week. Their turn around time was fairly quick. I must say that I was extremely fortunate to find a matching frame out of the two racquets which was provided for replacement which had a fairly similar balance to my first Wilson K Pro Staff 88.

Images of two of my Wilson K Pro Staff 88 "AFTER" it was replaced by Royal Sporting House. The "replaced racquet" is the one with the sealed plastic wrapper that has the the "K Factor" logo on the handle. As you can see, the balance of the one with the plastic wrapper now more closely resembles the balance of my first racquet but still not exactly identical. It is however so much better compared to the K Pro Staff 88 that Royal Sporting House had replaced for me.

I noted that the "other racquet" which was offered for replacement from Royal Sporting House which I did NOT choose, was more head light and balance had resembled that of the racquet that I had wanted replace. This led me to personally think that there might be two “different” variants of the K Pro Staff 88 a more balanced version and a more head light version. Incidentally, after sharing this info with a friend of mine, he told me that when he was looking at same racquets from two different stores he realized that there were two weight variations of the Wilson K Pro Staff 88 as I have highlighted in my article and as the images of the Wilson K Pro Staff 88 here suggests with different degree of head lightness. This could be perhaps due to the fact that they were manufactured from different batches or different Wilson factories (this is just my own personal theory, so don’t quote me on this!). I have also not gone to these stores to verify his claims so I cannot comment on my friend's claims. What I can personally say is from the images depicted here of the Wilson K Pro Staff 88, I found that there were two different variants or versions of these racquets. Going back to my article, the images here generally displays the same findings and the weight distribution on the Wilson K Pro Staff 88 generally differs from my two racquets. It also seems that I am NOT the only person finding inconsistencies with the Wilson K Pro Staff 88 I was reading a recent thread on the Tennis Warehouse Forum in which a user claimed that the head size of his K Pro Staff 88 was even larger than the K Six One 90! He also provided a very detailed analysis on how he came to this conclusion.

The 10 point head light of the K Blade Tour 93 versus the 9 point head light of the K Pro Staff 88. The K Blade Tour 93 seems to have a more headlight balance now compared to the new K Pro Staff 88 AFTER it was replaced by Royal Sporting House. Is this about right?

The question that comes to mind now is when you purchase a Wilson K Pro Staff 88, which version are you actually purchasing? The more balanced or the more head light one? Your guess is just as good as mine. It is therefore highly recommended that you do a balance test (assuming if you already have purchased your first K Pro Staff 88). Perhaps you might like the more balanced (lesser headlight) version or the more head light version of the Wilson K Pro Staff 88? I still need to get Wilson’s take on which is the actual “true” balance of the Wilson K Pro Staff 88? (It should be 9 points head light). So the million dollar question here is which of the two Wilson K Pro Staff 88s have the actual accurate specification as provided by the manufacturer? Is the more balanced Wilson K Pro Staff 88 the correct version or the more head light Wilson K Pro Staff 88 the actual version? Incidentally, which version of the K Pro Staff do you current have now? Would appreciate if you can send me some of your pictures so that we have a discussion here.

I have also made a feedback to Royal Sporting House about Wilson’s poor quality control and since they are the distributors for Wilson Tennis racquets here in Singapore, they should bring this up to Wilson. They have since reverted my case to Wilson and will be getting back to me once they get a response from Wilson directly. I will detail my “experiences” in my next post to hopefully end the “Wilson Saga” and what does Wilson have to say about this. This was quoted by Wilson the last time round when I had similar problems with my Wilson K Six One 95

“This racket is in our production spec. range although the handle size is on upper limit and weight is on lower limit after our R&D and QC review it. We think it should be the reason causing your customer has different playability and gripablity on the both rackets. But since the return sample is still in our production range, so it will not belong to defective racket, please understand. WRD# 2074 production range Prestrung weight : 325 +/- 7.5 g Prestrung balance : 32.5 +/ - 1 cm”

I was shocked at Wilson’s response as these are totally acceptable ranges! I won’t have any of this! A +/- 7.5 g tolerance level for weight and a Prestrung balance of +/- 1 cm is absolutely ridiculous and unacceptable to the consumer! I am also not getting any special discounts for the huge differences in weight and balance variations of my tennis racquets and will have to still dish out a premium price for a huge degree of tolerance. For the time being it looks like I will have only one K Pro Staff 88 to review now. Be sure to check out the Regentville Tennis Blog in the next couple of months to get my review on the Wilson K Pro Staff 88.

Conclusion:

As most of my readers will know I purchase many different types of tennis racquets to review and test them out. I offer my reviews as more of a “serious” amateur tennis player (whom I believe) most tennis racquets will be sold to. Tennis for me is not only a sport, but a great passion and I would like to share my passion, experiences and findings to my readers. I don’t mind purchasing a few tennis racquets just to review them as we don’t have much options to review or demo tennis racquets here in Singapore. I will have constantly stress that if you want to purchase two similar racquets try to bring your first racquet to do a weigh balance test at the store. It will be difficult as the new racquet will be unstrung so you’ll need to do a basic weight compensation test. I didn’t bring my first racquet as I was rushing to get my second one as initial stocks for the K Pro Staff 88 here in Singapore were very limited. I had to just try my luck and at the end got a totally “different” racquet in terms of balance. The price I am paying for tennis racquets have never been much of an issue for me, but I am more concerned about the quality of the tennis racquets or the products that I will be paying for. Does the performance and quality meets the actual high manufacturing standards that have been promised by the racquet manufacturers? In these days I would hardly think so!

I sincerely hope that Wilson as well as the other racquet manufacturer who license their manufacturing in places such as China put more emphasis on their quality control processes as well as have some better QA to their products. It’s not like we’re getting a major discount on this product so there’s nothing to complain about. Here we’re playing a premium price thinking that your purchase would be that of at least some quality and standards, however for the price you’re paying, you’ll be sadly disappointed about the tennis racquet that you have invested in. If this continues to be the case, and if Wilson doesn’t improve their quality control, I am concerned that people at the end of the day might go for other brands that offer better quality such as Fischer tennis racquets with the “Fischer No Tolerance Rackets” or the high build quality of the “made in Japan” Yonex tennis racquets. I generally like using Wilson tennis racquets and I sincerely hope that they work on better quality control and maintain some consistency levels when they mass produce their tennis racquets.

Images of my Wilson K Pro Staff 88 Before it was replaced.
Photos of my Wilson K Pro Staff 88 After it was replaced.

Regentville Tennis Birthdays Feb09

2009-02-28T20:40:00.003+08:00

The Regentville Tennis Team celebrated the birthday parties of Sandra, Hector, Andre and myself (Nawin). As usual, we'll try to incorporate a tennis session into our birthday celebration with tennis and a half time break with a mini feast and cake cutting ceremony.

I would like to personally Thank all the Regentville tennis players who were present to celebrate this joyous tennis cum "makan" session with us. Everybody had an excuse to play badly today cos we were all stuffed.

I would like to that this opportunity to Thank:

Sandra - Bringing the chicken wings, hotdog and bee hoon...
Francis - Leche plan
Andy - Our Boss and Bartender... for the drinks...
Susie - Satay and Rojak
Serene - For organizing and getting the special birthday cakes

There will be a "Cheers" session sometime in March. Sandra and Serene will be coordinating. More photos of the Regentville Tennis Birthday celebration can be found here.

ACE ESPN Tennis Contest Winner

2009-02-17T22:35:00.000+08:00

Serene was fortunate enough to be one of the lucky winners of the ACE ESPN tennis contest where she answered a simple question which are aired on the local STAR sports channel here in Singapore.

She was picked out from all the weekly contestants in South East Asia/Asia who participated in the ACE ESPN quiz on television. The prize was a goodie bag worth of tennis accessories from Yonex.

Serene at the ESPN HQ Singapore collecting her prize.

ATP Fan Of The Week

2009-01-23T17:06:00.001+08:00

A couple of days after writing my first article about accidentally chancing on Andy Roddick in Singapore during his stop over in Singapore from Qatar to Melbourne for the 2009 Australian Open. Serene and I were pleasantly surprised that our picture taken with Andy Roddick was featured on the "ATP Fan Of The Week" section on the 23rd of January's edition of the ATP World Tour Insider Newsletter.

It read:

Fan Photo Of The Week: Andy Meets Couple In Singapore:

"Serene and Nawin Singh of Singapore had the chance to meet top American Andy Roddick recently during his changeover in Singapore. "I missed out on the chance to watch Andy in the Thailand Open two years ago as he pulled out injured, but this time out of sheer luck, my wife (Serene) and I had a chance to meet him in person at Singapore's Changi Airport transit lounge," said Nawin. "It was hard to believe that I just saw him hours ago on TV in Doha playing Andy Murray in the final and now he's here! This is one of the moments my wife and I will cherish the rest of our lives."

The full article of the ATP World Tour Insider can be viewed here.

You can submit photos of yourself taken with your favourite ATP tennis player for considering for the ATP Fan Photo of the week section here.

Andy Roddick in Singapore

2009-01-17T00:26:00.002+08:00

Who says famous tennis stars never visit Singapore? Well I used to think that. In one of my articles I wrote awhile back about Maria Sharapova in Singapore, I mentioned Singapore never manages to attract the top tennis players. Well I was both right and wrong about this. Right because we have not still managed to organize a major tennis event after Maria Sharapova played an exhibition tennis match here in Singapore back in 2007, but wrong to say that no major tennis star has set foot here on Singapore soil. Just last week, Serene and I due to sheer luck had a chance encounter and had our photo taken with a former World Number 1 tennis player Andy Roddick and his new coach Larry Stefanki here in Singapore!

Andy Roddick and Larry Stefanki poses for photos with us at Changi Airport (Singapore)

Roddick and Stefanki were on transit from the Exxon Mobil Qatar Open in Doha (where Andy Roddick made the finals) to Melbourne to begin his preparations for the 2009 Australian Open. Serene and I were actually on another flight en route to Macau for a short vacation when we noticed Andy and Larry about to enter the waiting area to board their flight to Melbourne. Initially I didn’t recognized Andy Roddick but his Lacoste outfit gave him. I was rubbing my eyes in sheer disbelief as it was only hours ago that I just watched him play in Doha against Andy Murray and now he’s standing right in front of my here in Singapore! We politely asked Andy and Larry if they could pose for some photos with us and they both obliged. It was one of those days which I will never forget getting my photo taken with a former world number one tennis player and the player with arguably the best and fastest tennis serve in the game!

Discontinued Tennis Racquets

2008-08-24T21:26:00.002+08:00

I was doing some research on trying to get a couple of classic Wilson Pro Staff 6.0 (95 sq inch frames) and found out that Wilson has discontinued manufacturing the Wilson Pro Staff 6.0 indefinitely! Until sometime last year we still could order them through Tennis Warehouse, but according to some posts on the Tennis Warehouse forum, Wilson has decided to totally stop production of this legendary tennis racquet.

The Wilson Pro Staff 6.0 came in two different frames sizes, the famed 85 sq inch version made popular by Pete Sampras and the more forgiving 95 sq inch model. Looks like the only frame classic old school tennis racquet which is still being sold and manufactured now was Michael Chang’s Prince Original Graphite.

The list goes on… For those who were playing in the late 80s to 90s era, who would forget such classic tennis racquets such as the Head Genesis racquets, Wilson’s Profile Hammer and Fan Shaped Sledge Hammer Series, Prince’s CTS Thunder Sticks and Lightning series? Of course there are many others like the fabled Yamaha Secret 04 (specs for the Yamaha Secret 04 racquet here) and EX Series which I used to play with and no longer in production as well as signature series racquet’s such as Ivan Lendl’s Adidas and Mizuno frames. Not forgetting Becker's Puma signature lines but these tennis racquet frames have been long discontinued.

I would rate these racquets below as one of the most classic tennis frames that has been ever produce to this date!

1. Wilson Pro Staff 6.0 (85 sq inch and 95 sq inch models) – (Out of Production)
2. Wilson Pro Staff Classic 6.1.

3. Prince Original Graphite OS (Still currently in production and on sale at Tennis Warehouse)

4. Donnay Pro One OS (No longer in production but Tennis Warehouse sells reissues of the Donnay Pro One original). More Information about the Donnay Pro One Reissues Here.
5. Dunlop Max 200 (Out of Production).
6. Head Prestige Classic (Out of Production).
There are however still a handful of old school tennis racquet players and collectors alike who swear by these old tennis frames. They either still are currently playing with these legendary tennis racquets or have them in their personal collection. Till today many players still prefer the classic weight and old school tennis feel that have been often found missing in today’s newer generation lighter frames. Unfortunately very little resource is available on the internet about old discontinued tennis racquets. There are also very few tennis racquet dealers and collectors who are selling and trading them in the market. In most cases, you can find them off online auction sites such as eBay. If you can find a classic tennis frame available, its either in a really beat up condition or if it’s still in good condition, would cost you exorbitant prices within the range of US$300 to US$500 and sometimes even more or a piece of history!

I have consolidated a list of websites that gives you more information about old discontinued tennis racquets that are no longer in production now. Some of these are really classic, vintage tennis racquets that come in different brands, shapes and sizes with different patented technologies or the era of old that have long been discontinued. I have also listed a couple of old classic racquet frame dealers as well as websites that sell rare tennis racquets and tennis frames. Some of them are either discontinued tennis racquets that are no longer in production or not available for sale in certain countries. These are very rare tennis racquets and frames that you might not have even thought existed and are the original production and not reproductions. When in doubt check with the dealer or get some references.

Rare Discontinued Tennis Racquets
Find and Buy Rare Discontinued Tennis Racquets (Japanese Site).

Another thing to note when purchasing older tennis racquets would be that the frame might have lost its strength especially if it has been used or strung before. The other thing you should worry about are the plastic bumper and grommets that could be brittle over years of use and might break and eat into the racquet frame when strung at a high tension. Its always good to ask if they have new or replacements grommets available. If it’s a really old and rare racquet however, the chances getting a replacement is extremely difficult or next to impossible. Should you still want to play with that frame, try to string it at lower tension and make sure that your stringer places additional plastic tubing into the grommets to reinforce them so that they won’t eat into the original grommets and into the frame of the tennis racquet which can often happen should the grommets give way.

Regentville Tennis featured on The New Paper

2008-07-22T00:42:00.006+08:00

A few of the Regentville tennis players myself included had a rare privilege to be interviewed by The New Paper (TNP) for its Sunday edition sports column written by TNP reporter Lim Say Heng dated on the 21 July 2008 entitled "Men are from Mars, and they don't like Venus".

Kenneth, Beng Koon (BK), Arnelio and myself had the chance give our views on our favorite tennis players, what attributes do we like about them and who are we looking out for to win the Olympics Tennis Gold medal in August.

It was a great opportunity for our players to talk about our greatest passion – Tennis! I believe that all of us spoke our hearts out about which tennis players we supported and why?

For more information, click on the link below to see the Regentville tennis players interview with The New Paper. Or download the PDF version of team Regentville’s interview with The New Paper here.

Regentville Tennis Birthday Party

2008-07-20T18:10:00.001+08:00

The Regentville tennis team held a birthday celebration for three of our tennis players yesterday. Andy, Francis and Serene were all born on the same day - the 24th of July.

Regentville tennis players enjoying great food and karaoke session.

As always, our Regentville tennis team members brought lots of food and drinks “pot luck” style. We started with a candlelight BBQ session with kebabs and satays and then adjourned to the karaoke room where we had a Filipino cuisine courtesy of our Filipino tennis players.

Regentville's tennis players (from left) Serene, Andy and Francis cutting their birthday cake.

The highlight of night was of course the birthday cake cutting ceremony as well as the karaoke session. On behalf of all the Regentville tennis players, we would like wish Andy, Francis and Serene all the best for the coming year.

More photos of the Regentville Tennis Players birthday celebrations here.

Regentville versus The Bayshore

2008-05-11T10:10:00.003+08:00

The Regentville tennis team hosted the team from The Bayshore condo yesterday. This is the first leg of a two leg friendly tennis match. The 2nd leg will be held and hosted by The Bayshore at a later date. The Bayshore condo is situated near East Coast Park. They are not to be confused by a neighboring condo called Bayshore Park which is another place altogether. This was the 2nd time we played against another tennis team from the Eastern part of Singapore. The last friendly we had against a team from the East was with Melville Park from Simei. More details of the match against Melville Park here.

The cool and cloudy weather yesterday was perfect for tennis, but rain had always been a concern. As the scheduled time of the match drew nearer, it was evident that there was not going to be any rain in Singapore for that day and there was fine weather throughout.

The two organizers... Desmond team organizer for The Bayshore and me.

I am glad that we could finally have a game with The Bayshore tennis team. We were supposed to have this friendly tennis match against The Bayshore much earlier last year, but both our teams were committed with other competitions at that time and it was eventually forgotten. It was indeed fortunately that we could finally organize this friendly tennis match between our two team this time round. The Bayshore tennis team consisted of a good mix of youth and experience and were primarily an all men’s tennis team. They had also a great wealth of competitive inter constituency tennis experience and was a great opportunity to play against a team with competitive background.

Regentville & The Bayshore Tennis Group Photo

We managed to play a total 12 men’s doubles matches. The game between the two tennis teams were all played in a friendly and competitive spirit. It’s always great to have these friendly tennis matches to both get to know as well as play with other social tennis teams in Singapore. On behalf of the Regentville tennis team, I would like Thank Desmond, (The Bayshore team organizer) and The Bayshore tennis team for coming down to Hougang to have this friendly tennis match with us. I would like to also Thank our own Regentville tennis players for making this weekend’s tennis friendly a success.

Photos of the friendly tennis match between Regentville & The Bayshore here.

Tennis Elbow and Babolat Racquets

2008-05-07T18:32:00.005+08:00

I have been play testing so many different tennis racquet brands and models and found while others vary considerably in terms of power, consistency and weight balance, one particular racquet brand that had always been very different in terms of “feel” and shock absorption - Babolat.

My first experience with the Babolat tennis racquets was back in 2005 when I bought both the legendary Babolat Pure Drive Standard and Bobolat Pure Drive Plus (these were the regular non cortex version). My original Review of the Babolat Pure Drive Standard and Review of the Babolat Pure Drive Plus found here (pictured right).

Back then, even before Babolat introduced the Cortex technology (shaft vibration dampening system), Babolat had already patented the Woofer technology, which that in itself was revolutionary from the very start. Having been using and trying out so many different tennis racquets, the feel on nearly all Babolat tennis racquet were very similar. All of them had the very dampen feel ,you don’t get much feedback off from the strings and felt muted. I play with shock dampeners by default on ALL my racquets. Even with shock absorbers or dampeners on my tennis racquets, almost ALL the other makes, none could emulate the feel of a Babolat’s dampened effect which is unbelievable!

Personally I found Babolat to make one of the best sticks in terms of comfort, playability and power. It is no wonder why most touring professionals use them and why they are one of the most popular tennis racquets where sales are concern. So popular are they, that there are even counterfeit and fake Babolat tennis racquets flooding the market now.

In terms of comfort, with the combination of the woofer and with its now most recent patented cortex shock absorption system, I would consider it second to none in this area as well. I loved the power off the Babolat Pure Drives which was built for raw pace. If you read many reviews, you will find that many players have difficulty taming the power of the Babolat Pure Drives. Many had to increase the tension to 60 pounds and some even higher to try to tame the beast. Since I had tennis elbow issues before, my maximum string tension is always around 53 pounds. My write up on tennis elbow treatment here. I regulate between 50 to 53 pounds seldom going above this maximum tension.

I never had any problems with the power of the Babolat Pure Drives and the so called “unstability” issues that had been plaguing so many players, labeling it a very uncontrollable racquet. The key to playing with all Babolat Pure Drive is the element of spin. Put enough spin on the ball and even at a lower tensions, it will serve you well. Regulating play with a series of flat as well as spin shots will clearly enable you to play to the racquet’s maximum potential with raw power and accuracy. The Babolat Pure Drive is one of the most enjoyable and playable racquets that I have played with. I find that many people who have used the Babolat racquets and never had any issues with the racquet in terms of control will agree with me. My love for Babolat racquets however ENDS here!

My last case of severe tennis elbow which took a year and a half to heal, I believe was attributed to the Babolat Pure Drive. Some of my friends and even my wife who played with it also experienced tennis elbow problems or pain in the wrist. I got severe tennis elbow after playing with the Babolat Pure Drive. I never had any issues with any tennis racquets after that, or prior to that, with the exception of the Donnay Pro One Midsized a long time ago. I had experienced pain in the wrist while using the Babolat Aero Pro (Non Cortex) version (pictured right) but that really didn’t put me out of action as I was not using it all the time regulating between that and my Yonex RDS 001 MP. My review of the Yonex RDS 001 Mid Plus here.

The last straw came with my most recent purchase of latest in the form of the Babolat Storm series. The Babolat Storm series were notably less stiffer than the Babolat Pure Drives, they were also considered lesser powered control oriented racquets, meant more for control than power. The particular model I purchased was the Babolat Aero Storm which like all the Babolat racquets that I have tried was a fantastic stick. My full review of the Babolat Aero storm here.

Babolat Aero Storm a Mini Review:

I however also decided to do a short mini review of the Babolat Aero Storm here since this was the racquet that eventually caused my tennis elbow to flare up. During my first session with the Babolat Aero Storm (pictureed right), I was already initially experiencing some wrist pain and felt some stain on the shoulder and forearm. I attributed this to the heft of the Babolat Aero Storm. The Babolat Aero Strom was 320g unstrung which is a pretty hefty frame. You didn’t feel much of the weight due to Babolat’s patented Aero technology and what I really like most about it was the aero shape profile of the throat which felt really nice for the single handed back hand grip. With its heft you could really feel the Babolat Aero Storm racquet plowing through the shots. Unlike the Babolat Pure Drive, the Babolat Aero Storm didn’t fire bullets or had great pace on the shots, it compensated lack of pace with “control oriented power” with its slower but heavy shots. You could physically feel and see that the ball was travelling at a much slower pace, but still had a lot of mass and weight behind it from the momentum of the heavy swings. With the Babolat Aero Storm you tend to slug your shots at your opponents.

My shots according to my opponents didn’t come with much pace but the momentum behind the “heavy” shots were there and would trouble them. Because it had some heft, it was really stable on returns as well as well volleys and smashes. In short, the Babolat Aero Storm was a sheer joy to use. I was playing some really solid tennis with the Babolat Aero Storm which I could have never asked for.

My single handed backhand drives were more solid and some of my friends were even saying that I played better with this stick. I had managed to also come back from some “come from behind wins” while fending off several match points and attributed this to the consistency, power and control that the Babolat Aero Storm was delivering.

After around 5 sessions with the Babolat Aero Storm, my elbow told me that it couldn’t take it anymore. Initially I had some slight pain but I managed to play some more matches with it. I believe that my elbow lasted so long due to the dampened effect of the racquet masking the vibrations. To come to think of it, how Babolat actually managed to mask the vibration was really amazing.
There was definitely some stiffness in the racquet and the vibration, even with the Woofer and Cortex technology must have been dissipated somewhere. It most likely would have gone into the arm and elbow, but the great thing about Babolat’s Woofer and Cortex system was that it managed to absorb the shock without your arm or elbow feeling it until much later. There have been several reports that Babolat generally make stiff frames according to the listed Babolat RDC ratings and some tennis forum listings and tennis reviews sites. Was this one of the reasons why Babolat came up with the Cortex system to reduce the vibrations and stiffness in their racquets?
Another question would be could the Babolat RDC stiffness rating also vary from one tennis racquet manufacturer to another? How much of a variation and significance this would be between the two makes and models we just wouldn’t know. Its just like how the grip sizes vary from tennis racquet models and manufacturers. Although the Babolat’s RDC stiffness measurement is considered to be a universal measurement, how can we, the consumer be exactly sure that it will be exactly the same between one make or one model? Would they also be consistent from racquets coming from different manufacturing plants or batches? See my article on Wilson Racquet differences here. Contrary to what is suggested about the use of a heavier racquet to limit the potential cause of tennis elbow, the Babolat Aero Pro Storm was one of heavier racquets I was using (320g) unstrung. A heavier racquet for me didn’t reduce the risk of tennis elbow it could have in fact aggravated it! Again, I have no way to verify this and what I am saying is based more on my personal experiences as well as what I read on tennis forums and tennis related websites:

"Some references made here stating Babolat racquets destroying the arm with tennis elbow (not everybody agreed with this guy though... As there were others who didn't have any problems".

"An epinions.com review of a playtester getting a sore elbow after playing with a Babolat racquet".

"Babolat = Elbow Pain (A post on the Tennis warehouse forum)".

"Another post on the Tennis Warehouse Forum on elbow pain caused by Babolat racquets".

It seems from what is suggested, Babolat frames are generally stiffer and MAY cause tennis elbow or wrist related injuries. I for one have experienced this. I have used other racquet makes and models before and hardly had any issues with my elbow or wrist related problems. When I used the Babolat Pure Drive, I was out for a year and a half, when I tried the Babolat Aero Pro Drive, I encountered wrist pain and finally when I played with the Babolat Aero Storm with cortex, my tennis elbow got inflamed again, this time pretty badly as I have to be on pain medication now. Its either just plain coincidence or simply bad luck, I think its neither of these. Somehow it seems that my elbow just cannot tolerate Babolat frames and I don’t actually know the reason why. If it was poor technique or swing style I would have been already injured awhile back while testing various frames but Babolat always seems to give some pain with different severity.

I shall not want to go into details about stiffness and the composite materials that was put into the racquet as I am no scientist and I have no way to calculate the stiffness of the composite materials that was used while manufacturing Babolat racquets. Clearly the Babolat Woofer and Cortex did help me, I felt really comfortable with the racquet, but it was only later on that I realized that I was in pain. So the Cortex system while it helped reduce the feel and impact on the racquet, in the long run this dampened feel caused me to get an inflamed elbow. To me, it worked TOO well, that it defeated its actual purpose that is to project the elbow from harmful vibrations. If you asked me, if I had felt any difference with a Babolat racquet WITH a Cortex system and WITHOUT a Cortex system, I couldn’t really tell the difference. What I could safely say was that with the old Woofer system, that older Babolat models had were sufficient with a very comfortable and dampened feeling. With or without the Cortex system, I still managed to get an inflamed elbow, resulting in tennis elbow. So it really didn’t benefit me.

Conclusion:

My advice is if you play regularly and never had any issues with tennis elbow before and feel some pain after you switch frames, new string type or moved to a higher tension stop playing immediately! Try maybe another session or so, If the pain still persists, you have roughly isolated the cause as being induced or related to the new tennis racquet or strings. Dump it immediately! It’s not worth getting yourself injured due to this. I believe that I went on too long with the Babolat Aero Storm resulting in more inflammation to the tendons in my elbow. To make things worse, I only felt the pain much later on. The dampened effect of the Babolat’s Woofer and Cortex system did work, and in fact, I felt it worked too well disguising the vibration as well as the stiffness of the racquet until it was too late. This is however only my personal opinion. It could also be from different styles or ways we play and also due to different muscle and bone structure.

There is also some talk in general that Babolat racquets causes tennis elbow and wrist pains (some examples in the links above). In my case, this happens to be true but I am sure there are many individuals out there who don’t have of these issues or pain from playing with Babolat tennis racquets and continue to play without any pain or discomfort. I know some of my friends who play with the exact same racquets not having any issues, they also string their racquets at a higher tension compared to me.

Personally, I have given up on Babolat tennis racquets, as it seems apparent that my elbow is just not meant to play with a Babolat. If you also have any prior issues with tennis elbow or have just come back with any tennis elbow injury just be more cautious and listen to what you body is trying to tell you. Stop immediately if you feel any pain or slight strain. This might be an indication warning you of potential problems later on. This advice concerns whatever racquet or strings you’re using. It does not have to be a certain make or model with a stiffer Babolat RDC rating. What I would suggest if possible, is to play test or demo the racquet for a few sessions. We do not have the luxury to demo tennis racquets here in Singapore for a considerable period of time. I had to buy the Babolat Aero Storm and play test it after some months.

If you never had any tennis elbow problems or wrist pain before, check out the Babolat line of tennis racquets. In my opinion, they make some exceptional frames with their fantastic technological breakthrough in their woofer and cortex systems. If I had no issues with my elbow, I would definitely play with a Babolat no questions asked. If you have had some pain or discomfort in your shoulders, elbow or wrist and want to try out a Babolat get an extended demo session if possible, stop immediately if you feel any pain or discomfort. If you’re ok after a few sessions, go get the Babolat, its really one of the best tennis racquets I’ve played with!

Are Babolat Tennis Racquets more prone to causing Tennis Elbow?

So we again come back to the "million dollar question", are Babolat tennis racquets more prone to causing tennis elbow? I believe this may be true ONLY for certain individuals and NOT everybody. Certainly for me, Babolat seems to be NOT a good match for my elbow and wrists. I have had no problems with other brands. Some of my friends also had problems with tennis elbow from the use of Babolat tennis racquets. While others didn’t, and loved it. I think the question in general about which racquet causes tennis elbow or which ones are more prone to cause tennis elbow is very subjective and varies from person to person. I believe there are also people getting or are more prone to getting tennis elbow with some other racquet models as well and after they switched to Babolat they had no issues.

So it’s all very subjective. The racquet plays a part in tennis elbow, but the swing technique, string tension and string type also plays a huge part. I have been playing tennis for sometime and have been using the same strings and low tension generally for all my racquets so in my case I have eliminated most of the variables that leaves me to think it has something to do with my racquet rather than all the other factors. I will have to give up on Babolats as they are just no good on my elbow and wrist.

Tennis Elbow Survey:

To settle this question once and for all I have decided to set up a Tennis Elbow Survey. This Tennis Elbow Survey is to determine one's general knowledge about tennis elbow, their causes and treatment. There is also a section to find out if the participants of the tennis elbow survey had any issues with Babolat racquets and also add in their personal insights they have about Tennis Elbow and Babolat tennis racquets.

Once I have collected enough information I will publish the results of my survey here to determine one's basic knowledge about Tennis Elbow as well as if people in general had experienced tennis elbow after the use of any Babolat tennis racquets. I would greatly appreciate if you could take some time to participate in the Regentville Tennis Elbow Survey here to gather information about the global knowledge on tennis elbow in general.

Click here to participate in the Tennis Elbow Survey.

Regentville versus Melville Park

2008-04-27T12:30:00.002+08:00

The Regentville tennis team hosted the team from Melville Park condo based in Simei yesterday. This will be the first home leg for the Regentville tennis team as an away match at Melville Park will be scheduled at a later date. The weather had been fortunately with us and we had perfect sunny conditions great for tennis. The last couple of days prior to the match had been plagued with foul weather and thunderstorms especially in the afternoons and late evenings that would have definitely brought a premature end to our scheduled tennis friendly.

Regentville & Melville Park Tennis Team Photo

Incidentally, this was also our first tennis friendly against a side from the eastern part of Singapore. Most of the other tennis teams we had played against before had been more from the western or northern ends of Singapore. It’s always nice to meet new players and increase our tennis network by having more matches against other tennis groups in Singapore. In all, we played a total of 12 matches. 10 men’s doubles and 2 mixed doubles.

The tennis matches were played in good friendly spirit and gamesmanship which is the most important aspect of any game. Both teams put up a great effort in making this friendly a successfully one. On behalf of the Regentville tennis team, I would like to Thank the Melville Park tennis team for coming down to Hougang to play with us. I would like to also Thank Jenny from Sports Report (OUB Center), the match organizer, for Melville Park for arranging the friendly tennis match between the two teams.

Photos of the tennis friendly between Regentville & Melville Park here.

Clay Courts in Singapore

2008-04-21T22:51:00.003+08:00

I finally got a chance to visit Singapore’s only public clay tennis courts located at Alexandra Park last week to catch some of the Regentville tennis players compete in the Grayling Mixed doubles invitational 2008 tournament. I had previously heard much about the coveted clay tennis courts in Singapore, but never really had a chance to actually find out where these clay courts in Singapore were located. I only got to know there were actually clay courts in Singapore about two years ago from some of my expat friends who were based here in Singapore. I also had conflicting views of how to get there. Last week, I finally had an excuse to visit the clay courts at Alexandra park to see for myself what was it like and how do you actually get there. If you go online, there are almost no references about clay tennis courts in Singapore and instructions to get there. I have decided to write an article to provide more information about Singapore’s one and only public clay tennis courts, its exact location and how you can actually find your way there by public transport.

Directions on how to get to the Singapore Clay Courts from Queensway shopping center.

In my opinion, the reason why Singapore’s one and only public clay tennis courts remains pretty much an unknown entity is mainly due to its “hidden” location. Those who know about it would have heard it by word of mouth through friends like myself. The public clay courts at Alexandra Park are not easily accessible or located on any major roads or landmarks in Singapore. Its situated deep inside a wooded residential part of Singapore which houses one of the very few remaining British colonial bungalows.

Unlike Yio Chu Kang tennis center, which sits directly opposite the Yio Chu Kang MRT station or Kallang Tennis Center that has been around for ages and is located at the intersection of Geylang and Nicoll Highway. The clay tennis courts in Singapore is situated in place where it’s not easily seen or accessible by the public. It is more easier to get there by taxi or car, but it is still possible to walk from the main road - Alexandra Road.

Where landmarks are concerned, the Singapore clay courts are located very close to Queensway Shopping Center, Alexandra Hospital and IKEA Alexandra. To walk from clay tennis courts to Queensway shopping center for example will take you around 15 to 20 minutes. The total distance would be around 2km or so. Refer to map above to see distances in relation to familiar “landmarks” around that area. I hope that map below will give you clear directions how to get to the Singapore clay courts at Alexandra park.

For more detail instructions on how to get to the clay courts you can also refer to this map here. The address, fees and contact numbers for the Singapore clay courts are found below:

Address:
10A Winchester Road
Alexandra Park
Singapore 117784

Operating Hours: 7am to 7pm (not sure if its later now with added flood lights)
Court Booking Fee: $15/Hr
Contact: 96362007, 81779351

And you can find out more about the Singapore Tennis Clay Courts at their website. There are a total of 4 tennis courts. 3 red clay and one looks like a greenish Har-Tru surface or "American" clay. From what I understand, they have just recently installed flood lights for play during the night. So you can now play clay court tennis at night as well. The clay courts in Singapore is run by an ex Canadian pro Art Hobbs who also played Davis Cup for Singapore in 1993 with an impressive 5-1 Davis cup record. I knew Art from my Kallang Tennis Center days with the Puma Tennis Coaching program back in the late 80s. More information about Art Hobbs can be found here. Art Hobbs Bio. Besides, Art there are also 4 resident tennis coaches at the Singapore tennis clay courts. You can give Art a call to organize tennis coaching and tennis clinics as well. More information about coaching and clay court tennis lessons in Singapore can be found here.

Graylings Annual Invitation.

The clay court at Alexandra park also holds an annual mixed doubles clay court tennis event in Singapore which has been running since 2003, called the Grayling Mix Double’s Tennis Invitational.

Sponsored by Grayling a PR and events management company. This event celebrated its 5th anniversary last week. It’s great to see competitive tennis played on clay courts in Singapore.

Most of tennis courts found here in Singapore are mainly hard courts, we have a few lawn courts in private clubs and some synthetic grass courts. To play tennis on a clay court surface here in Singapore, is indeed a great experience for somebody who hasn’t played on this surface before. I certainly have not, but after visiting the Singapore clay courts I wouldn’t mind giving it a try the next time I am there.

If you want to get a taste of clay court tennis in Singapore, I strongly recommend you check out the clay courts at Alexandra park. Remember it's hidden amongst old British Bungalows and a lush forested area. Use the map above to find your way there. For the distance, I think it’s worthwhile to be able to get a taste of clay court tennis here in Singapore. (Pictured right Didi & Eri representing the Regentville Tennis Team). (Above Top - Yoshi).

Photos of Grayling Mixed Doubles Tennis Invitational 2008.

Fake Wilson Tennis Racquet

2008-04-08T16:46:00.003+08:00

About a year ago I wrote an article about a fake Babolat Pure Drive and how fake tennis racquets being passed off as genuine item. A year has passed and the counterfeit tennis racquet industry has grown even more in prominence and stature. It has now even got to the point where buyers are scrutinizing each and every aspect of the racquet especially if they intend to purchase 2nd hand or used tennis racquet from an online tennis forum, online auction site or from a racquet trader. Looking at the amount of fake tennis racquets flooding the market, one can hardly blame an overzealous tennis racquet buyer. Let’s face it, one has to be more cautious now… This has generally ruined the market for used or 2nd tennis racquets.

I personally like to demo and review tennis racquets. Here in Singapore, we hardly have access to any demo tennis racquets unlike in the US. What I usually do is to purchase a brand new or used tennis racquet, string the racquet with my preferred strings and tension and then play test them. At the end of my play test, I would write my personal racquet review and then sell the racquet off once I’m done with it. In the past, that was a relatively easy thing to do. You just put up an ad in the local tennis forum or let some of friends or contact know. Depending on the condition of the racquet, popularity of the brand, as well as model and price the racquet, it would be sold relatively quick. A done deal so you say? Absolutely Not! Now I will get inquiries about if the tennis racquet is genuine or fake? If it was a counterfeit from China, or if I had any receipts, papers, guarantee cards or hologram labels to determine its full authenticity? It’s more of a hindrance now to have fake tennis racquets in the market if you personally ask me.

The fake tennis racquets are looking every bit as genuine as their authentic cousins. To make matters worse, In Asia, we do not get the latest tennis racquet models only until two to three months later after the tennis racquet is introduced into the US markets. So one is often extremely tempted to buy a tennis racquet online to be the first to own one here in Singapore. I highly recommend that you’d be careful, as being the first, does not always mean getting an authentic tennis racquet! To the naked eye, it’s very hard to tell if the tennis racquet is genuine or fake now which brings about serious implications to the buyer. What’s worst, is most of the fake tennis racquets are coming out from China which incidentally are where the real or genuine tennis racquets are made under license from the original tennis racquet manufacturers.

Most of the major tennis manufacturers such as Head, Wilson, Babolat, Dunlop, Prince and a few others are produced under license from racquet manufacturing plants in China. The question in one’s mind now is whether this is a genuine or counterfeit tennis racquet? Truth be told, it’s now very difficult to judge unless you really know your tennis racquet. You will also need to take into account where the tennis racquets came from, as although genuine, they might have slight cosmetic differences coming from different factories or batch processes. Like the differences discovered with my genuine Wilson K Factor K Six One 95 Asian tennis racquets.

The Fake K Blade comes with a longer than usual throat.

Recently, there also had been a stir caused by a seller trying to pass off a fake tennis racquet as a genuine one on a local tennis forum. I shall not want to dwell whether it was an accidental or deliberate act or what exactly happened in full detail. If you want to read more about it visit this link to find out about the Fake Wilson K Blade racquet. What I would like to point out is that the fake tennis racquet in this case, a Fake Wilson K Blade had been passed off as a authentic Wilson racquet. Personally it looked like the “Real Deal” to me. There are some obvious distinctions and some of the potential buyers had spotted the differences from a mile away.

Fake K Blade has White letterings instead of Gold letterings that a genuine K Blade comes with.

I got some information courtesy of Reynold a moderator from this forum (TFN). He briefly explains the differences between an original and a fake Wilson K Blade. See more pictures of the Fake Wilson K Blade below.

Screenshot of the TFN forum posting/entry about the Fake Wilson K Blade

There is also some information that about the Chinese based online site that the seller had purchased from. I have not personally verified or authenticated these claims. You can refer more to the posting in the forum about the fake Wilson K Blade. I am however unsure if this counterfeit tennis racquet was supposed to be a Wilson K Blade Tour, Wilson K Blade 98 or Wilson K Blade Team versions.

Check out the Ncode Grommets instead of the K Factor Grommets a dead give away!

This article is to just highlight that a buyer has to really beware of what has been peddled online before they make their purchase, as well as spot the differences between a fake Wilson K Blade compared to a genuine one. I hope this information provided had been useful in your research. I would appreciate if anybody has more information and pictures detailing fake or counterfeit tennis racquets to kindly email me some photos so that I can post them on my site. I want to create more awareness towards fake tennis racquets and how buyers should be wary of them. I am a strong advocate against purchasing fake tennis racquets and will strongly advise anybody from attempting to purchase one.

When it comes to "faking it" even the racquet dampeners are not spared. Genuine K Factor 95 in background.

When in doubt, ask or try to make note of the racquet differences with the genuine one. It’s always safer to err on the safe side by being cautious. Go with the genuine product, its always better that way than getting yourself injured for frustrated when you found out that you have purchased a cheap imitation or fake later on by trying to save a couple of bucks.

Here's something you probably might have not noticed the trimmings on the racquet cover.

More images and description of the Fake Wilson K Blade can be found here. Thanks to Reynold a moderator from TFN for sending me the pictures and detailed description on the differences between a genuine and fake Wilson K Blade tennis racquet.

Yew Mei Green versus Regentville

2008-03-30T18:35:00.001+08:00

Yew Mei Green condo from Yew Tee hosted the Regentville tennis team yesterday. This was the 2nd leg of the tennis friendly between the two condo tennis teams from the northern part of Singapore. The first friendly tennis match was hosted by Regentville two weeks earlier in Hougang followed by this return leg at Yew Mei Green. We played a total of 15 matches which consisted of men's doubles and ladies doubles as well as mixed doubles tennis matches.

Our visting Regentville tennis players at Yew Mei Green.

From the beginning, the encounter promised to be an exciting affair. Both teams had their fair share of "play of the day" moments and we were entertained to some sensationally long rallies, net calls at crucial points of the game and spectacular shot making of the highest caliber. Rain had continuously threatened to derail our tennis friendly, and it had rained about an hour before our schedule tennis match with Yew Mei Green. We were however very fortunate that when the Regentville team got there, the courts were already in playable condition and we quickly settled into the match. The ominous dark clouds hovered above us and the heavens looked as if it was going to open up as our tennis matches continued. Halfway through the friendly the clouds blew away and it was great weather till the end of match.

Time Out? Both the Regentville and Yew Mei Green players taking a break & enjoying the food & refreshments.

Apart from hosting the Regentville tennis team, Yew Mei Green's two organizers David Loh and CC Chia had catered for some light snacks and refreshments as well as a box of 18kgs worth of energy boosting bananas perfect for a long day of tennis. Both teams enjoyed the satay which David and Chia had catered for and it was great that we had some snacks as well while waiting for our turn to play. I am sure and can attest for both teams that everyone enjoyed the good food and refreshments provided by the Yew Mei Green organizers yesterday. We managed to take this time to also get to know more players while increasing our tennis network, as well as getting to know other tennis players based here in Singapore. This was a perfect tennis networking opportunity to get acquainted and mingle with more social tennis players from other parts of Singapore.

Regentville versus Yew Mei Green tennis team photo.

On behalf of the Regentville tennis team, I would like to thank both organizers CC Chia and David Loh from Yew Mei Green for hosting the Regentville team. I would like to especially thank David and Chia for taking the trouble to get all the refreshment and catering food for the event. I am sure that all the players had appreciated that as well as fantastic satay provided. A special thanks to both the Regentville and Yew Mei Green tennis players for making this weekend tennis friendly successful one. Great job guys!

Photos of the tennis friendly between Yew Mei Green & Regentville here.

Regentville versus Yew Mei Green

2008-03-09T10:25:00.001+08:00

The team from Regentville were up against the tennis Team from Yew Mei Green yesterday. The weather leading up to the friendly tennis match between the two teams had not been fantastic, but we were indeed fortunate to have fine sunny weather to start our 3rd tennis friendly for 2008 which is the first home leg between the two condos held at Regentville in Hougang. The 2nd leg away match will be held at Yew Mei Green at a later date.

Regentville versus Yew Mei Green match schedule.

We played a total of 15 tennis matches in all, which consisted of 11 mens double matches, 3 mixed doubles and 1 ladies doubles matches. The team from Yew Mei Green consisted mainly of Singaporeans and Filipino players. Since the social tennis community in Singapore is pretty small, we saw a couple of familiar faces. It was great that this friendly tennis match had not only given us the opportunity to meet new players, but also a chance to catch up with some old
friends that we have not seen in awhile.

Regentville versus Yew Mei Green tennis team photo.

On behalf of the Regentville tennis team, I would like Thank The Yew Mei Green team organizers Chia and David as well as the team from Yew Mei Green for making the trip to Hougang to have the friendly tennis match with us.

CC Chia (right) team organizer for Yew Mei Green pictured with me.

I would like to also Thank our very own Regentville tennis players for taking the time off from their busy weekend schedules to join us in making this event a great success. Congratulations to both teams for their fine effort, sportsmanship and camaraderie shown. Looking forward to the 2nd away leg to be held at Yew Mei Green in a couple of weeks time.

Photos of the tennis friendly between Regentville & Yew Mei Green here.

Regentville versus New Tech Park

2008-02-17T11:50:00.000+08:00

The Regentville tennis team had its second friendly match for 2008 against the New Tech Park tennis team. This is the first leg of a two part friendly tennis match between Regentville and New Tech Park. The first leg home tie was hosted and held here at Regentville. The 2nd tie would be held sometime in April at New Tech Park the final dates have not been finalized yet and we are still coordinating with the organizers at New Tech Park to get a fix date for the 2nd leg tie.

Regentville versus New Tech Park match schedule.

The New Tech Park team primarily consists of Filipino expats based here in Singapore. The fine weather over the last couple of days including that on match day finally spelled the end of the monsoon season here in Singapore. This was great news, as we have scheduled many more friendly tennis matches over the next couple of months. We managed to play a total 16 matches, and for the first time, we played more mixed and ladies doubles matches than we previously had before. Our past tennis friendlies were mainly contested by the guys, so this change was a welcome sight for us. We hope to have more friendlies with more ladies tennis matches in our fixture. In the last two friendlies, we also managed to also try out a few “new” doubles pairings and was glad that our new players had assimilated very well with our current players.

Regentville & New Tech Park tennis team photo.

On behalf of the Regentville tennis team, I would like to take this opportunity to Thank Nonoy, (the organizer for New Tech Park) and the New Tech Park tennis team for making this friendly tennis match a success. We look forward to having the second leg to be held at New Tech Park in early April. Finally, I would like to Thank Richard for helping us organize this friendly match as well as all the Regentville players who had participated in this friendly.

Photos of the tennis friendly between Regentville & New Tech Park here.

Normanton Park versus Regentville

2008-02-03T09:25:00.000+08:00

The Regentville condo tennis team started 2008 by hosting its first match against Normanton Park condo. This was our 2nd leg match against the Normanton Park condo tennis team. Our first match against Normanton park was held last November where we played a total of 11 matches. This time we played a total of 10 matches and like the previous encounter we had against them, all the matches were close and played in good competitive spirit between the both teams.

The Normanton Park players turned up in full force.

Despite the bad weather that had been initially forecasted, it did not dampen the spirits of the two teams who turned up in full force. We managed to dry the courts and the friendly tennis matches commenced even thought rain threaten to abandon the game throughout the entire length of the match.

Big thanks to Richard (right) for helping us coordinate and organize this event.

On behalf of the Regentville tennis players, I would like to Thank the Normanton park tennis team for coming down to Hougang to play with us as well as Richard, our co organizer who handled all the logistics and coordination to make this friendly tennis match possible.

Photos from the tennis friendly between Normanton Park & Regentville here.

Mi Adidas Custom Barricade Tennis Shoes

2008-01-25T16:53:00.000+08:00

After around a month wearing my custom Adidas Barricade IV, I quickly came to the realization that custom shoes were really ideal for me. Sure, they cost a lot more compared to off the shelf Adidas Barricade IV’s which could be easily purchased in Queensway for around SGD$125 to SGD$135, but if you’re severely flat footed like me, these custom tennis shoes were a dream come true. Coupled with the additional Adidas Geo Fit technology, that came with MI Adidas Customization process for my Adidas Barricade IV, it was indeed a worthwhile investment for me. As mentioned in my previous article below, I also managed to extend the lifespan of my tennis shoes by using Shoo Goo a highly strong, adhesive, glue like substance to repair and prolong the soles of your tennis shoes due to the constant daily wear and tear that frequent use in the tennis court causes. Article on how to repair and prolong the life you’re your tennis shoes here.

In conclusion, the MI Adidas Customization for my first Adidas Barricade IV was indeed something I never regretted. From the very beginning I knew that the MI Custom process for my tennis shoes will be a great benefit for me. I have never encountered any severe pains felt on my heel or foot ever since. My tennis toe problem has since got better after the switch. I was so impressed and happy with my first pair of custom Adidas Barricades (article on how I customized my Adidas Barricade IV here) I ordered my 2nd pair of Custom Adidas Barricade IVs as my first one was already rather worn but still relatively in good use having prolonged its sole lifespan with Shoe Goo.

This time I didn’t have to go through the entire MI Adidas custom process but only have to choose the colors which I wanted. After 3 weeks I got my 2nd pair of custom Adidas Barricade IVs. I choose relatively the same color schemes keeping the black and orange, but choose to use Navy Blue instead of Grey this time. To me I wanted something dark this time. The end result wasn’t what I was truly looking for but, It still look relatively OK with me. I am just looking forward to customizing my next Adidas Barricade V’s the next time round.

More photos and images of my 2nd pair of Custom Barricade IVs here.

Tennis Shoe Repair

2008-01-25T15:37:00.000+08:00

My last pair of custom Adidas Barricade IV using MI Adidas Custom Technology had lasted me over a year, not bad for regular hard court usage. It only lasted me for around 8 months or so until I found noticeable wear on the soles of my MI Custom Adidas Barricade IVs. In general, I found that the Adidas Barricade shoes to have a long history of being pretty durable compared to other major tennis shoe brands. The most common problems that I found with most tennis shoes (including the Adidas Barricades) were that the sole wears out much faster than the top section. You can therefore still have a pair of tennis shoes in immaculate condition, but the sole on your tennis shoes have been worn down to its rubber insoles. Tennis shoes soles in general, are simply not durable enough to withstand lengthy use over long periods of time.

Shoe Goo

Depending on the type of player you are, your weight, style of play, tennis court surface, model and brand of your tennis shoes you might get varying shoe wear results and wear patterns on your tennis shoes. Customized tennis shoes are no exception. No matter on what surface you play on, your tennis shoes cannot last for many months if you’re using them on a regular basis for tennis. Well that is what I thought initially until I discovered this shoe sole repair kit called Shoe Goo from Penguin which I bought from Royal Sporting House. I found out that you can actually either repair or prolong the effects of wear and tear on your tennis shoes substantially. These shoe sole saver applications comes in a tube similar to that of super glue you’ll just have to follow the instructions found at the back of the Shoe Goo Tube. Something that would either repair or prolong the wear effects on your tennis shoe soles! To date, my first pair of custom Adidas Barricade IV have lasted me for about a year and I am still using them.

Penguin's Shoe Goo which seems to last longer than the "other" Shoe Goo

I had used both Penguin’s Shoe Goo (more information about Penguin's Shoe Goo Here) and Unique Sport’s Shoe Mend. These shoe sole saver application are generally made of a special formulated adhesive with extra abrasion resistance to extend the life of shoes and found much success with the Penguin’s Shoe Goo compared to Unique Sport’s Shoe Mend mainly due to the durability and the length of time that the glue had stayed on the shoe sole without being worn out as well as the number of times I can use the application. In terms of value for money, Penguin Shoe Goo tends to last longer and comes in a larger quantity compared to Shoe Mend. My Penguin Shoe Goo would last me around 4 to 5 applications. Shoe mend would only last 2 applications. This will be however different for every case depending on how much wear your current shoe already has.

I am not sure however if Shoe Goo had repackaged their product, or if there were two different companies having the same similar product name. I had bought two different kinds of Shoe Goo shoe sole repair kits. The first Shoe Goo (other Shoe Goo brand here) kit did not last me as long compared to the repackaged one under the Penguin shoe care label seemed to have lasted me slightly longer. It could be due to actually two different Shoe Goo brands. One under the Penguin shoe care label and the other under under label. The Shoe Goo under the Penguin shoe care label. Penguin's Shoe Goo could be using a different or new formula to it to make it harder and less resistant to peeling off.

With Shoe Goo, I managed to prolong the lifespan of my tennis shoes significantly and I have been using them without any issues for about a year now. The only downside is that when the courts are damp or wet, the shoes that have Shoo Goo on it would not have appropriate traction and you might be prone to slipping and falling therefore I would highly advise to not use them on wet or damp playing surfaces or while walking on wet of slippery floors. Incidentally, I have also customized my 2nd pair of Adidas Barricade IV as I found them worth every penny. Images of my 2nd pair of Custom Adidas Barricade IV Tennis Shoes here.

Maria Sharapova in Singapore

2007-12-31T16:50:00.001+08:00

The highly anticipated match between Maria Sharapova and Anna Chakvetadze here in Singapore had drawn much media attention over last couple of weeks and seemed to far surpass the “The Clash Times” between Roger Federer and Pete Sampras in KL. Whichever city Maria Sharapova plays in the media will always be there and Singapore is no exception. The prelude to the highly anticipated match drew huge crowds of fans to be part of the Sharapova phenomenon! Catching just a glimpse of the tennis glamor queen in person or in action at the Singapore Indoor stadium would be high on the list for tennis enthusiasts and Maria Sharapova fans alike.

We braved the rains to catch Sharapova in action!

I am glad that Singapore is finally bringing a high profile tennis match to its shores after years of being dormant. Our neighbors have fared much better attracting the likes of World Number one Roger Federer to play in the full fledge ATP Thailand Open (Bangkok) and Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur) Clash of Times exhibition match. Unfortunately Singapore has always been lagging behind the tennis scene, so an international tennis event like was a welcome relief to deprived tennis fans. Judging from the turnout at the Singapore Indoor Stadium,the crowds were in force to support tennis queen Maria Sharapova. Singapore has greatly encouraged tourism and we are trying to make the tiny island of Singapore to be an attractive place for tourists to visit. We managed to secure the world’s first night F1 event. Singapore is also gradually becoming a tourism hub with the launch of our integrated resorts that are currently being built. The Singapore Flyer is about to take off and now finally a high profile tennis event led by Maria Sharapova is being held here in Singapore. Being a centre for sports and tourism excellence, I am surprised that nothing had been done earlier to promote any international world class tennis events or tournaments.

Finally got to our seats... And just in time... Well almost...

Before the match was played, I was also bemused at some of the articles I was reading on how people would go to such great lengths to obtain items that were “touched” or “used” by Maria Sharapova. I was reading this article about “Everything Sharapova Touches Turns into Money” and about “Sharapova’s hotel items to be auctioned”. There were talks about several request for her toilet seat that was turned down to my amazement!

Sharapova versus Chakvetadze Match Review:

I felt both happy and disappointed…

Inside view of the Singapore Indoor Stadium

Happy that finally after all that was being said about having a Wimbledon like competition at the Padang and after very short spells with the Heineken Open and Honda Kah Challenger series, Singapore finally managed to have another world class tennis event. I clearly remembered when Sampras, Chang, Edberg and Lendl came into town and played at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. I also recalled the classic encounter between Andre Agassi and John McEnroe in the early 90’s also at the indoor stadium. Singapore’s international tennis scene had been dormant ever since. Finally this Sharapova match had reignited the spark amongst us Singapore tennis fans, hopefully not only to fizzle away later. My question now is.. Will this match be like all the others? Or the start of many more world class tennis events to come? It might be just similar to the others… Starting with so much hype only to fade away in distant memory? I pray that this won't be labeled in my memory as the day Maria Sharapova come, conquered and left Singapore? Never to return again…

Disappointed that for such a high profile tournaments the officiating was highly sub standard. Fortunately this was an exhibition match and the players didn’t really seem to take it that seriously. But some of the things that I had witnessed shocked me and I hope that if we were going to organize a world class tennis tournament of similar nature, many things needed to be worked on. Having watched 3 Thailand Opens which were done at the highest professional order, this tournament lacked officiating experience that soon even had the players and fans complaining. The ball boys and girls seem to have lacked training and they often looked confused. At one stage one of the ball boys forgot to remove the ball which was near the net area when the player were ready to serve. They were slow and not really coordinated. The lines men were abysmal in my opinion you could hardly hear them and were unsure of the calls. The umpire had to do most the work. Some obvious calls went unchecked. The players seemed to tolerate this for awhile, but after the match wore on and when the game was was starting to get tight, they began questioning the lines men and clearly showing their frustration.

I was surprised and embarrassed that this was going on in such a high profile tennis match, especially in Singapore. There should have been more training and coordination involved and at certain stages it looked really silly. I don’t see this at the Thailand Open. The organizers here have to learn from this and rectify problem areas fast should they want to compete with our neighbors. The linesmen were also fortunate as they got a taste of the pace of professional women's tennis which they already had much difficulty judging. The men hit much faster especially on ground strokes and serves. I think what the organizers should do is to send some local representatives to learn from some international tournaments and see how these events are coordinated. But sometimes if it’s just a one off match or exhibition, it’s not cost effective to do that but more economical to get trained line officials, ball boys and girls instead of getting players from the National Tennis team to cover this event. The French Open ball boy/ball girl has a selection criteria. So does Wimbledon. Wimbledon has a proud history of producing the best ball boys and ball girls from their program. I know these are Grand Slams and a tournament in Singapore cannot be compared to a Slam, but this goes to show just how much effort is put into organizing such an event and that no stone is left unturned. It gives a better impression professionally. Well that’s my personal opinion, but I believe for a tournament to be truly successful the organizers needs to give the audience and spectators their money’s worth so they will come again. Reading the local tennis forum in Singapore, we got a lot of mixed responses about the match.

Singapore has still a long way to go in terms of building a professional tennis circuit here. The results of the match didn’t really matter to me. The players didn’t take it so seriously and Anna Chakvetadze seemed be having an off day playing with a barrage of unforced errors and double faults which was rather amazing for somebody ranked 6th on the WTA rankings. She eventually went down 6-0, 7-6 (12/10) to Sharapova. Well everybody has an off day sometimes and maybe this was Anna’s. The main thing was that Singapore was again back on the international tennis map today after a long absence.

Do you love tennis? Check out online tennis betting at BetUS. Get tennis odds and lines for all major tennis tournaments at BetUS - the Web's top online sports betting and tennis news site.

Maria Sharapova Zouk Photos

2007-12-30T01:28:00.000+08:00

Serene had managed to get some special passes to catch both the world's number 5 and 6 WTA players live in the flesh.

Image the Maria Sharapova Cocktail Invitation pass at Zouk Singapore

Russian tennis stars Maria Sharapova and Anna Chakvetadze were at Zouk earlier today for a photo taking and meet the fans session.

Serene and Maria Sharapova

Serene and Anna Chakvetadze

This is was a special by invitation event only to promote the much anticipated Sharapova versus Chakvetadze tennis match in Singapore.

Maria "towers" above all our local ladies

More photos of Maria Sharapova and Anna Chakvetadze at Zouk Singapore here.

Regentville vs Normanton Park

2007-11-25T16:27:00.000+08:00

The Regentville tennis team hosted its fourth inter condo friendly tennis match of the year with the Normanton Park tennis team. The Normanton Park tennis team is based in the Western part of Singapore and are made up by a group of Filipino expats staying here in Singapore. We saw some familiar faces as some of the Normanton Park tennis players used to be very active with the Filipino Tennis Club. Their group has been founded several years ago lead by team organizer Richard Soliven who is a seasoned veteran in organizing tennis tournaments owing to his days being part of the original founding members of the Filipino Tennis Club. I had the pleasure of meeting Richard during our initial tennis friendly match with Regent Grove Condo earlier this year. With Richard’s help we aim to organize more inter condo/inter club friendly matches in the months to come and some plans have already been put on the drawing board to organize more matches in the near future.

Regentville versus Normanton Park Schedule of Play

Despite several days of bad weather owing to the year’s end monsoon season in Singapore, we were blessed with fine sunny weather which had plagued us for the last couple of friendly tennis matches that the Regentville tennis team had. The sunny weather was superb for a great inter condo tennis encounter between two very large tennis clubs. In all, I would have to say that this was the largest turn out so far in terms of players that have turn out for the Regentville friendly tennis matches. We had approximately close to about 40 to 50 players and family members who attended this match between the two teams.

We played a total of 12 doubles matches that were contested in a race to 6 games format. At 40 all (deuce) normal game rules applies but should the match go to a 2nd deuce “Sudden Death” ruling were to apply where the receiver will get to choose which side to receive from. At 6 games all, normal tiebreak rules apply. This format is to enable more quicker games giving all our players a chance to play more games. Most of the games were close and two of them had to be unfortunately decided in a gut wrenching tie breaker which also went down the wire. I was never a huge fan of tie breaks, as it now amounts more to nerves and luck than anything else to decide the winner. In all, we had a great session and enjoyed a great day of fun filled tennis. Great sporting spirit and camaraderie was observed between both tennis teams and I would like to commend both teams for their fantastic contribution to the game of amateur tennis here in Singapore.

Regentville & Normanton Park Players

I would like to thank Richard the organizer for the Normanton Park condo tennis team for helping organize this friendly, coordinating with all his players and making all the transport arrangements to get to Hougang. A big Thanks also goes to all the tennis players from Normanton Park as well as Regentville who have turned out in numbers to make this event a successful one.

Photos from the tennis friendly between Regentville & Normanton Park here.

Clash of Times Roger Federer versus Pete Sampras

2007-10-21T23:58:00.000+08:00

Some of my friends were asking me whether I would be interested in watching the historic meeting between arguably the world's two greatest players of all time. Former world number one Pete Sampras taking on current reigning world number one Roger Federer in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. The two had played each other only once professionally. Roger Federer was then a young an upcoming player, while Pete Sampras was close to the end of his career.

It was an extremely close encounter in the 4th round of Wimbledon 2001 where the younger Federer defeated Sampras in a tantalizing encounter 7-6, 5-7, 6-4, 6-7, 7-5 effectively ending Sampras' bid for his fifth straight Wimbledon crown to equal that of the great Bjorn Borg.

Ironically, it was Federer who would later go on to win 5 Wimbledons in a row to equal that coveted record held by Bjorn Borg all these years. This defeat to Federer also broke a 31 match Wimbledon streak that stretches back to July 1996! More details on Federer's historic Wimbledon win over Sampras found here.

Videos and Interviews on the Clash of Times between Roger Federer and Pete Sampras can be viewed below.

Head to Head Facts and Stats:

Here's my personal view on this match. While both Federer and Sampras are both considered probably the greatest players of their respective eras, the answer is clear who will come up on top due to the age difference. But I guess since this is a game of exhibition tennis, this match would be just for fans to appreciate a game of tennis between two great players. It never has been about to compare who is actually better as these comparisons should not be even considered in the first place.

While I applaud both Roger and Pete to come to the far East to play in this historic exhibition match, I feel that they should have done more during their time as top professionals to play in more ATP matches here in the far east. We in Asia would then be able to appreciate see how good they are when they are actually playing seriously to win a title as well as gain ranking points. Roger has already decided not to come to Thailand to participate in the Thailand Open two years running so I sincerely hope that he should come down to Thailand again to do some justice to all his loyal fans and supporters.

More details for the Clash of Times between Roger Federer and Pete Sampras can be found here.

Fans wanting to purchase tickets for the Clash of Times between Roger Federer and Pete Sampras in Kuala Lumpur can find more details here.

Thailand Open 2007

2007-10-20T18:10:00.001+08:00

There was already much hype many months before this year’s Thailand Open 2007 started that got everybody really excited. This year’s Thailand Open was supposed to field the best ever players in the tournament’s 5 year history. After all, this was the 2nd year running that Roger Federer has decided not to come down to the far east. The year before still had some big names like Marat Safin, James Blake, Tim Henman, Ivan Ljubicic and of course local Thai hero Paradorn Srichaphan. Thailand Open 2007 promised to be big right from the start. Despite not being able to secure reigning world number Roger Federer, the tournament organizers managed to get many big names such as Rafael Nadal (World Number 2), Novak Djokovic (World Number 3) and Andy Roddick (World Number 4). The list goes on with many exciting players such as:

David Ferrer
Fernando Verdasco
Feliciano Lopez
Tomas Berdych
Ivo Karlovic
Frank Dancevic
Sam Querrey
Joachim Johansson
Thomas Johansson
Dmitry Tursunov
Robin Soderling
Tommy Haas
Michael Llodra
Nicolas Mahut
Benjamin Becker
Jose Acasuso
Juan Martin Del Potro
Lee Hyung Taik
Carlos Moya

I thought to myself this was going to be a really big and highly anticipated tournament with such a great lineup. Unfortunately this was not to be. Before the tournament even started, two of the biggest names Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic had pulled out citing injuries (Nadal) and Fatigue (Djokovic). Incidentally Djokovic was fined $40,000 for the late withdrawal. My favorite player and local Thai hero Paradorn Srichaphan will also not be participating this year due to a lingering wrist injury that saw his ATP ranking drop considerably. He is now languishing in the ATP’s top 200 reaching as high as world number 9 in 2003. But being one of the tournament’s guess organizers, I still managed to catch glimpses of him during some games sitting at the stands with his fiancée Natalie Glebova.

When I was there for the last day of the qualifiers, I was surprised to find many of the players that were listed on the Thailand Open website missing from the draw. I later realized that many of the players who had signed up earlier such as David Ferrer, Joachim Johansson, Thomas Johansson, Robin Sodering, Jose Acasuso and Lee Hyung Taik will not be playing as I did not see their names on the schedule of play. One by one my hopes to see a tournament filled with exciting players were shattered. It seems that there was nobody left and the Thailand Open was reduced to a tournament filled with qualifiers and lucky losers. I still thought to myself, well, I still could watch Andy Roddick the Thailand Open's only top seed to be still in the draw. I finally got to see the American during the opening ceremony of the Thailand Open 2007.

Thailand Open 2007 Pass Front View. The pass on the left with the orange strip entitles you entry into the VIP Suite.

I was already unhappy with all the pull outs and I mentioned to Kenneth that for all you know Andy Roddick might even pull out as this year’s Thailand Open. This year's Thailand Open seemed plagued by bad fortune and injuries. He told me, that’s not possible as Andy Roddick was already here in Thailand, but I remembered the same thing happened with Marcos Baghdathis last year. I did not think so much of it and just watched the remaining matches on the first day. The next day, we were eagerly anticipating Andy Roddick's big match. Roddick was the only highest profile player left in the tournament and he was supposed to play at 7pm. We decided to watch an earlier doubles match held at Court 1, and then made our way to Center Court around 6.30pm. All seemed well as we filed into Center Court. Kenneth however mentioned that he heard somebody saying that Andy Roddick will not be playing, I thought that this was impossible as he was already practicing and appeared the day before during the opening ceremony. As we walked into the arena, and saw the names on the electronic sign broad our greatest fears came true! Andy Roddick had indeed pulled out and was replaced by “lucky loser” Phillip King. Later on, the Thailand Open organizers issued a press release about tennis players absence being uncommon had something that regularly happens. So I guess this year’s Thailand Open 2007 was simply due to plain bad luck. It was nice gesture on the part of the organizers to however issue a statement that entitles this year’s fans to have a 25% discount off next year’s 2008 Thailand Open. For those of you who purchased your tickets via Thai Ticket Major. You can download the official discount form here. So remember to keep your Thailand Open Passes for next year!

Thailand Open 2007 Pass Back View. The orange pass on the left entitles you entry into the VIP Suite.

Besides ALL the high profile player’s pulling out in the last minute. I was still happy to have made this year’s Thailand Open. I personally had to nearly “pull out” from this year’s Thailand Open 2007 myself. On the eve of flying down to Bangkok to catch the Thailand Open, my left knee for no apparent reason hurt so bad that I could hardly even walk. It was buckling all the time and the pain was so intense that I couldn’t even sleep. It was only until the final hour that I decided to make this trip. Even then, I had to be on pain killers and was hobbling around for the entire week. It finally got better after around 6 days or so. I later found out that it was a case of arthritis on my left knee which was diagnosed by my doctor that had cause me my troubles. So I don’t blame some of the tennis players for their sudden withdrawal from the Thailand Open, sometime it just happens due to plain back luck.

Highlights of This year’s 2007 Thailand Open
Injuries aside, this year’s Thailand Open had been an eventful one for me as since most of the high profile players had pulled out, we personally had more access to some of the up and coming players down at the Court One.

Watching a training session:
We also managed to "sneak" into one of the training sessions which was actually not open to public. While the ushers were not looking, we simply entered the training area and got a glimpse of how professional players train during before a game. I managed to get a picture of Thailand’s new number one player Danai Udomchoke after his training session.

Me pictured with Thailand's Number One Danai Udomchoke.

Personally I found Danai to be one of the nicest guys that I have ever met being such a high profile player. He obliged by taking photos with us and even chatted with us for sometime asking where we from. We also got to see the Thai twins Sonchat and Sanchai Ratiwatana going through their paces as well as Fernando Verdasco and Vince Spadea during their pre warm up games. We saw how their respective coaches prepared them for their matches and provided crucial tips to their players. It was interesting to note that their coaches merely “advised” and were just “onlookers” who told their players what to do and discussed tactics. They never hit with their players. Their respective players would have their own hitting partners.

Photos taken with the Thailand Open 2007 winner and finalist:
Kenneth, BK, Sandra and myself managed to get a few snapshots with some of the ATP tennis players. If most of the high profile players were present, I don’t think we would have been given such an opportunity. I managed take photos with Dmitry Tursunov and Benjamin Becker who were this year’s Thailand Open champion and finalist.

Me pictured here with Thailand Open 2007 champion Russia's Dmitry Tursunov.

To much of my surprise, Dmitry Tursunov was such popular guy. He was very polite and extremely accommodating to his fans. He doesn’t strike me as the person who is sarcastic and cynical during his email responses to fans on his blog. Dmitry Tursunov's ATP Blog can be found here.

Me pictured here with Thailand Open 2007 Runner's Up Germany's Benjamin Becker.

I have heard many negative things about “star” tennis players having an attitude problem. The players I've met so far with an exception of few, were extremely polite and nice. Personally I feel that they should be nice and accommodating to their fans. It’s after all the fans who influences their popularity and endorses their products. But really, it all boils down to humility and I have seen many instances of that during this year’s “Up Close and Personal Sessions” with the players. I sincerely hope to get a chance to meet more players again next year.

More Pictures with Thailand Open Players Here.

My stay at The Asia Tennis Academy:

I had the opportunity stay at The Asia Tennis Academy and visit my good friend Tomaz Mencinger a coach at the Academy. The Asia Tennis Academy was a great location for me to stay as it was just a 10 minute walk from the Impact Arena where the Thailand Open was held.

Outside the main office of The Tennis Academy Of Asia.

Incidentally Tomaz is also an avid writer and has produced many tennis instructional videos and blogs about the mental side of tennis. Check out his sites on How to Play Better Tennis and the Mental Side of Tennis. I had picked up a lot from Tomaz during his visit here to Singapore and when I met up with him again in Thailand during this trip. If you want to get more tennis instructional tips and learn the metal art of tennis be sure to visit his sites. I also thank Tomaz for being able to arrange for some VIP passes for me to watch the Thailand Open matches from the VIP box. Thanks again my friend :)

Catching up... Tomaz and me at The Asia Tennis Academy.

The Asia Tennis Academy has all the facilities that a tennis player could dream off. The highlight there would certainly be the two very well maintained and hardly used Indoor Red Clay Courts.

I have written a separate article on The Asia Tennis Academy here.
More Photos from The Asia Tennis Academy Here.

Thailand Open VIP Seats & Meeting the Chairman of the Thailand Open Organizing Committee:

Well the seats Tomaz arranged for us were no ordinary ones! It was a pass to the VIP seats where all the tournament official were! I had a great pleasure of meeting Khun Chaiyapak Siriwat, chairman of the Thailand Open Organizing Committee. He was nice enough to later on get us seats to the finals. So this was a real highlight. Again, I never met such a nice person, despite his busy schedule he still managed to find time to chat with us and ensured that we had all the food and refreshments. Thanks Khun Chaiyapak for accommodating us Singaporeans and making us feel at home at the Thailand Open.

VIP treatment. Me inside one of the VIP rooms/Lounges. VIP seats situated outside.

There is light after Paradorn:

What really impressed me about this year’s Thailand Open would be the sheer volume of up and coming Thai players. I see two players to watch out for in the upcoming years.

Kittipong Wachiramanowong, 17. What impresses me about him most, was how he managed to take 3 games off Tomas Berdych who was the only highest ranking player left in the draw and a world top 10 player. I foresee him to be the future of Thai tennis. Peerakiat Siriluethaiwarrana, 18, is also another player to watch out for. Both these players have all the shot making abilities, speed and tenacity but only lacked the experience. I have no doubt that these guys will be the future of Thai tennis in years to come.

It was great for Thai tennis as well when Thai twins Sonchat and Sanchai Ratiwatana made history being the first Thais to capture the Thailand Open doubles crown beating seasoned double veterans Michael Llodra and Nicolas Mahut. Being both only 25, I see the Ratiwatana twins destined for greater things on the doubles circuit. I also hope that Paradorn comes back from his long layoff and gives it one final shot to try to get back to the form which took him to top 10 in the world rankings.

Rising Star from Australia (next Hewitt?):

The 2007 Thailand Open witnessed a great young Aussie player in the making Nick Lindahl an 18 year old qualifier ranked 282 who upset world number 60, Sam Querrey. I see great potential for Nick to be a fantastic player in upcoming years. More information on Australia's Nick Lindahl here.

Thailand Open 2007 in Review:

Despite not watching the world’s best tennis players in action, I experienced the Thailand Open in a different light than the last couple of years I had attended. I never had a chance to interact with the players and meet ATP tournament officials. Staying and experiencing in The Asia Tennis Academy was a very unique and endearing experience. I would personally have to say that the 2007 Thailand Open was my most eventful and privileged year for me and I hope to be able to once again attend the tournament next year in 2008.

Parting shots from the 2007 Thailand Open.

Pictures of the Thailand Open 2007 can be found Here.
Pictures with Thailand Open 2007 Players Here.
Pictures of The Thai Tennis Academy Here.

Wilson K Six One 95 Issues

2007-09-05T11:55:00.001+08:00

After researching on the issues and problems with the Wilson K Factor K Six One 95 and writing to both Wilson and Royal Sporting House about my findings, I finally received a response from Wilson Asia Pacific via Royal Sporting House. I am surprised about the casualness in their response (see below). From the email I received the Wilson Asia Pacific representative clearly admits that the:

1. Handle size of my Wilson K Factor K Six One 95 is on the upper limit.
2. Weight of my Wilson K Factor K Six One 95 is on the lower limit.
3. Customer will experience different playability as well as grip handling issues due to issues (1) and (2).

The Wilson Asia Pacific representative then goes on to say that besides all these problems, the racquet which I returned was still in Wilson's acceptable production range! The tolerance level for the Wilson K Six One 95 tennis racquet ranges between:

Prestrung weight : 325 +/- 7.5 grams Prestrung balance : 32.5 +/- 1 cm

While I am fine with the prestrung balance of plus minus one 1 cm. I am absolutely shocked and appalled by the fact that Wilson has an approved quality control rating of plus minus 7.5 grams for all their K Six One 95 racquets. So basically if I were to play with two exact identical K Six One 95 racquets they will have a either a tolerance weight of plus minus 7.5 grams heavier or lighter and this weight difference is deemed acceptable by Wilson's quality control and research & development standards. If this is the case, I don't understand why Wilson would want to proudly print the specification of the racquet at the throat of their racquets when each of their specification might vary considerably. Their ending statement was basically saying that with all these problems stated above, everything is still within Wilson's production range and therefore is not considered a defective frame and the customer has to please understand this. I don't know whether I should laugh or cry when I actually tried to comprehend the explanation I was given. Here we are presented with all the facts in plain black and white and still after all that is said, Wilson is basically saying that we as paying customers should understand this and take ALL these inconsistencies as within production specs and denying outrightly that there are problems with the K Six One 95.

Personally I don't buy into this and I cannot and will not accept this explanation given by the Wilson representatives. I fully accept the fact that we are social tennis players and not touring professional tennis players but we are paying for a product expecting it to perform according to its specifications. I also accept the fact that most touring professional players racquets are individually customized racquets and not identical off the shelf factory models. But consistency and quality control levels are an absolute must be it for a touring tennis professional, a social player or a club level tennis player. Think about it, Roger Federer doesn't personally buy Wilson racquets. He merely endorses them, we as the paying customer are actually the ones who purchases them and most of the revenue that tennis racquet manufacturers get are from paying customers such as ourselves. Wilson should be the ones who should listen to the customer's feedback and make them happy with their products not the players. But so much emphasis has been put into a player to endorse their products. You can see from these two articles below the emphasis place on Roger Federer's K Six One Tour 90 which took 2 years to research and millions of pounds in investment. The Wilson Pro room article also emphasizes the need for consistent racquets suited to each individual player. If touring pros want consistency, shouldn't we as paying customers want to have the same customization and feeling to the products we purchase? Again we are not professionals and make a living playing on the atp circuit, but wouldn't we want the best in our equipment similar to that of a touring professional? Wouldn't we want to aspire to play like our favorite player on tour? I just hope Wilson will be able to address these issues and try to understand the needs of their customers and not only their touring professionals. We are the paying customers and are the ones that make the most revenue for them in terms of racquet sales.

On parting note. I want to Thank Royal Sporting House for thoroughly investigating this matter and coordinating with Wilson Asia pacific to investigate this issue. Royal Sporting House was not obliged to help me, but they did. Their customer relations were fantastic and I could have not asked for more in terms of the service level and commitment they provide to their customers.

Wilson K Six One 95 Differences

2007-08-13T23:20:00.000+08:00

There has been much talk recently of fake tennis racquets from China flooding the international markets. Even in the US market where counterfeit and piracy is almost non existent we find cases of fake counterfeit tennis racquets being sold on eBay! I recently wrote an article about a fake Babolat Pure Drive that I have managed to acquire from a friend. The issue about fake tennis racquets are not only about how authentic they look up to the hologram labels that are issued with them, but more of the problems found with the cheap low grade composite materials they are made with resulting in poor weight distribution and balance. This might also potentially get you injured as well as compromise your level of play.

It is therefore recommended that you get an authorized tennis racquet from the original manufacturer to get consistent playing results and quality proprietary composite materials and patented technology such as Babolat's Aero, Woofer and Cortex systems, Head's Liquid Metal, Flexpoint and most recently MicroGel technology and Wilson's Ncode nanotechnology and K Factor kerophite black technology to bring out the best in your game. While all this may be considered just marketing hype, the important thing for any player as well as manufacturer is to get consistent results and that is where getting an official tennis racquet or product from the original manufacturer is important. Up till today, I had strongly advocated this belief, but what I discovered to my horror will make me think twice about this! While I am still for purchasing an official licensed product from the original racquet manufacturers I strongly suggest being careful about the quality.

Let's face it, most of the major tennis racquet brands and models are made in China. In the past, Chinese products have been known for being shoddy and have very poor standards of quality control. But in recent years, China has become a major supplier in the consumer markets for just about anything and everything including tennis racquets under license for the major international tennis companies. Their manufacturing standards and quality control are now second to none and they have now been able to compete on the world stage where mass production and manufacturing are concerned.

I remembered reading about Wilson's famed St Vincent process and why touring pros like Pete Sampras exclusively swears by his Wilson Pro Staff racquets that have been made in St Vincent due to the stringent quality control standards. It can now be no longer assumed that if you purchased a genuine official product from the manufacturer, you will get consistent quality. My test results below had confirmed this and the findings had astounded me!

After selling away the Wilson K Six One 95 team, (review of the Wilson K Six One Team here) I decided something with a little more heft. The most likely candidate naturally would be the Wilson K Six One 95. Which is a wonderful racquet to play with. My review of the K Six One 95 found here. I was so impressed with this stick that I decided to purchase my second one last week. I felt a slight variation in grip size at the tennis store but I attributed that due to the plastic wrap as well as the brand new white original grip that came with the racquet. I didn't think much of this until I started using the racquet. It felt slightly different and I was struggling with the grip size which now felt bigger and I couldn’t really grip the racquet well. I thought maybe it was the problem with the new replacement grip so I decided to replace with something thinner. I tried it out the second time round but the Wilson K Six One 95 still felt a little different. I then compared it with my original K Six One 95 and to my amazement, the grip size varied somewhat. I still though it was due to the replacement being still new. I decided to remove both over grips from both my K Factor K Six One 95 and too my astonishment when I compared both 4 1/4 grip sizes side by side without anything on but the just the solid wooden shafts they felt different!

The racquet grip size of my first K Factor K Six One 95 felt noticeably smaller than my newer K Six One 95. I was dumbfounded and shocked that this could happen. I then spoke to several of my friends to seek their opinion. I showed them the differences and they agreed with me that they felt that the grip sizes differed considerably when comparing both racquets. I then concluded that if the racquet grip sizes differed, there might be also a possibility of a shift in weight distribution to weight of the racquet as well. I decided to do a racquet balance test. I was right! Not only was there a variation in the grip size, even the racquet weight distribution varied considerably! I only heard about this issue with fake or counterfeit tennis racquets, never with a genuine product so this was a first for me.

Racquet balance issues with my genuine Wilson K Six One 95 (Asian Model). I have balanced both Wilson K Six One 95 racquets at the throat with a pencil. You can clearly see from the image that both racquet shows inconsistent weight balance. The one which is further to the back is clearly more head light and was my first racquet which I purchased. The racquet which is closer facing is the second K Six One 95 that shows a more evenly balanced frame. Take note, that I have also removed the original replacement grips and have used the same set of strings to ensure that both racquets are consistent in weight balance.

Images of the K Six One 95 wooden racquet shaft. The difference in weight balance is clearly evident from the images above.

The results I am getting seem to suggest differences in the racquet. I am unsure if this could have been an isolated one off incident or a problem with the manufacturing batches. Since I got both identical racquets about a month apart. It could be just a variation in the racquet manufacturing batches but still Wilson should be more rigid in its quality control and manufacturing consistencies. I sent an email to Royal Sporting House and Wilson with my complaint. To date, Wilson has not responded but Royal Sporting House had offered to replace my racquet at no cost. Royal Sporting House is the sole distributor for Wilson and Babolat tennis racquets and products here in Singapore. I went to one of the Royal Sporting House outlets here in Singapore to get my Wilson K Six One 95 replaced. I was happy with the service provided by the staff at Royal Sporting House and their willingness to help out. The staff there gave me around nine K Six One 95 racquets (4 1/4 SL2 grip size) to choose from.

All of them but one had a grip size which felt larger than my first K Six One 95 racquet. So I decided to take the one which was similar in grip size as my first racquet. The K Six One 95 has generally poor paint work and it doesn't have the high quality finishes like those of Yonex tennis racquets. My Yonex RDS 001 shows supreme and identical finishing in every aspect and its paintwork was superb. For the Wilson K Six One 95 it had a poor finish especially at the black and white edges you can see the paint actually running off the lines and slight smudges. That is perhaps the difference between a made in China racquet compared to one that is manufactured in Japan. If you however compare the finishes of other made in China under license racquets such as Babolat, Prince and Head the finishing as well as the quality control is fairly consistent.

Scratches found on the side of the frame not due to any mishandling but more of the paintwork peeling off itself.

The K Six One 95 racquet that I picked out already had scratches on the paintwork and this was not through rough handling but more of it peeling out itself. There were also paint bubbles in the paint work, and trying to rub it off will result in the paint peeling off. I had no choice but to take this racquet as that was the only one which fit my grip size. Well at least one of my problems with this racquet had been resolved. Unfortunately my new replacement Wilson K Factor K Six One 95 was more even balanced than head light resulting in the racquet having a different feel and swing weight. I could feel the difference in power when I was hitting with the replacement K Six One 95. It had noticeably lesser power than my first racquet. While going through the racquets to find a suitable replacement, I also noticed that most of the racquets had different balance compared to my first K Six One 95.

Different positions for the Registered ® logo found on the top left hand corner of the Wilson K Six One 95.

Again, I am not sure if this is a manufacturing problem or since the racquets came from differing manufacturing sources and factories some of the manufacturing standards differ. I did however notice that the serial numbers were different suggesting both racquets were from a different manufacturing batch, that is assuming that the hologram labels and serial numbers were placed during the exact time of manufacture or not until much later after the K Six One 95's were all sorted together and sent to the various distribution channels to be then shipped overseas.

Different positions for the Registered ® logo found on the top right hand corner of the Wilson K Six One 95.

The hologram labels were only attached later on so tracking the date of manufacture, place of manufacture and times might be virtually impossible.

Some slight differences printed on the racquet suggesting that both my K Six One 95 could have came from different factories or manufacturing batches.

I also noticed some slight differences on my new Wilson K Factor K Six One 95 racquet. Besides the differences in weight balance, I found more evidence that backs my theory that the Wilson K Six One 95 is manufactured in different batches and perhaps in different factory locations. Certain printed areas of the Wilson K Six One 95 contained Registered ® as well the Trade Mark ™ logo at differing locations. I have highlighted the differences found in the two versions of my Wilson K Six One 95 in the images found below.

One on of my Wilson K Six One 95 contains the Trade Mark ™ logo on the throat of the racquet

My advice is that you will need to do some quality checks on your own before you buy any racquet. Take into consideration the weight balance and grip size. Be patient and if possible try to run through the entire batch at the store to find a model that is most consistent in weight balance and grip size.

The other K Six One 95 Contains the Registered ® on the throat of the racquet.

Once you've selected a racquet that you're happy with, do a racquet balance test with the other similar racquets that you've gone through to see if the balance is identical. Use 2 to 3 racquets as a guide. If you have the intension to buy your second racquet, it’s highly advisable to bring your first racquet to make comparisons. There might be slight variations in the balance and weight distribution of the racquet. I am not sure if this might be an issue with just my racquet or with certain batches of racquets but as a matter of being cautious, I would highly recommend that you to do some comparisons test before you make a purchase.

Registered ® as well the Trade Mark ™ on the sides of the racquet suggesting that these two Wilson K Six One 95 racquets came from two different manufacturing sources or locations.

In terms of playability, the Wilson K Factor K Six One 95 is an excellent racquet to play with. My review of the Wilson K Factor K Six One 95 can be found here. Overall I have no issues with the performance of this racquet, except for the experiences that I've encountered here. More images of the Wilson K Six One 95 here.

Inter Condo Friendly Regent Grove versus Regentville Condo

2007-07-25T21:38:00.000+08:00

The Regentville tennis team played the 2nd leg friendly match against Regent Grove condo at Regentville condo Hougang on the 21st of July. The weather for the last couple of days prior to the friendly not been ideal for tennis due to frequent showers in the late afternoon. The match between the two condos was supposed to commence at 5pm but at around 4pm it starting drizzling slightly and by 4.15 pm the rain got heavier and the tennis courts were completely drenched.

Bird's eye view of the tennis courts from my unit.

I decided to postpone the match to another day but Luis, the organizer for Regent Grove condo said that his players were already on their way and they wanted to wait out the rain. The rain did eventually stop, and it took about an hour to dry the tennis courts so that they will be in playable condition. The courts were still damp however, and not really ideal for playing great tennis but we commenced with the matches anyway.

Regentville & Regent Grove condo tennis players

We managed to have 4 doubles matches before the rain came again to finally stop play for the day. Despite the rain, our spirits were not dampened and both sides had great fun and an enjoyable time. Since we did not complete all the matches, a rematch will be held within the next couple of weeks. I would like to take the opportunity to thank both the Regentville condo tennis team as well as the Regent Grove condo team for their participation. We look forward to having the rematch soon.

Photos from 2nd leg of the Regentville versus Regent Grove condo here.

Andre wins FTC 2007 B2 Singles title

2007-07-08T09:52:00.000+08:00

On behalf of the Regentville tennis blog and the entire Regentville condo tennis team, I would like to congratulate Andre for winning his first Filipino Tennis Club (FTC) class B2 singles title for 2007 held at Farrer Park Tennis Center. The Filipino Tennis Club regularly hold 3 tournaments a year with different competing classes that caters for different tennis skill levels. The club was founded by a bunch of Filipino expats who are based here in Singapore. They have 4 different classes C, B2, B1 and A for more information please visit their website Filipino Tennis Club.

Congratulations again to Andre Castillo (picture above) for winning the Filipino Tennis Club B2 singles event.

Prior to that, Andre had won two back to back FTC doubles class C event with different team mates, so this hat trick for Andre and his first singles title has shown that Andre is a force to be reckoned with in the singles circuit and cannot be only considered a doubles specialist. Much credit has to be given to Andre as he had come back from a very bad case of tennis elbow that sidelined him for many months. He also had to contend with a very difficult passage to the finals as the Filipino Tennis Club class B2 event this year had a very strong field of players. Andre kept his composure to win his first singles title. Let's hope Andre and the Regentville tennis team can continue bringing more medals to Regentville. Congrats again Andre for your well deserved victory and we hope that you continue to win more events in the different class events.

Wilson K Factor K Six One Team

2007-05-29T12:16:00.000+08:00

After playing with the Yonex RDS 001 (Yonex RDS 001 review here) and the Babolat Aero Pro Drive, I felt that I wasn’t able to really exploit the full potential of my backhand. Gone were the days when I was able to hit the single handed backhand down the line or whip my backhand cross court with much ease. I guess this was attributed to the fact that much of my backhand comes from a very wristy action and short swing. Racquet head speed from my game was generated from a static position rather than a long swing. I had much success with the Head Flexpoint Instinct which I guess was one of the best racquets I used and played with so far. The only gripe I had with it was that it didn’t have the power to finish off my shots when I needed it. I have been regulating between my Yonex RDS 001 and my Babolat Aero Pro Drive and needed to get my back hand game back into contention. The other thing I missed was having the ability to serve a big one down the middle or T section of the service box and both the Yonex RDS 001 and Babolat Aero Pro Drive could not provide much success and consistency with. As a result of that I begin looking for something which was had a lighter frame, a more hefty swing weight and had a more even balance.

The Head MicroGEL Extreme was a major contender that I wanted to try out but unfortunately has not hit the Singapore markets yet. I was also tempted to try out the Wilson N-Blade but the throat didn’t feel that comfortable in my hands probably due to the matte paintwork it felt very rough. Wilson had just recently introduced the K Factor KSix-One series which comprises of Roger Federer's magical wand the K Factor K-Six One 90, K Factor K-Six-One 95, K Factor K-Six One 18x20 and finally the K Factor K-Six One Team. There is even an extended 27.5 inch version the K Factor K-Six One X. I had previously used both the Wilson N-Code N61-90 and the Wilson N-Code N61-95 both Asian versions but never tried the team version of this racquet. I thus decided to give the KSix-One team a try.

My initial impression of this racquet was that very light and comes with an very evenly balanced feel. At 289 grams unstrung, it felt like a very light tweener racquet. But don’t let the weight fool you. This racquet hardly had any power loaded into it compared to tweener racquets of this category and weight. I strung Wilson K Factor KSix-One team at 53 pounds and thought it will be suitable enough, but I think something like 50 pounds would bring the power level a notch higher but control could be compromised. I can’t comment here until I use the racquet at a lower tension. The lack of power also could be attributed to the compact 18x20 string pattern or lack of weight that provides the mass to hit the ball solidly with pace. The other thing about the racquet is that it had a Babolat Racquet Diagnostic Center (RDC) stiffness rating of 59 which stated in its specs on tennis warehouse.

This was a flexible arm friendly racquet and the flex could be easy felt when just bouncing the ball on the ground with the racquet. You could easily feel the frame flexing from just the feedback received by bouncing the ball on the ground. From a person who had experienced a bad case of tennis elbow (my review on tennis elbow treatment here) and still suffer some pain after a game, this would the racquet for you. It was very easy and comfortable on both the arm, shoulders, wrists and most importantly elbow possibly due to its lightness, balanced weight as well as flexible frame. I hardly experience any aches or pain in my elbow or arms after around 3 hours of use.

If you’re are a heavier player like me, or find yourself in a situation where you were to play in longer marathon matches, the Wilson K Factor KSix-One team is a great candidate for these trying conditions. It would be a great weapon of choice, as you can have the energy to hit all day long with it. The Wilson K Factor KSix-One team still has excellent control, but I just didn’t find it to have enough juice for my liking. I believe reducing the tension would greatly help, but in general i felt frustrated at times, as everything I was hitting, even my better shots were getting played back which basically meant that I had to play more shots. When you did try to go for a winner you'll sometimes tend to over cook the shot due to impatience then lack of control. It’s definitely not the type of racquet which you would use to blow your opponents off the court, but was more of a control oriented patient player's stick. If you like to blow your opponent off the court with your ground strokes, this is NOT the racquet for you. If you like to however play an intelligent game and set up points with the control and precision of this racquet the Wilson KSix-One team might be just the stick you’re looking for.

When in comes to the serve, the Wilson KSix-One team was the exact opposite compared to hitting ground strokes. I was able to generate lots of pace and accuracy with my serves. The most deadly was with the serve directly down the middle T court of the service box. I could easily win cheap points with the serves though either aces or good first serves. The 2nd serve was a little more tricky as this being a lighter frame, you would have to rely on lots of head speed instead of mass to whip the ball and create spin. I found myself making slightly more double faults then compared to hitting with a heavier frame. I guess will need to just get used to the Wilson KSix-One team and adjust accordingly to the lighter weight.

But for the serves, the Wilson KSix-One team was really nice and I found great pace using it. It was an absolute joy to serve with it, the kickers out wide were however a little bit more difficult to execute and needs a little bit more adjusting. The Wilson KSix-One team was also easier on the arm while serving. All this while I did not experience any pain in the arms or wrist while serving. This is a great asset as serving can tire you a lot as well as cause some pain and discomfort during long matches if you’re carrying a previous injury. The comfort and feel as well as the pace that the Wilson KSix-One team can generate while serving will definitely go a long way to help with your service game and shoulder if you had any previous tennis related injuries to your shoulder, wrist or elbow. I would highly recommend the Wilson KSix-One team as it is an exceptional racquet if you’re coming back from a long layoff or have any injury or have had problems with tennis elbow (treatment for tennis elbow here). I think it’s flexibility made much of the difference providing the much needed comfort on the racquet, lightness did help somewhat but having an overly light stiff racquet and not have the proper stroke mechanics can easily injure you.

According to some reviews the Wilson K Factor KSix-One team is supposed to have a large or a generous sweet spot. After using this racquet for a couple of sessions, I have to personally disagree with this statement. This racquet has one of the smallest sweet spots that I have ever played with. When hitting the “supposedly” sweet spot, you do get some pace, but it’s a very damped and dull feeling. You don’t get the usual lively feeling of your racquet impacting the ball. This could be the result of having such a flexible frame. Feel is compromised, but since you receive little feedback off the frame, this means lesser vibration transferred to your arm giving you a more comfortable overall experience with a dampened feel. It could be just the dampened feel compromising the sweet spot and while the sweet spot might have been indeed generous. The Wilson K Factor KSix-One team, is a great racquet to develop full solid swings. Due to its lighter frame and balanced feel, the Wilson K Factor KSix-One team is great for players who have solid strokes but just can’t wield those heavier player frames. This racquet will greatly improve your swing techniques. I would say that it greatly benefits those who hit with the single handed or one handed backhand. It will help a player develop good consistent fluid strokes to transition to a heavier player frame later on.

As mentioned before, this is not a tweener racquet, so forget about hitting those half hearted strokes. With this racquet, incomplete shots will be punished by your opponents. Anything other a solid full bodied swing will win points for you. Spin potential with the Wilson K Factor KSix-One team requires a long fluid motion, it is able to generate spin, but not really that pronounced. I was surprised that it could generate any spin at all with an 18x20 compact string pattern. The KSix-One team had some spin potential, but not very pronounced but if need be spin can be generated. You will however require a faster swing motion, as you will have to bear in mind that this is a lighter racquet non tweener racquet, with a flexible frame and has a denser string pattern. There will be not much momentum from the mass of the racquet to carry your swing through, as a result of that, a higher swing speed is needed to create enough effort to generate spin. I suppose that’s the reason why Wilson built the KSix-One team with heavier balanced swing weight of 325 to compensate for the lightness, flexibility of the frame and dense 18x20 string pattern.

In competitive action, the Wilson KSix-One team is more of a precision response stick then something that would blow your opponent of the courts. This stick emphasizes more patience and control, it had the power to do the job, but you will need to find the window of opportunity before you can go for that winning shot. Again, I have to stress that the Wilson KSix-One team is about playing a patient controlled game. If you like make a statement with power, you can forget about it with this racquet with the exception of the serves. With that said, we have often heard that sometimes the best form of offense is defense, well this racquet can greatly assist to turn a defensive situation into an offensive one. On many occasions especially while playing doubles, I had to cover an empty back court. This racquet is maneuverable and light enough on many occasions to enable me to hit a defensive lob or an offensive running shot due to its light weight nature. I had won several points on a couple of occasions while having to play defensively.

I was also very surprised that since the racquet was so light, the slices on both the forehand and back hand sides were so well control compared to the much heavier racquets I have used. Slicing normally with lighter racquet with an open string pattern would normally balloon the ball right out of the court if not executed with the right timing. The only fact that I could attribute to is that it had a denser 18x20 string pattern. The only other racquet that gave me that much control when I was slicing the ball was the Head Flexpoint Prestige and that too had a 18x20 string pattern. It seems so far for me, a denser string pattern would help greatly with the forehand and backhand slice to provide a more control and solid response. This racquet would have been the perfect weapon if it had a little more juice and maybe a little bit more weight.

Returning of serves and hitting groundstrokes were easy if there were at moderate pace. But if your opponent has a big serve and plays with big ground strokes, I find that you might be at the receiving end most of the time and you’ll have to rely on turning defense to offense. It’s difficult to hit a solid return with pace when the shots are being driven hard by your opponent. The racquet also wobbles, maybe due to lack of enough weight when receiving hard groundstrokes or taking a big serve. Most of the time, I’ll end up having to chip or block the shot which leaves me open to further attacks. I personally feel with more time, I would be able to counter the effects of the lightness by finding the correct angles of attack. I am only recently getting a feel and starting the appreciate the Wilson K Six One team. I will have to weight both the advantages and limitations of this racquet to play it to its full potential. I feel that if it was around 295 to 300 grams unstrung (its currently at 289 unstrung) it would have settled the issue of stability as well as added more juice to the shots due to the added mass. Of course, I can choose to customize this racquet by adding lead weights. I have however never been the type to modify the specs of the racquet manually and would rather use what’s provided off the self found in the standard factory models.

I had the chance to play with both the Asian version of the Wilson K Six One 95 (310 grams unstrung), and the US version of the Wilson K Six One 95 (332 grams unstrung) and the Team version of the Wilson K Six One Team the current racquet that I am reviewing now. Of course each of them would vary differently in terms of weight but when compared to the their Ncode predecessors, although each of the three newer K Factor series were identical in weight, they felt much lighter when swung (note all my comparisons are done for both the Wilson Ncode and Wilson K Factor racquets with strings on). I think Wilson might have adjusted the swing weight and balance of their new K Factor series a little bit as they felt generally lighter then their Ncode predecessors.

I also felt since Wilson went through such lengths to keep the same color for K Factor KSix-One series which comprises the K Factor K-Six One 90, K Factor K-Six-One 95, K Factor K-Six-One 95 X, and K Factor K-Six One 18x20, why did they change the cosmetics to for the K Factor K-Six One Team? The Team model is the only racquet which has the “K” at the sides of the racquet painted in Silver. While the other racquets mentioned are painted in black. I felt they should have kept their consistency here. This “silver” color was very much in line with the Wilson N-Six One 95 that had a silver “PS” Pro Staff instead of the yellow “PS” painted at the top of the racquet (see image on the right depicting the Ncode N-Six One Team).

The specs are exactly the same for the Ncode N-Six One Team and the K Factor K-Six One Team models but the K-Six One Team felt noticeably “lighter” I believe the weight could be the same, but the balance had been changed so there is a huge difference in feel. Surprisingly in my research the Wilson K Factor K Six One Team was NOT the lightest in the Wilson K Factor K Six One line up!

There is apparently a K Six One version of the K Factor series called the K Six One Lite which comes in a 102 sq inch head size, and unstrung weight of 249 grams and has a 16x20 string pattern.

The K logos printed on the sides are also in white. Looking from the head size, weight and string pattern Wilson’s K Six One Lite would most likely would be something of a tweener lightweight racquet with lots of power.

In conclusion, I would highly recommend the Wilson K Six-One team if:

1. You want to develop your strokes and full swings especially if you’re a one handed backhand player.
2. You’re returning from a long layoff or injury. Or currently have some injury but still want to play some light tennis that will not permanently injure you.
3. You play an intelligent counter attacking game where power is not an issue but you use patience and precision to win points.
4. You have a big serve.
5. You’re not that fit or you find player racquets too heavy for you to last through the whole match.
6. You’re an older or senior player who doesn’t have the strength to wield a player’s frame but have the trademarks strokes.
7. You're a junior player or a lady player who has full solid strokes but lacks the strength to wield a player's racquet.
8. You're a doubles player who's game revolves around a big serve with a slice and dice game. This power on serve, lighter maneuverable racquet will definitely suite you.

It’s a great overall player’s racquet, but don’t expect to blow your opponents of the court with some power hitting as it totally lacks the power of a tweener racquet. If you want to build your game with solid strokes and work on tactics and game play you might want to give this racquet a spin. I sincerely hope my review on the Wilson KSix One team had been useful to you. Download full specs of the Wilson K Six One Team here. If you have any comments or suggestions please feel free to contact me or add your comments here.

Battle of Surfaces Video

2007-05-23T15:53:00.000+08:00

Much hype and anticipation was generated to find out who was the best player on this hybrid half grass half clay surface and who would be finally crowned the “King of Surfaces”. All of us anticipated that the battle of surfaces match would be televised live on TV or at least the Tennis Channel would have a “live” broadcast. The official Battle of the Surfaces website claimed that they would have extensive worldwide coverage of this event and this content was taken directly from the Official Battle of the Surfaces website…

“This match is being broadcasted in 2 May 2007 in Indian, Japan, South Africa, South America, Brazil, Hispanic US, Sub Korea, Germany, South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Macao, Thailand, Switzerland, Russia, Ukraine, Netherlands, Singapore, Middle East, UAE, Dubai”.

Singapore was mentioned as one of the countries, but sadly, nothing was televised here in Singapore or even the Tennis Channel for that matter. I am sure many tennis fans would have wanted to know how the match that “almost didn’t happen” turned out to be like. Yes, the battle of the surfaces very nearly didn’t happen! The original grass turf did not cope well to the indoor location after it was placed there for a couple of days and eventually fell victim to worms.

A brand new grass surface had to be re laid the night before the anticipated battle of the surfaces event. Fortunately all turned up well after a fascinating encounter between the world’s number one Roger Federer the undisputed King of Grass, against Rafael Nadal the world’s number two who owns the longest winning streak on clay and undisputed king of the clay courts. After the dust settled, it was Nadal whom triumphed over Federer 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (12-10) in a close but highly entertaining encounter on this hybrid, one of a kind tennis court surface. The match had to go down to the wire and had to be decided in a gut wrenching tie breaker. In the end Rafael Nadal was crowned “King of Surfaces” after being victorious in this historic event.

I had also received a couple of hits on my site in the run up to the battle of surfaces exhibition match held in Mallorca Spain. Most of my tennis blog readers were looking for more information about the “battle of the surfaces”, “images” and “photos” of the battle of the surfaces exhibition tennis match as well as most importantly video footage or video clip of this classic half grass, half clay encounter between the king of clay versus the king of grass.

Since nothing was televised here in Singapore, I had to scour the net for the best video quality I could find on the match to bring them to you here on the Regentville tennis blog.

Most of the videos I found were very low quality so I was hoping to find something that my tennis blog readers could see clearly and actually visualize the entire match and how it went. Some of the videos also answer my initial question on footwear as both different surfaces would require specialized footwear for both the clay and grass surfaces. Apparently the players have to change their shoes each time they switch sides as you can see from the video footage.

These are the best battle of surfaces videos that I could find courtesy of youtube.com. If any of you have a high quality video streaming or mpeg version of the battle of the surface tennis match. Please feel free to send them to me via direct download via disc.

The Battle of Surfaces

2007-04-27T17:30:00.000+08:00

When I heard about “The Battle of Surfaces” tennis exhibition match I was thinking to myself this can’t this be possible? The organizers of this match however have pulled off this once in a lifetime match up pitting the world’s top two players Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal on tennis court featuring two different surfaces that each of them are undisputed in! The venue Mallorca Spain, the hometown of current world number 2 Rafael Nadal. One tennis court made half or clay and half of grass. Initially I thought this was just a gimmick, just like the time Federer and Agassi played on a synthetic court on the Dubai helipad. But after going to “The Battle of Surfaces” official website and watching the video of the half clay, half grass tennis court I was rather intrigued by the possibilities of who is better or at least who would be able to adapt more quickly to the change of surfaces. My best bet for this match would be Federer, as Nadal strikes me as a player who specializes on just clay courts but Federer is more of an all rounder. In my opinion, if there was no Nadal in his way, Federer will easily pick up his Roland Garros title that has eluded him since. Federer however this year hasn’t been exactly the pillar of confidence and strength that he has always been on court. Federer was beaten twice in weeks by Cañas who had just come back from a long layoff after a doping ban and had just conceded the Monte Carlo title to Nadal a few days ago. Nadal is already sending a very strong signal of his intensions of making a hat trick of 3 Rolland Garros titles in a row and his intension after the Monte Carlo match was very clear. On the European red clay, Federer will have his job cut out for him.

I personally feel that “The Battle of Surfaces” challenge, although an intriguing prospect would be better enjoyed and appreciated more as a game of exhibition tennis. I don’t think either Federer or Nadal would be taking this match seriously, as Federer himself remarked that he will be more laid back with this match. The risk of injury is very real, as these are two completely different contrasting surfaces to play on and on the wide end of the spectrum. If it were to be hard courts and clay courts instead, they at least would have shared some similar characteristics compared to that of grass which is easier to make the transition. Switching from one surface to the next might have drastic consequences; one can risk injuries due the extreme changes of the surface. Furthermore, they would have to play very extremely different games then they are used to playing and vary their games accordingly. As mentioned before, the player who will win this match is the player would is able to adapt to the situation more quickly. Even on their favored surface, they will be returning to a different surface and receiving on another. I will be tough in my opinion to get any groove or rhythm to the game. The constant changing of sides will not help the players as well. My biggest question is that would they have to change shoes as players wear different shoes for grass and clay tennis courts? (difference between clay court and hard court shoes here).

I think what would have been more interesting would be to have something like a year end tennis Masters Cup event, but each of the players will have to participate on all 4 different major surfaces. Hard court, Grass court, Clay court and Carpet/Synthetic. The most adaptable and consistent players will have to compete on all 4 different surfaces. The winners will advance to the next group advance to the next group. A half clay, half grass surface like the one on the Battle of surfaces event just does not make any sense and adds a gimmicky element to this challenge. We’ll just have to wait to see what eventually happens in the exhibition match to eventually comment on “The Battle of Surfaces”.

Inter Condo Friendly Regent Grove versus Regentville Condo

2007-04-21T23:57:00.000+08:00

The Regentville condo tennis team traveled away for the first leg of a two leg friendly match against Regent Grove condo based Choa Chu Kang North 7. It is within short walking distance to the Yee Tee MRT Station. Although heavy rains threatened to sideline our friendly tennis match, we were fortunate enough that it stopped and the sun came up just in time to assist with drying up the courts. Regent Grove condo had very nice courts which were located at the top of the 5th story multi storey cark park very similar to that of Regentville cond o.

Regent Grove versus Regentville Player Line up

The courts were partially sheltered from light rain and sun by a cloth/canvas meshing material held up by a structure at up at the back of the courts. Since it was still raining at around 4:45pm, I was concerned that we would have to postpone the match to a later time or cancel the entire match all together. Luis the organizer for Regent Grove condo however still informed me confidently that the match was still on which puzzled us slightly as I was wondering how could we possibly manage to dry the courts in time? When we all arrived just shortly before 5pm, the courts were still very wet but the rain had just stopped and the sun was out. We proceeded to dry the court, it was only then I realized why Luis was confident that we could try the courts very quickly. Regent Grove condo has 3 tennis courts sitting side by side and on each side of a tennis court, there were these big drainage holes that drained the water downstairs. So therefore, we would not encounter any problems with wet balls of patches once the water was totally drained from the tennis court. I think it took only like 15 minutes for the courts to be completely playable. In the end, we were only around half and hour or so behind schedule before the first match started.

Snapshot of the Regentville Tennis Team.

We had a total of one singles match, two mixed doubles matches and a handful of men’s double matches. Since we had a very large group, the match was played in a race to 6 games where Ad rules apply. At 5 games all, a tie breaker will be played to decide the eventual winner of the match. The Regent Grove tennis players consisted of an ALL Filipino expat group based here in Singapore. There was only one Singaporean player who was in their team, and he was a former Singapore National Player and coach Hock Chai. A handful of the Regent Grove condo players were also members of the local Filipino Tennis Club whom our Filipino Regentville players were already acquainted with and it was nice to know that they were playing having a friendly game against their fellow country men here in Singapore. Like the Regentville condo players, Regent Grove condo also has a large number of tennis players so we were able to have a number of matches. A handful of these matches were tough and our opponents were really good, we had a couple of close matches which was very good as it tested the resolve of both teams. It was a very good learning experience for us having gotten a chance to play with many seasoned players who had experience playing tennis at a competitively such as Jojo and Hock Chai. We were honored to have the opportunity of having such seasoned players playing with us.

On behalf of the Regentville tennis team, I would like to thank Luis and Richard the organizers for Regent Grove condo for hosting us and being such wonderful hosts, as well as all the Regent Grove tennis players who came down to make this even a huge success. We look forward to the return leg in May where Regentville condo will play host this time round. We had a fun filled weekend of entertaining tennis and made many new friends in the process.

More Photos of the Regent Grove versus Regentville Tennis Friendly Here.

Nadal & Roddick to play in Thailand

2007-04-02T02:15:00.000+08:00

Great News for local tennis fans and enthusiasts in this region. The current world's number 2 and number 3 players Rafael Nadal and Andy Roddick will play in this year’s Thailand Open South East Asia's premier tennis event held at Bangkok's massive Impact Arena Muang Thong Thani. With the likes of Paradorn Srichaphan and Danai Udomchoke who have already confirmed their attendance this year’s Thailand Open promises to pull in more fans to witness this premier event in South East Asia. Brit Andy Murray has already signed up but it is not known whether the defending champion James Blake of USA will return to defend his crown. More information about Nadal and Roddick playing in the Thailand Open found here.

My greatest question is whether the Swiss master will return this year. Roger Federer the 2004 and 2005 Thailand Open champion pulled out last year to defend Swiss pride as Switzerland had to play the Davis Cup World Group playoff to remain in the World Group. Federer did just that by keeping Switzerland in the World Group. It is no secret that Roger likes to come to Asia to play and he has constantly said on several occasions that if his schedule permits he will like to come to Asia to play hopefully he returns this year to contest of the Thailand Open 2007 crown.

I am however both thrilled and relieved that the Thailand Open organizers have managed to attract big names like Rafael Nadal as well as Andy Roddick. A Rod was the losing finalist in 2004 against Roger Federer and I am sure that he would like to go one up this time to capture the South East Asian tennis crown in Thailand. This will be the first outing for 2 time Roland Garros champion and current world's number 2 Rafael Nadal to the Far East.

I foresee The "Spanish Bull" to be a major crowd puller to this event and have many fans here in Asia. His presence will be just as good or maybe even better as having Roger Federer around. In my review of last year's 2006 Thailand Open, I noted that although the Thailand Open organizers managed to bring in some bigger names Roger Federer was a missing and it showed by the drop in attendance and fan fare.

Nadal's participation this year will be a huge affair considering his popularity here in Asia will bring in record crowds. It will be nice if Federer decides to contest for the Thailand Open crown this year and the possibility of having to see a repeat of the 2004 finals the World's number one and number two players playing in Asia to a huge sellout crowd. I however would like to congratulate the Thailand Open organizers for pulling off a major coup by managing to get Nadal and Roddick to sign up for this year’s 2007 Thailand Open. My only hope now is that all of them stay fit and do not have any commitments that might make them pull out of the tournament. This has happened on many occasions in many cases these are due to unforeseen circumstances so I will have to keep my fingers crossed for them to finally make it to Thailand. I remembered something funny happening at last year's Thailand Open somebody in the crowd shouted "Vamos" the trade mark cry of the Spanish Bull Rafael Nadal. If all goes well, we will hear this famous cry from the man in person!

Fake Babolat Pure Drive

2007-03-28T01:15:00.000+08:00

Recently, there have been several reports and articles documenting fake tennis racquets flooding the market especially on the web. Most tennis racquets especially Head, Wilson and Babolat are manufactured under license and in accordance to strict patent and manufacturing guidelines from their respective makers. Manufacturers also maintain a high level of quality control in adhering to precise model specifications. There is also a possibility that some stock were leaked out or stolen finding its way into the black market. But since these are originals, there wouldn't be much of an issue to the buyer. What we would be actually more concerned about are the actual fake or counterfeit tennis racquets that are a replica or mimics the original tennis racquet. I had to see one for myself before I could actually make distinctions and comment on fake tennis racquets, build quality and how close are they to the original. I was fortunate enough to experience and see first hand how a fake Babolat Pure Drive looked like courtesy of Kenneth's dad who managed to acquire a fake Babolat Pure Drive from China for an amazing $10 Singapore dollars!

Before proceeding with this article, I would like to highlight a few things. I am in NO way encouraging the purchase of fake or counterfeit goods. Besides running the risk of prosecution in certain countries, many counterfeit products use inferior and shoddy materials as well as have differences in weight balance/distribution, stiffness and other specifications. All proprietary technologies unique to an original manufacturer's frame such as Babolat's Woofer/Aero Modular/Cortex technology, Wilson's NCode nanotechnology as well as Head's Liquid Metal, Flexpoint and its latest MicroGel technologies will be all missing. What you get is just something that looks almost identical but minus all these technologies that differentiates as well as give each frame, manufacturer and model its specific uniqueness and characteristics.

Which is the genuine Babolat Pure Drive? Read more below to find out?

Type of fake or different grades of fakes.

As with many counterfeit and fake goods. There are various degrees and quality of a counterfeit product. This can be from the actual likeness of the product to the quality materials and workmanship used on the product. As with fake watches, wallets and clothing some fakes can be identified almost immediately but some require a second look. These can be classified by grades, for instance like in watches and wallets there are Grade s A fakes which seem extremely similar and mimics the likeness of the original in quality and appearance. As the class range goes lower, they become generally poor counterfeit products which anybody can easily spot. In terms of tennis racquets, from what I heard there are some really obvious fakes and from one look you could tell it's an outright counterfeit. There are however some really good Grade A fakes that look very similar to the real genuine tennis racquet. These in my opinion are the ones that you could get fooled with.

Can you spot which of the two racquets above is the fake Babolat Pure Drive? The one on the left is the fake. Note the more Elongated head size of the fake Pure Drive.

The subject on display here is a fake Babolat Pure Drive. I wouldn't say this is a class A fake, as if you've played and used a Babolat Pure Drive from the initial look you'll know that it's not a good fake. I must however say that if you're just glancing at the fake Babolat Pure Drive from a distance, and not look at it up close, you'll think that it's the real thing. I have taken a couple of photos comparing the genuine Babolat Pure Drive with the Fake. I think it will be a no brainer for those who are owners of the Babolat Pure Drive. But I must say for SGD$10 it's pretty cheap and looks really good in terms of color and paintwork.

Differences:

In terms of weight, racquet balance and grip size it's totally off the mark and this is where somebody could really get hurt. The strings which came with the racquet reminds me more of loosely strung nylon fishing line then tennis guts. I have not tried hitting with it as most likely you'll be launching the balls to the moon with the low tension and the super light weight of this racquet. It is also very head heavy compared to the near balance weight of the genuine Babolat Pure Drive. The head of the racquet just dropped when I tried to balance the racquet by the throat. The grip size felt something like an even SL0 equivalent to a L4 even smaller than a 4 1/8!

The frame of the fake Babolat Pure Drive (bottom) is much thinner than the genuine one.

The shape of the head is also more oval and elongated compared to the original Babolat Pure Drive standard which is very obvious. The other most obvious difference is the thickness and width of the frame. It is very thin throughout the length of the entire frame as well as the neck of the racquet which gives it away almost immediately. Like I mentioned before, the paintwork is really very good and color is slightly only off from the blue neon paintwork. It looks more like the old paintwork of the first generation Babolat Pure Drive but like I said before the color is very good. The main impressive thing about this fake Babolat Pure Drive was the fact that at the part where the hologram of authenticity should be, there was the words warranty void if hologram is missing that's exactly what's printed on the original if the hologram was removed. Maybe there is no sticker there just to say "Hey look I’ve purchased a fake Babolat Pure Drive"! :)

The fake Babolat Pure Drive even has the "If Hologram Missing No Warranty" printed on it! Even fakes have attention to details! Also take note of the color variation. Build quality & paintwork is also surprisingly good!

For those who have other models of counterfeit or fake tennis racquets, please send me your pictures as well as a short brief of how you found the racquet. Once again I would highly recommend against purchasing such fake tennis racquets. It’s clearly not worth getting a long term injury due to this. If you're really on a shoestring budget go buy the racquet 2nd hand but never purchase a fake tennis racquet. Also try to purchase your racquets only from a reputable dealer on online store unless you already know how to tell the differences between a genuine and a fake racquet.

More Images of Fake Babolat Pure Drive Here.

Regentville Tennis Blog has a new domain

2007-03-06T07:25:00.000+08:00

Regentville Tennis Blog gets a new domain! I have finally decided to switch to a new standalone domain for the Regentville Tennis Blog. Since I started the blog back in, August 2005, traffic has been increasing steadily and the Regentville Tennis Blog had been ranking pretty well in tennis related keywords in Google and Yahoo. I decided to switch to something more easier to remember and shorter to type.

Having my own domains adds a unique value and stands out compared to having a general Blogger – Blogspot account. I anticipate a drop in traffic as well as rankings pretty soon due to the change in url. For those who have been regularly reading my blog, please update your bookmarks to reflect my new url. The Regentville Tennis Blog is now on www.regentville.com instead of regentville.blogspot.com My old urls, links as well as articles will now be redirected to my new regentville.com domain so no worries about not finding any of my tennis related articles or articles pertaining to the Regentville Tennis Blog.

A big Thank You to Blogger for providing this interface for allowing me to easily switch domains and still host my content with them. I strongly recommend Blogger for the ease of use and the ability to allow you to use your own domain without having to lose your content and hosting capabilities with Blogger. More information on how to do this can be found here.

I would like to also thank all my local and international readers who have sent me comments as well as emails to lend your support, feedback and suggestions. The aim of the Regentville Tennis Blog was originally intended to be sort of a tennis networking site for all the Regentville condo tennis players, but it has grown into a more tennis resource oriented site.

A mention has to be also given to all my related tennis partner sites as well as tennis related blogs (check out my links section) that who have shown their support and friendship by placing a link to the Regentville Tennis Blog on their respective websites and blogs.

I would also apologies the people who have asked me to add links on my site to theirs but was turned down as I only accept links to tennis related content or blogs to enhance the quality and relevance of the site (all content and links has to be tennis related). Thank you for your understanding in this matter. I however welcome any new tennis related links, articles or suggestions that you might have. I sincerely hope that you find my articles informative and enjoyable to all my readers as well as for all your continued support. Do not forget again to update your bookmarks. The Regentville Tennis Blog as a new domain at www.regentville.com

Yonex RDS 001 Review

2007-03-04T11:15:00.000+08:00

I was deciding between the Head Flexpoint Prestige MP (my review on the Head Flexpoint MP here) or the Yonex Ultimum RD Ti-80 to get a feel of more player's tennis racquet models. I decided to stick with the Head Flexpoint Prestige 4 1/4 due to the smaller grip size. That would ultimately lead to a big mistake... i thought that the Head Flexpoint Prestige racquet being much stiffer specs wise than it's predessor the Head Liquid Metal Prestige - my personal racquet review here. I bought the Head Flexpoint Prestige Mid Plus used it for a week and didn't like it at all. Even after I switch to a lower tension (48 pounds) it didn't increase the power at all. Anyway my personal review on the Head Flexpoint Prestige can be found here.

After i decided that the Head Flexpoint Prestige Mid Plus was not for me, i decided to source for another racquet. It so happened the Yonex RDS 001 had been subconsciously on my mind. I might have noticed it from the last time i was deciding to get the Head Flexpoint Prestige Mid Plus or the Yonex RD Ti-80. I think it was its bright yellow glow which did the trick. I took a look at it but didn't really pay much attention to it. Without strings on it seemed to be severely head light but i noticed that once the strings was on, it still had a head light feel, but the weight of the strings compensated on its head lightness. After deciding the that the Head Flexpoint Prestige Mid Plus was not a racquet for me which felt very similar to the liquid metal prestige in terms of not having the ability to generate lots of power i was trying to figure out what was the problem. At that time i was experimenting also with the Wilson nCode N61 Tour 90 Asian version - review here. I had no problem with the power level with the nCode N61 90. I could hit the ball rather easily deep into the court without much issues on both the forehand and backhand side. It then strucked me that the reason would be a more dense 18/20 string pattern on the Head Flexpoint Prestige versus a more open 16/19 pattern found on the Wilson nCode N61 Tour. I thus decided the next players racquet i purchase should have an Open 16/19 string pattern and soon i was hitting with the Yonex RDS 001 MP on the tennis courts. I didn't have much of a choice as the smallest size available in this region for this particular model had a 4 1/4 grip size while the actual size i should be hitting with was a 4 1/8. I strung it at a low 53 pounds so that it won't flare up or aggravate my tennis elbow problem.

My initial response with the Yonex RDS 001 was wow! i could hit it deep without any issues. My theory with the dense string pattern which haunted me for both the Head Liquid Metal Prestige and Head Flexpoint Prestige was indeed the cause of not being able to hit deep. Next thing i noticed was the great control and stability it had on the slices as well as the forehand drives. I was however having trouble adjusting to my backhand as i was used to playing with a very balance racquet from my time with the Babolat Pure Drive Standard and the Head Flexpoint Instinct. With the Yonex RDS 001 I will have to get the exact timing and swing to hit a nice deep backhand with power and accuracy. I however found that my slices tend to float a little but it wasn't as bad as the Head Flexpoint Instinct. The Yonex RDS 001 MP has ability to produce nice top spin and you can generate heavy top spin if there is a need to, but its not as much and easy to execute compared to the Head Flexpoint Instinct this was mainly due to the slightly heavier players frame (315 grams) as compared to the Babolat Pure Drive standard or Head Flexpoint Instinct which are considered lighter tweener frames. Spin generation for the Head Flexpoint Instinct will beat this racquet hands down. Groundstrokes on the Yonex RDS 001 were also more solid and not as whippy compared to the Head Flexpoint Instinct of Babolat Pure Drive standard. Power wise, this is where the Yonex RDS 001 MP baffles me. I was able to also hit those unstoppable winners without any issue or ever thinking that it would be coming back to me no questions asked.

For a players racquet where a player will have to generate his or her own power, the Yonex RDS 001 MP has plenty or juice. I need not have to swing with much effort to generate that much power although that's what i thought. The lighter swingweight made it more easier for me to take a swipe at the ball and generate lots more power. But all this power came with stability and control as well. This was a player's racquet it terms of weight and stability but had the power of a tweener racquet! Its really amazing! I would say the Yonex RDS 001 MP had the power of the Babolat Pure Drive Standard packed in with the power and control of a traditional players racquet. Due to its more stable frame i was able to put away more volleys at the net as well as smashes, personally i am more of a baseliner so i rarely venture into the net unless i have to. But on those occasions where i do come forward the Yonex RDS 001 MP did its job volley were crisp and solid even on very hard drives from my openent, i was able to deflect the shorts rather easily with controlled execution. Overall i would say that the Yonex RDS 001 racquet is very good for volleying and in the hands of an experience serve and volley player or a net specialist it will be a lethal weapon to have. Drop volleys as well as my drop shots on the Yonex RDS 001 are more accurate and easier to execute and win points. I now rarely put a drop shot into the net or hit it long compared to my previous Head Flexpoint Instinct. I think the stability of the Yonex RDS 001 has a hand in more controlled execution of the drop shot.

What's most amazing for me about the Yonex RDS 001 is in the area of the serve. I was serving harder and bigger than and i have ever experienced before in my entire life with the Yonex RDS 001 this was really unbelieved as i always considered the Yonex RDS 001 as a player's racquet with very little power. I would be hitting more aces as well as hitting more bigger and better serves that my oponents couldn't or had difficulty in returning. I just don't understand where all this power was coming from, maybe its from its square shaped framework of the Yonex RDS 001? Furthermore, i was not even thinking of exerting any power, its just my standard serves i was hitting. There was even this time when i hit a serve and by fluke it had such a wicked spin and kicked up with a weird twist. So i guess with more time and at a hands of a really big server the Yonex RDS 001 mid plus can be a real weapon. I guess Joachim Johansson aka Pim Pim will find the Yonex RDS 001 a joy to serve with. A friend of mine also tried the Yonex RDS 001 MP out. He is not a big server, but you could tell that now he was hitting harder even on his 2nd serves! I believe it has everything to do with this racquet. The Yonex RDS 001 MP is considered to be a more stiffer racquet than its predessors, but at the end of the whole session of heavy hitting and big serving, I did not feel my tennis elbow flaring up. Do bare in mind that i have been suffering from a severe bout of tennis elbow for about over a year, and i am still feeling the effects of it as my elbow is not 100% i still feel pain in my elbow after every game (read on my personal experiences with tennis elbow here) but the Yonex RDS 001 Mid Plus did not flare up or give me any pain during and afer the game whatsoever. It felt very comfortable to hit with even while serving i had not felt pain at all whatsover. I would highly recommend the Yonex RDS 001 tennis racquet if you're coming back from a bad case of tennis elbow. It was only after the next day i felt my arm (not elbow) aching. The ache felt like i haven't been to the gym in a long time kind of feeling not an injury. So the heftier weight of the Yonex RDS 001 mid plus did catch up to me only after the next day. I think since i have been using lighter tweeners, a heavier racquet was giving my arm a real workout but i guess i will soon get accustomed to that.

The only downside to this racquet, though no actual fault of its own was that its grip size was too big for me. It was always moving and slipping out of of hand while hitting my groudstrokes. After about a week or so hitting with this racquet i decided to make it my racquet of choice. I decided to sell of my 4 1/4 grip size Yonex RDS 001 MP and purchase a pair of Yonex RDS 001 MP with a smaller 4 1/8 grip size direct from Tennis Warehouse USA (my experiences ordering direct from Tennis Warehouse). I am now the proud owner of this fabulous racquets but i am still taking some time to adjust to it. The moonsoon season here in Singapore is also not helping me get use to my new racquets as its been raining practically for days on end. Overall i think the Yonex RDS 001 Mid Plus is one of the best racquets i have ever used. In terms of comfort, control and absolute power especially on serves. It is a hefty players racquet with the power of a tweener. I hope you find my review of the Yonex RDS 001 Mid Plus useful to you.

One a final note, I found out that there are two versions of the Yonex RDS 001 although the Yonex RDS 001 is made in Japan, there apparently are two versions of them. One for the Japanese market and the other is for the International export market. The one available in Japan and only available in the Japanese market for sale in Japan only is called the RDS 001 Gummetal series. From what i understand, it racquet is exactly the same with exception of the Gummetal letterings on the side of the racquet. See image below.

Yonex also launched this cool video featuring Lleyton Hewitt using this Yonex RDS 001 Mid. Check out this cool Yonex RDS 001 video with Lleyton Hewitt below.

Roger Federer K Factor Video

2007-03-04T00:23:00.000+08:00

Here's a cool video that is featured on Tennis Warehouse on the new Wilson K-Factor racquet lineup. What's really neat about it is Roger Federer interviewing himself! It's really cool! On top of that, it features all the latest racquets in the Wilson K-Factor line up which are presently not available in the market yet. Check out the latest Wilson K-Factor video featuring Roger Federer in person. I personally liked Wilson's marketing of Roger Federer's winning shot against Fernando Gonzalez in the 2007 Australian Open finals with his now famous Wilson K Factor KSix-One Tour 90 racquet well as a great rally in which Federer won after some fantastic shot making against Gonzalez highlighting the "Kontrol" of Wilson's K-Factor technology. in this video. Wilson has defined 4 main key component's in their new K-Factor technology:

(K)arophite Black

-- A proprietary next generation structure created through a unique process at the nanoscopic level resulting in more feel and an even stronger and more stable racket.

(K)onnector

-- 2 external wings molded into each side of the hoop to increase dwell time of the ball on the string bed upon impact. This provides greater control and comfort with a larger sweet spot.

(K)ontour Yoke

-- New frame engineering technology that enhances stiffness at key stress points on the racket for improved torsionnal stability.

(K)ompact Center

Press Releases of Wilson's K-Factor had been documented by Forbes, Nanotechnow & Sportsmedia inc.

Forbes Wilson K-Factor Press Release
Nanotechnow Wilson K-Factor Press Release
Sportsmedia Inc Wilson K-Factor Press Release

Regentville Condo Versus Kowloon Tennis Club

2007-02-25T22:07:00.000+08:00

The Regentville condo tennis team started 2007 with a friendly match against the Kowloon Tennis Club. The Kowloon Tennis club comprises of a group of Hong Kong expats based here in Singapore. Led by their team organizer Raymond Lau, the Kowloon Tennis Team comprises of mainly experienced veteran players and displayed great expertise in terms of both defensive and counter attacking play. The friendly nearly didn't happen due to unexpected rain but fortunately the sun came out and managed to dry the courts in time for the schedule matches.

On behalf of the Regentville condo tennis team, i would like to thank Raymond and the Kowloon Tennis team for coming all the way down to Hougang to have a friendly tennis game with us. It was a weekend of fun filled tennis. I believed both teams had great fun and made many new friends from this friendly match. We're also thinking of having another game with the Kowloon Tennis Club some time soon. Most importantly, I believe this friendly has highlighted the friendship and the ties that can be made from a tennis game.

Photos of the friendly tennis game between the Regentville condo tennis team and the Kowloon tennis team here.

Gamma X-ES Review

2007-02-24T13:33:00.000+08:00

Here's my review on Gamma X-ES electric constant pull stringing machine.

Download the PDF manual for the Gamma X-ES here
Full Spes of the Gamme X-ES here

Overview:

It was really frustrating regularly breaking strings and having to go all the way down to Queensway to get my racquets strung. I use very thin gauge strings 17 to 18 gauge and I tend to hit with more spin so I break them pretty fast. I prefer more open pattern racquets and my current Yonex RDS 001 MP (My review on the Yonex RDS 001 here) has an open 16x19 string pattern. My string of choice is the Toalson Ultimate 115, previously called Toalson Apex and they break pretty fast. For me the Toalson strings usually lasts around 10 to 15 sessions - around roughly a month, before they break. I visit Queensway pretty often to get my racquets as well as my friend’s racquet done.

We have a large base of tennis players playing in the Regentville condo, so its not usual to get piggy back requests to get their racquets strung as well. The main frustrating point for me was the times when you will have to wait to get your racquets strung. First priority will be given to the customer who purchases a new racquet compared to customers who just sent their racquets for stringing. I normally have two of the same racquets so I don't have issues about being not able to play if one of my strings break, but going all the way to Queensway to Hougang takes at least an hour to reach by Public Transport. If I take a cab, it will cost me around SGD$11 per trip. It its going and return from Hougang to Queensway around $22 to $23 which is the price of another string job for me. Both ways for me, I will end up spending either more time or money getting my strings done.

I was quite fascinated from an early age on how to string a racquet, using a combination of racquet tensions as well as hybrids and learning different stringing techniques as well as knotting. I decided to finally get a stringing machine of my own. I thought since I am breaking strings as well as getting requests for team members to help them string their racquets to purchase my very own tennis stringing machine. It’s more of a learning thing and passion for the game rather than investing in a tennis stringing machine for the commercial aspect (i.e making money from stringing)

I was contemplating between a drop weight, crank or constant pull machine. Most tennis stores now seems to have adopted to the more modern constant pull machines and I decided that's the way to go for me. I did some research and found that a good machine that provides constant pull stringing at a reasonable cost was the Gamma X-ES. A great resource for selecting tennis stringing machines can be found here. The Gamma X-ES got pretty good reviews and has a 5 year warranty attached to it. Spare parts seems to be also readily available. I though since l Gamma was willing to give a 5 warranty, it must be pretty good to be able to stand by their brand for that long.

The going rate for the Gamma X-ES stringing machine is between USD$949 to USD$1499.90. I have also seen some going for USD$899 (all prices quoted found online). Since the Gamma X-ES is a table top machine, most of the prices here are quote without the additional Gamma table top stand which can be purchased separately for around USD$99. But in most cases, stringing machines are only shipped within continental United States. So its highly unlikely that I will find a company willing to ship such a large and heavy item all the way down to Singapore.

I made several inquires and found out that it will cost like a couple of hundreds extra to ship a stringing machine to Singapore by sea. The other thing was I was afraid the electronics for the constant pull mechanism might get damaged during the long journey here to Singapore by sea.

If I were to purchase the Gamma X-ES stringing machine from overseas, I would not be able to enjoy the 5 year warranty attached to it, as well as any servicing required thereafter from a local agent or distributor. I eventually gave up on the idea of shipping the machine from overseas. Shipping a stringing machine from overseas is not as simple as purchasing a tennis racquet which was rather quite easy and less pricey as weight was an issue here with a stringing machine. The Gamma X-ES weight about 26KGs!

I thus decided to try to locate local distributors for tennis stringing machines here and I was surprised to find a local Gamma Sports distributor here in Singapore pretty close to my location. I called the distributor up and to my surprise he had the Gamma X-ES machine for sale here! The price was around the same or slightly more expensive to that of the US prices as I have to factor in shipping from the US to Singapore and that alone will be costly.

The main important thing was that I will get warranty and support for 5 years from the local Gamma distributor based here in Singapore. The Gamma X-ES stringing machine also came by default with the stand. The Gamma X-ES however came in a box and you will have to assembly the machine yourself. This was pretty tricky especially the part when you will have to mount the machine to the stand. There are actually no grooves that fit the stand. You will have to unscrew the base of the machine with an ellen key to expose the grooves and then proceed to mount the Gamma X-ES stringing machine to the stand. With the exception of mounting the machine to the stand, assembly of the machine was pretty simple you'll just have to just the clamps as initially the clamps were not gripping the strings tightly enough causing slippage. After tightening the clamps everything was working fine.

The distributor also taught us a couple of stringing techniques as well as different kinds of knotting. Initially it took us sometime to learn but after stringing a couple of racquets its pretty much routine now. Serene is very good at it and we have strung a couple of racquets for our Regentville tennis team members. Many now are referring their friends to us. Both Serene and me have full time jobs, so stringing is pretty much a pass time for us. We might however do a couple of tennis stringing in the Hougang area in the future but that all depends on whether we have the time to start a stringing service. Right now, we're just pretty much contented stringing tennis racquets for the Regentville tennis players and their friends.

Conclusion:

Stringing with the Gamma X-ES stringing machine is very easy and due to the electric constant pull, you'll get a perfect and consistent string tension all the time. So far, according to what I’ve heard from other reviews as well as the Gamma distributor, there has been not much issues with the machine losing it's tension but the machine has to be checked and calibrated after a couple of years just to be on the safe side.

Aligning the racquet on the Gamma X-ES stringing machine takes some time to get it properly aligned and clamped. According to some reviews I read, some tennis stringing machines are so easy to align and secure. Anyway, I like to take my time doing this to ensure that the racquet is sitting firmly on the machine. This process should not be rushed, as an improperly secured racquet might result in inconsistent string tension as well as well the possibility of cracking the frame from the racquet moving about. Getting the racquet placed securely is imperative in get consistent stringing results as well as NOT having the possibility of damaging the frame or grommets. It cannot be rushed, so ultimately this is a good thing as it makes you more cautious and alert to the potential dangers.

I also like the foot pedal for hands free operating. This is important if you need to hold on to the sides of the grommets towards the end when you are doing the crosses as the grommets might just pop up and damage the frame. Using your foot also enables you to do lots of other things like securing the strings as well as making sure that the turntable does not move too much when tightening. It's a very useful and convenient feature to have.

The sides of the machines has two deep drawers to place all your tools since as your Gamma Pathfinder Awl, Awl, Pliers, Razor Cutter and other tools kept neatly for storage. There is also enough room to store the foot pedal there. The drawers also come with a catch so that it will not just slide out easily and spill all your tools if you're moving your stringing machine about. After all this was meant to be a table top machine easily to move around for travel and storage purposes. Having a security catch for the drawer was a very intelligent design on the part of Gamma.

There is also a deep trench below the turntable to store all your tools while stringing so it's easily accessible. The cutting block at the side of the machine is pretty neat so that can easily trim your strings. But here I felt Gamma could have used better materials rather than cheap plastic which gets easily scratched and chipped.

Price wise, I think the Gamma X-ES is pretty reasonable. The 5 year local warranty, as well as the availability to easily get spare parts was the other major consideration why I choose to purchase this machine. It's a great machine at an affordable price that gives professional results. I sincerely hope that my review on the Gamma X-ES string machine has been useful in helping in your tennis racquet stringing machine research.

Mi Adidas Custom Shoes

2007-02-20T17:27:00.000+08:00

When Adidas introduced its mi adidas shoe customization program here in Singapore. I was rather intrigued at the prospect of customizing my own shoes. I am flatfooted and I have problems settling into many shoes be it for tennis, jogging, casual walking shoes or work. Getting the correct shoes for me was more of a chore and I didn't have much of a choice when it comes to purchasing shoes. All my shoes had to be very broad as whenever I tried anything narrower, the entire arch support area of the shoe will sink or cave in.

Michael the Adidas staff who assisted me, he's the Mi Adidas expert. Being a runner himself, he has customized his own Mi Adidas shoes, he knows his stuff and gives very sound advise. I highly recommend you look him up should you want to customize your shoes.

Previously I was strictly into Nike their Challenge court 3 and 4 series of the nineties were very wide and it provided me the comfort I needed. But in recent years, I realized that tennis shoes were becoming more and more narrower. Adidas naturally had very narrow tennis shoes. The Adidas Barricade tennis shoe line was the workhorse of the Adidas Tennis shoe series. Its most latest model, the Adidas Barricade IV tennis shoes were a perfect example, many individuals I know who had slightly shallower arches on their feet had complained bitterly about the Adidas Barricade IV. I tried an off the self pair at Queensway. I told the guy that I was flatfooted and he bluntly told me that I there was no way I could wear it. Looking at the narrow construction of the Adidas Barricade IV, I already knew that I will have problems wearing it let alone face problems being able to wear them comfortably. I tried nevertheless and couldn't even squeeze my feet in! I was practically screaming in pain trying to walk around in them. And Yes! I am not exaggerating about the severe discomfort you'll experience from wearing the Adidas Barricade IV if you have flat feet.

In the end, I had to settle for shoes with broader soles like Reebok basketball shoes. My previous Adidas Barricade III was extremely good in terms of durability but it took me many months to "break" the shoes in or in Singapore terms "season out" the shoes. Even then I still had problems and felt constant pain at the side of my feet especially around the arches of the feet. I then discovered New Balance shoes that were a godsend especially the ones with the extra wide 4E models. I particularly like the New Balance 1002 series that were not only broad but were well ventilated with it's cloth like mesh fabric as well as its durable reinforced outer toe protection. But like with all the other shoes, I not only had to content with shoes with narrower soles but tennis toe issues.

I was very happy with my current New Balance 1002. The 4E version was extremely broad and I did not get much pain in the arches. I however was suffering from a very bad case of tennis toe. Both my big toes are current affected and it hurts badly every time I jam my toes against the front of the shoes especially when running to retrieve a drop shot. Tennis toe is a condition you'll get due to the constant banging of your toes against the front of your shoes resulting in injury. While many people tend to suggest tightening the shoe laces more or using thicker socks. I don't think this will really solve the issue. For one, tightening the laces too much will constrict the blood vessels in your feet and using thicker socks would only make it more difficult for your feet to breathe.

My tennis toe problem was not attributed to the New Balance shoes, but prevalent in all my other tennis shoes. This issue comes about due to the fact that no two feet are alike in size and thus you tend to ram your toe nails more on both toes causing pain and hemorrhaging. This problem could be addressed if you had shoes with a perfect fit and the only way to do this is for you to have your shoes custom made.

Images of both my tennis toes being battered by the constant ramming of my big toes against shoes without proper fitting. mi adidas greatly helped with this problem. Now since i have the exact fit, my toes are not hitting against the front of my shoes anymore. Not sure when my toes will go back to normal though...

Despite all this I was not really considering to have my tennis shoes custom made, but it was more strictly by chance that I was at the Adidas store at Vivo City that I saw that they had the mi adidas shoe customization booth. I was just looking around wanting to get more information about mi adidas technology and what it entails that I might a very knowledgeable and friendly staff named Michael. He briefed me on the processes involved in shoe customization with mi adidas and I explained to him my problems of getting the correct shoes. He said that customizing my shoes should solve my problems.

I thought well what the heck? I was prepared to paid a premium for this kind of service, shoes after all for me are really difficult to find and I was already suffering so much due to the pain. I set up an appointment with Michael to get my Adidas tennis shoes customized. In the case of Adidas they only customize certain particular models. For the case of tennis shoes, they only did the Adidas Barricade IV. I set a date to come see Michael again for him to take all my necessary foot specifications. This process will take about roughly and hour. So I set a time with him to come back a week later.

I was reminded by Michael to bring my regular socks as well as any special insoles or arch support that I have (some flatfooted people) have special orthopedic soles that can be incorporated to customized shoes. According to Michael, the customization can go up to 0.3 of an mm compared to the standard half sizes you get in the store. Plus incorporating the thickness of your preferred socks to ensure an even greater and more snug fit. I went one step ahead to even bring my old Adidas Barricade III for him to have a look at the wear patterns (although this is not necessary, I just wanted him to have a look at the different wear patterns and how they affected all my previous shoes.

Michael explains to me about the the ware patterns found on my old Adidas Barricade III

Mi Adidas customization consists of 3 steps:

1) Mi Fit
This process involves getting the exact length and width of your feet. I had a step into this box like device that resembled something like a weighing scale barefooted to get the length and width of both my feet. Two devices then pushed forward some ruler like device horizontally and vertically to get my precise feet measurements for both feet.

This process is important to get an exact custom snug fit preventing problems like tennis toe from your shifting feet while running and braking suddenly on the tennis courts. Regular shoe that do not have the exact measurements jam your toes into the front part of the shoe causing tennis toe problems.

(Image on the right, stepping on the machine to get the exact foot measurements for my Addidas Barricade IV using mi adidas technology).

2) Mi Performance
This is where it get's slightly interesting and tricky. Your foot fall, foot pattern and pressure distribution applied on each foot is measured here. There is a pad on the floor which looks like a slightly oversized mouse pad you will have to do a short run and hit the pad one foot and a time. This is tricky as it will involve lots of timing to land the right foot correctly on the pad. The other thing will be that you'll to the center of attention at the Adidas store as you will generally attract a crowd when doing this. I highly suggest if you're uncomfortable with people watching you try to set an appointment on a weekday after lunchtime when there will be generally fewer people.

Running and having to get the timing right for both my feet. This is to measure the pressure forces exerted on both my feet.

From the results of the scan, you can see clearly the pronation of the feet as well as my flat feet condition. The pressure points applied and the axis or path that my feet is taking. According to Michael there was something a bit wrong with my left feet if you notice compared to my right foot my left foot seems to be going off a little. Take a look a the straight line marker that runs across the entire image. The curved lines should generally run across the same straight line pattern just like my right foot. But if you take a look closely on the left foot, the curves runs completely off the straight line starting from somewhere close to the bottom of the feet and complete skews out of the main central axis line. Not really sure what this means but this pattern was prominent when I did several tries with the foot scan so it's not the problem with the device but inherent my left foot itself.

Results of my footscan. Do note that the lines for my left foot has gone somewhat astray compared to that of my right foot using the straight line as a reference guide. My flatfootedness is clearly pronounced here. You can see from this image a complete lack of arches on my feet.

Based on the results Michael suggested using a more stiffer and firmer rubber sole and a more comfortable insole liner. What I really liked Mi Customization of the Adidas Barricade IV is that the sockliner part which is the area that covers your ankles is complete reinforced with "Geo Fit" (TM) a more thicker and spongy foam material that really gives additional comfort and protection to your ankle area. Geo Fit(TM) is an internal technology that enhances fit and comfort with the use of memory foam padding in the anatomically correct areas. This patented Adidas technology is apparently available only on there other lines the Supernova running shoe series and not available to the regular Adidas Barricade IV that you find of the selves. To therefore have this Geo Fit technology fitted on my Adidas Barricade IV was really cool and a nice welcomed added feature to have.

With my detailed foot specifications in the computer, Michael let me try a couple of them "molds" or ready made Adidas Barricade shoes with different specification Please note that each of these shoes have different numbers at the back of them and have different widths and lengths. They are also dull in color like in the pictures shown below and NOT shoes that are off the shelf available for purchase. The aim of this exercise is actually to get a feel of what and how my customized shoes will feel like and give Michael a indication if what's stated in the Mi Performance test results were actually accurate. This is NOT the exact replica of my custom shoes that I will be getting. So after trying a couple of molds I finally managed to get two molds that fits pretty close to what my exact foot specifications are like. He then entered it into the computer. What I generally think would be that my shoes will be built with these specifications as a guide, but will incorporate the full and specification provided on the PC with my exact foot details.

Stepping into the custom "molds" to get a "rough" fitting. These "molds" are dull color and have individual numbers at the back varying in width and lengths.

3) Mi Design
This where the real fun begins. Customize the colors that you want on your shoes as well as the name that you want to appear on the shoe. I would say that this is the most fun part compared to the Mi Fit and Mi Performance part. There are various colors to choose from and different colors combinations that you can use for the base, accent and highlight color. The trick here is to be different and have something very unique that nobody has. To be different to have something that basically represents YOU! Michael was nice enough to show me a couple of ready made pairs that some of his customers had designed and I must say that they looked very cool. I choose the color combination that I liked and not really that common. So far from the time I customized this pair I think only one other person here in Singapore had this color combination for the Adidas Barricade IV from the store at Vivo not sure about the other outlets so I guess it should be unique enough. I also like black with orange but I was also tempted in getting a blue with yellow stripes but I chose black with orange instead.

Choosing the colors and lettering to put on my custom Barricade IV. The most exciting and fun part of the entire exercise.

Next came the other exciting part. Customizing what letters do you want stitched on to your customized shoes. You have a choice of like 12 letters (if I can remember correctly) to choose from. It can be either in caps and small lettering or a combination of both. I chose "Nawin" plain and simple. You can also choose the color of the stitching that your name is going to be stitched on. The thing about this is that whatever words you choose has to be identical to both pairs so it has to be "Nawin" on both sides of the shoes. Here I think mi adidas should be more flexible by allowing you different wordings on both shoes its just words sewn on so I don't see the problem. That would have been more neat and cooler but besides this I think it was generally a very cool process and something fun to do. Should I decide to customize another pair of Adidas Barricade IV all my personal data and information is already stored in the central database in Germany. I can just choose to change the colors the next time round. My information is stored in Germany but customization is all done in Hong Kong from the data provided from Germany. It will take roughly around 4 to 6 weeks to get your brand new customized shoes ready for you to take the courts.

The final end product. 100% satisfaction!

Conclusion.

I have been using my customized Adidas Barricade IV for almost a month now and I absolutely loved it. I didn't experience much pain. It took sometime for me to adjust to the new shoes, this will be the case with any new shoes you buy customized or non customized. I didn't feel any pain to my tennis toe any longer issue even when not lacing up my shoes tightly, my foot does not slip forward banging my toes against the front part of my shoes any more. The fit was excellent there were no addition gaps that allowed my feet to move about in the shoe causing any discomfort or injuries.

The pair I got just like Michael had explained were more of a perfect fit compared to the earlier molds that I tried out. The color I choose was great but honestly on the PC he didn't really reflect what the actual shoe will look like. I think Adidas can do a better job here by providing actual physical samples to their customers of how the shoes will actually look like.

I was particularly impressed with Michael who was the staff in charge of the Mi Adidas section. He was very experienced and knowledgeable. He clearly knew his stuff. He was also very patient in explaining to the customer the various processes and took his time to explain things. Customization requires the customer to fully understand and comprehend what's going on and the purpose of why are we going through all these processes. He was able to also give good sound solid advice from experience he had and that's extremely important to the customer. It was through Michael that I had obtain special permission to photography
the entire customization session of my Adidas Barricade IV and I would like to thank Michael from the Adidas store based at Vivo City to be able to document the whole customization process.

On the day I was supposed to collect my shoes, I had forgotten to bring my original receipt as I was collecting it directly from the office. The staff at Adidas Vivo City made special arrangements for me to collect my shoes without receipt and this was clearly appreciated on my part as they had provided excellent customer service.

The Damage...

I spent SGD$269 for my pair of individually customized Adidas Barricade IV using mi adidas technology. Yes it's pricey but for the benefits you get its worth every penny! This is my most expensive sports shoe to date. My most expensive shoes that was close to around this price range was Michael Chang's Legendary Reebok Court Victory Tennis Pump. All Michael Chang fans wanted to have that pair of shoes way back in the early 90s. I remember buying that shoe sometime in 1991 or 1992 in Queensway shopping center and it cost a stunning $220 for a student doing his A levels at that time... I had to practically beg, borrow and steal to that the funds to finance this shoe. It looked cool. The Reebok Tennis Pump ad looked pretty cool but honestly the shoes sucked big time. The pump system was to address the customized feel. At that time I remembered the selling tag line of this shoe was that "No two feet were alike" and the pump system was supposed to tighten each shoe to be comfortable to both feet. In reality the Tennis Pump didn't really fit well and it was not even durable. I used it for something like 3 months before the sole got worn out. All that's history now with mi adidas technology! Any shoe designed with mi adidas technology will really FIT you no questions
asked!

An off the shelf pair direct from the Adidas store will cost you around $179. An off the shelf pair in Queensway Shopping center will cost you around $125 to $132 subject to size and availability. Assuming you buy your Adidas Barricade IV off the shelf direct from the Adidas store you will be paying around $90 more to get your shoes customized according to your exact feet specifications. You get a unique shoe with the colors you want and added additional padding and protection with better firmer soles and Geo Fit(TM) technology for your sockliner not available on regular off the self Adidas Barricade IVs. You'll also get to print your name on it. I personally think that if you have problems with your feet this is a really good deal. One should not stinge on shoes that might damage or injury your feet and maybe other parts of your body that might even cost you more in the long run as this article suggests on taking proper care of your feet while playing tennis. Overall its a really good investment for me and I would not hesitate twice to customize my next pair of Adidas Barricades with mi adidas technology. In fact, I am already thinking of the next color that I would want to get for my next shoe but by then, the Adidas Barricade V would have been already released. :)

On a side note:

I believe that all Adidas sponsored tennis players or athletes have customized Adidas shoes. They however will still maintain an off the shelf look due to the fact that they would need to sell the same design and look to the mass market. By customizing, you will be able to have a shoe not even the Pros have 

I sincerely hope that the review and information provided here on customizing the Adidas Barricade IV was helpful to individuals thinking of customizing their sports shoes. For more information visit this site or a local Adidas sports store near you. Please bare in mind that not all Adidas stores have the mi adidas customization facilities therefore before you go, please make some calls to find out if the store does mi adidas customization.

More photos of the entire mi adidas customization for my Barricade IV can be found here.

Yahoo versus Google Tennis Tournament

2007-02-19T00:35:00.000+08:00

Google and Yahoo are the world's two largest and most popular search engines. Yahoo was very big search company a couple of years back, but Google since has over taken them in every aspect of search and search engine popularity. With Google's innovative approach for many business and consumer web based applications like Gmail and lots of other innovative products from Google, it is no wonder they have won numerous search accolades and awards.

According to report from Nielson Netratings in July 2006, Google still owns close 50% of the world's share of search engine searches. Yahoo is around 24% followed by the other search engines.

In other words, Google has beaten Yahoo hands down in being the worlds most popularly used search engine.

Recently however, Yahoo got back some pride by beating Google not in Search engine popularity, but on the tennis court to decide which of the two search organizations were better organization in the game of tennis. Apparently Yahoo turned out to have the better tennis team by beating the Google team by a short margin of 163 to 157 in a contest named "Battle over the Net".

The two search organizations fielded an impressive line up of 20 to 30 tennis players and played double matches at the Stanford Stadium. Cedric Beust a Google software engineer documented the entire friendly tennis match on his blog. Click here to view more Photos of the "Battle over the Net" tennis challenge between Yahoo and Google.

Tennis Elbow Treatment

2007-02-18T17:52:00.001+08:00

If you been searching the internet looking for a cure, treatment or information with regards to tennis elbow you've come to the right place. This article is about personal battle with tennis elbow and how i've managed to overcome it. This is neither a medical paper or something that i am trying to sell like magic gel or cream, but it describes how I got through the pain and angish of this condition and how you too can go about possibly curing the condition or at least alleviate it. It also talks about my long battle with tennis elbow, the pain, suffering and frustration i had to endure with this condition as well as my quest to find the cure and treatment to remedy my problem that has already plagued me for more than a year.

Important Note: Before reading further... Please bare in mind that I am not a medical professional. All this are from personal views and research I have done as well as and what I have personally experienced myself. Everyone's body is different and might respond differently to different kinds of treatments. Therefore when in doubt, please consult a professional health care physician or doctor. Please do not use my personal experiences as a way to treat your injuries as this might result is severe complications.

"Tennis Elbow" or Lateral Epicondylitis as its medically coined, is pain or tenderness found on either the outside or inside of your elbow. Many people genearally perceive tennis elbow to be attributed to playing tennis, and yes, this can be generally attributed to this. But what many people fail to realise is that tennis elbow is not just restricted to playing tennis or any form of racquet games or sports. It can be attributed to direct injury to your elbow from a small that causes trauma to the tendon in your elbow OR repetive stress injury to the muscle and tendons on the outside of the elbow such as using the hammer or even painting. The pain from tennis elbow is from the result of inflamation or having tiny tears in the tendons found in your elbow. In the case of tennis however, tennis elbow is attributed to several reasons

Improper swing technique especially with the backhand.
A stiff tennis racquet (causing vibration and shock to your elbow resulting in tendon inflation or tears in the tendon).
Highly strung racquet tension (pretty much the same issue as having stiff tennis racquet).
Improper tennis grip size (recent studies however have showed that improperly sized tennis racquet DOESN'T cause tennis elbow).

I've have suffered and still am suffering (although not as bad now) from a very bad case of tennis elbow. The problem has been around for over a year now, but it got better due to hours at the gym with weights I have managed to strengthen the area around my elbow to play without much pain now. Besides going to the gym which I think gave me the most success with my recovery from tennis elbow. I sought alternative treatments like acupuncture, taking oral glucosamine and oral and non oral painkillers such as gels and creams. Personally none of the pain killers or acupuncture worked at all. The acupuncture treatment was killing me in terms of the cost of treatment and it did not have any effect relieving the pain or even alleviating it. Personally I found that a total waste of time and I was seeing one of the top acupuncture practitioners here in Singapore. Icing or warm water treatments did not help either.

Here's a list of items I tried to cure my tennis elbow problem.

Rest - To a hard core tennis addict, this is extremely hard to do. Especially when you have to watch from the sidelines. But trust me, I rested for close to about two months and still no results. Pain was there all the time never went away. RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression & Elevation) is the standard procedure to treat injuries but in my case, it hardly made a dent.

Ice - Just numbs the area, but honestly did not work for me.

Warm Water - About the same result as ice.

Oral Painkillers - I think this is the worst form of treatment as it basically sends signals to your brain telling it that there is actually no pain. This is bad, as pain is an indicator to tell your brain that something is wrong, and you'll need to stop to risk even further damage. Pain killers to numb pain in my personal opinion is bad. The painkillers the doctors gave me also did not help. The pain was consistently there. The only time when I felt the pain more or less go away with oral painkillers is when I had my wisdom tooth removed. I took that and it seemed that the pain in my elbow was totally gone. I think that this pain killer prescribed by the dentist is much stronger than the one prescribed by the doctor. I felt better, so I tried hitting a few balls. True enough pain was gone but I still felt something in that area not pain but just a weird numbness kind of feeling in my elbow area where the pain used to be.

External Painkillers - Fastum Gel, Hot/Icy Cream, did not work at all. Not even marginal.

Acupuncture - A total waste of time and money!

Oral Glucosamine - This had immediate impact after just 2 days of taking them. I use to get pain in my elbow by pinching or even wriggling my fingers. After the first day of taken the Glucosamine the night before, I felt no pain when wriggling my fingers or very marginal slight pain. So that was an indication to me that it was working in my case. So you might want to try Glucosamine. I took the double action one Glucosamine with Chondroitin as this combination is supposed to help better with inflamation of tendons and tissues.

Swimming - Breast Stroke Only. Swimming greatly helps to alleviate and I believe strengthen the muscles but does not solve the problem immediately. After each swim I feel very much lesser pain in my elbow but the pain will come back after an hour or so after my swim. So swimming was a short term success in terms of curbing the pain but not eradicating it totally.

Changing Racquets - This I have been experimenting for a long while, each racquet feels different therefore I tried to choose racquets which were very flexible and less stiff. I went to the tennis warehouse review section to try to get the flex rating which was low. I also went about trying to choose racquets with much smaller grip sizes or at least smaller rounder 4 1/4 grip sizes. I went with Head as they seem to have more rounded grip sizes. Prince too have smaller rounded grip sizes but I was never pretty much a fan of Prince racquets. Racquets such as Babolat, Wilson and Yonex have a more square shaped grip and therefore larger in grip size. During this period I experimented with several racquets such as the:

Head Flexpoint 4 (My Review of the Head Flexpoint 4)
Head Liquid Metal Prestige
Head Flexpoint Instinct
Head Flexpoint Radical OS
Wilson nCode N61 95 - USL Asian Specs
Wilson nCode N61 Tour - USL Asian Spec
Head Flexpoint Prestige Yonex RDS 001 MP

Changing string tension I have experimented with these low tensions 48 pounds, 50 pounds, 52 pounds, 53 pounds and finally 54 pounds. Each tension will be different for each racquet. But I found that the optimum tension for me is around 52 pounds to 53 pounds for most racquet. Sure control is compromised and and more spin is required each time I play. But with that tension my elbow does not really feel that much stress as compared to playing with a racquet strung at 55 pounds and over. But I must also say that each racquet plays differently and if the racquet is naturally stiff you will the pain in your elbow So pains have to be taken to find a very flexible racquet and strung at a low tension. Sure control is compromised but if you're a die hard tennis player playing some tennis (even though crappy at times) is still better than playing no tennis at all.

Changing grip size - I stuck with head racquets as they generally have a smaller grip size compared to other brands as you can see that was the reason why I was experimenting with more head racquets. I finally decided to start ordering racquets from overseas like from Tennis warehouse USA. (Review on ordering racquets direct from Tennis Warehouse USA). I didn't want to just be stuck with head racquets for smaller 4 1/8 grip sizes for other brands so that I can get a grip size that I am comfortable with without having to sacrifice brands I am sure there are other brands and models that might suite my specific playing needs and I didn't want to be just restricted due to the problems of not having the right grip size to play with. Sure I will have to pay a premium price but in return for that I might actually find a true hidden gem in the form of a racquet which plays much better than any Head racquet out there. And I believe that this might have been found in the Yonex RDS 001 MP. It has been also long noted that improper grip sizes can lead to tennis elbow, but this article Improperly-Sized Tennis Racket Grip Doesn't Cause Tennis Elbow recently released from sportsmed.org seem to suggest otherwise.

In Conclusion:

What works...

Of all the cure's I tried these are the ones that I find personally worked best for me in order of success rate. It could be a combination all these factors which helped out as well but I noticed immediate results when going to the gym to do weights for my arms and shoulders especially when working with dumb bells.

1. Going to the Gym and doing light weights.
2. Glucosamine.
3. Changing to a less stiff racquet.
4. Changing to a lower string tension.
5. Getting a correct and more comfortable grip size.
6. Swimming (Breast stroke).

* In addition to this i will also have to add having the right stretching and strengthening exercises not to aggravate the injuries even more (see image below)

The images above belongs to the above mentioned copywrites. In no way i make any references that these images belong to me.

Here are also some sites that i highly recommend for tennis elbow strengthening exercises.

1. Tennis-Elbow-Treatments.com
2. NISMAT (Nicholas Institute of Sports Medicine & Athletic Trauma)
3. TennisLovers.com

What didn't work or failed miserably...

1. Acupuncture (Total waste of time and money)
2. Oral and External Pain Killers.
3. Ice and Hot Water treatments.
* Resting and not playing for months is subjective so I won't speculate on that...
** All my comments are based on personal experience, everybody's body is different and will respond differently to various forms of treatment. So keep an open mind. When in doubt consult a professional physician/doctor.

I can now have a good game without experiencing much pain now. The pain is not 100% gone but it’s manageable for some games now. The cause for my tennis elbow? Most likely due to the stiffness of the Babolat Pure Drive. I don't think I was the tension as I strung it pretty low at 56 pounds and I have been using that racquet for many months without any issues. I still feel that another attributing factor was the grip size but this article which was only just recently released seemed to suggest likewise and dispute the fact.

Another cause for tennis elbow could be wrong stroke mechanics but if that is the case, I would have encountered that a long long time ago. Furthermore if its strokes mechanics, it will be mainly from a poor backhand. I could hit my backhand without much issues, it's the forehand which was causing more pain. Changing racquets also alleviated some pain, so I guess it could be just the stiffness of the Babolat Pure Drive or the larger grip size. By the way I also experimented with a lower string tension and that did not help.

I sincerely hope that from my personal experiences dealing with tennis elbow and the various treatments that i have applied would be helpful to you. I have also found these links below extremely helpful in research as well providing more information on tennis treatments and tennis elbow related injuries.

Tennis Elbow Related Resources

Tennis Elbow Treatments
American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
Hughston Sports Medical Foundation (for tennis related injuries)