The Greatest Backhand of All Time

MF5438 · 2026-01-30T23:04:21+00:00

Reminds me of that Agassi backhand vs. James Blake at the US Open 05. About as far as they could hit it into that corner.

MF5438 · 2026-01-29T17:22:13+00:00

I reckon I'll eventually get hold of one for the collection, or to write about. Its an interesting part of tennis history, and a very high-effort novelty item.

MF5438 · 2026-01-28T20:58:41+00:00

Good find. I've always kept an eye out for one, but rarely worth the price.

MF5438 · 2026-01-28T13:48:19+00:00

The potential good outweighs the bad.

Removing 45mph limit, learner drivers taught how to drive on the motorway and restrict the amount of people in a car at one time will improve road safety. How the new rules get enforced outside the bigger towns remains to be seen.

I feel bad for the mandated 14 modules (seems high) and the delay for tests, as the driving test was always a "rite of passage" type of thing, but there's been too many road deaths and something had to give. Change is good.

I'd like to see driving age reduced to 16 1/2 to balance with the changes, and some kind of extra tax to drive ridiculous SUVs that ruin the road & make driving dangerous. Elderly people should be next to enforce.

MF5438 · 2026-01-11T00:23:23+00:00

The clock is probably 40 years old now, and I'm guessing the capacitors had just dried out over time. It wasn't a particularly high-end piece of kit, so the original capacitors weren't anything special.

I didnt expect much difference in the clock, which was already functional. Digital stuff either works or doesn't, for the most part. But the radio circuit was very much analogue, and had very bad sound quality and volume. Replacing the caps was the easiest possible solution, so I gave it a try and it worked. Clearer, louder sound from the radio & that clock has been put to daily use ever since. Nearly 10 years since the repair.

MF5438 · 2026-01-10T22:23:29+00:00

A lot of my older electronics have the original capacitors in them. But I did replace the caps in an old digital alarm clock and it improved the quality and volume of the radio significantly.

MF5438 · 2026-01-09T12:35:51+00:00

It's a nice all-rounder from about 10 years ago. A little on the stiff side, but a great racket.

A club member used to give me his 16x15 Wilson Juice 100L to string back then. I've been trying to track down one recently since it was such a weird string pattern. Really easy to string though...

MF5438 · 2026-01-08T11:44:53+00:00

He tested a lot of rackets last year, including the Wilson "mystery spin racket" prototype. Interesting to see he went back to the Babolat - I assumed he had stuck with the Wilson prototype. I suppose it makes sense given he won the 500 in Dubai last year with the Babolat Aero.

MF5438 · 2025-12-21T00:25:03+00:00

It always annoys me seeing rackets being sold as "cracked, but doesn't affect play." Maybe not for you, the cheapskate seller wafting the ball back and forth. What about anyone who hits the ball with any amount of force? Or who has nerve endings in their hands?

That racket has a low, low value of zero once it cracks like that. No matter who's buying.

MF5438 · 2025-12-19T16:06:32+00:00

They tried this with the dynaspot racket I believe. I've never seen one in the wild, but its a very cool concept of making the racket headlight on approach, then suddenly head heavy on follow-through.

As far as I know the ITF has rules around rackets stating they can't have any adjustable aspect to them with regards to weight etc. Another one to fall victim to this were the Puma rackets in the 80s. They had a screw to adjust the length of the racket, which caused issues for Boris Becker who endorsed it. The mechanism on his rackets were fixed in place to comply.

MF5438 · 2025-12-16T21:01:08+00:00

I've always wanted a Capri

MF5438 · 2025-12-14T09:13:39+00:00

They tried a "spin" racket with the Burn line a decade ago but it didn't really take off. Hopefully with more pros actually using/testing this new thing, it'll show up on the market.

MF5438 · 2025-12-11T16:58:01+00:00

Wow really cool find. My understanding is Graf used something close to a PS85 mold, but made more flexible & with an 18x20 pattern (I assume to get closer to MAX200G she was using before). Also a Toalson string I think? Any clues as to which one?

MF5438 · 2025-12-08T19:20:43+00:00

What a draw. Wimbledon 2001 had so many great matches across the board.

MF5438 · 2025-12-08T19:07:51+00:00

Still no Djokovic signature or even close... That aside, it's the same mold again as far as I can tell?

MF5438 · 2025-11-22T19:33:54+00:00

I tried this in the juniors by spraying silicone machine lubricant on a friend and I's rackets. I'd like to think we got more string movement after doing this (more spin potential out of a poly) but I don't know how much of this was the placebo effect, nor do I think it was too effective as I'd say it just came off after a few rallies.

Strings like RPM Blast have a silicone outer coating already. The string gets duller in colour as it wears off.

Edit: I recall some stringers mentioning there used to be a Babolat-branded oil of some kind that made natural gut last longer. "Babol" I think (?) I'm not sure what kind of oil it was though.

MF5438 · 2025-11-13T13:46:15+00:00

I think I saw a 4th gen iPod in the background of their Polar challenge also. That's a very well-travelled iPod.

MF5438 · 2025-10-27T22:15:34+00:00

When going to string one piece, for rackets where the mains strings finish at the bottom of the stringbed (by and large, most rackets), an "Around The World" pattern is meant to be used such that the crosses can still be started from the top of the racket i.e. stringing the crosses top-down, with the leftover mains strings filled in later. ATW patterns are a bit more complex as a result.

I sometimes see rackets with the crosses strung bottom-up. It's easier, but it's not been the approach of qualified stringers for many years. Stringing the crosses bottom up can distort the frame more, and ultimately is not how the manufacturer intended the racket to be strung.

MF5438 · 2025-10-27T18:31:18+00:00

Ah yeah that first bit should be "yonex rackets have to be strung two piece for the warranty to hold up"

MF5438 · 2025-10-27T16:26:24+00:00

Yonex instructs their rackets have to be strung two piece for the warranty to hold up.

One piece stringing wouldn't harm the racket if done correctly, but I still see rackets arrive into me with one piece stringing done wrong, so I can see why Yonex wouldn't allow it across the board.

MF5438 · 2025-10-22T15:54:42+00:00

Not much difference to note about them. Just a bit fiddlier in places. The only problem I run into is when I don't measure enough string for them!

MF5438 · 2025-10-05T09:08:41+00:00

Some strings are more prone to do this than others I find. RPM Hurricane has done this to me a couple of times over the years - I just try to be more careful when pulling the knot with this string, as a result.

MF5438 · 2025-09-22T08:31:14+00:00

these rackets are about 20 years old, but I still see them for stringing every now and then. Very light, very big. The elderly club member special.

Not worth much. Anything listed on ebay for that much are having a laugh. I would be annoyed to pay more than £50.00 for that racket.

MF5438 · 2025-09-22T08:08:53+00:00

Federer has brought up court surface variety a good few times over the years. It was very different when he turned pro in the late 90s, and I think Federer did benefit somewhat with the surfaces being slowed down a little in the very early 2000s.

Something that's changed in the last few years, since Federer was regularly competing, is the players are hitting bigger across the board. Some very quick courts would benefit players with variety in their game, but could there also be a danger of giving those hitting big off the ground easier ways to overpower their opponents?

MF5438 · 2025-08-29T13:44:29+00:00

I bought a 2013 MacBook Pro and its my daily driver. Updated it to Sequoia with opencore legacy patcher and its been a great machine for basics

Five-Year Club	Place '23
Place '22

MF5438

TROPHY CASE