I’m Talking

The ‘Unconventional Aspects’ Racquet
Review

In this review, the aspects that I will NOT
discuss are:
1. Serves

2. Forehands

3. Backhands

4. Volleys

5. Return of Serves

These are already covered in various
reviews available either in TW or any other miscellaneous forums you can
possibly GOOGLE for about the Wilson [K] Factor [K] Six One 95 (16×18) tennis
racquet (K95). I’ve been trying-out various frames before ending up with the
K95, and have been playing with it throughout this year, and played in tourneys
within my varsity throughout this year as well. So far, the racquet has gone
through all the various shot-making drills, competitive games, and even plain
simple practice.  Here goes nothing…

Running Shots (Offensive)

Specifically, it is not your conventional ‘stand,
stroke, and recover’ motion. This is the shot almost every tennis player has to
drill and get used to. The run-for-your-life, still-hit-a-full-stroke-while-running
(definitely not recommended unless it’s dire), and brake-to-recover is the most
commonly looked over shot in the many arsenals of your tennis shots. For the
K95, the frame provides me enough feel to hit the two types of running shots I favour
the best – running forehand, running backhand (both wide to either side of the
court, away from your comfort zone). Due to the heft of the frame, I was able
to comfortably stroke through the ball without compromising the stability
significantly lost while scampering for a wide ball. The frame did most of the
work during contact and all I needed to do was just to make sure I didn’t just
tap the ball or hit a mooning ball back. I could take great rips at the ball
without worrying that it’ll fly long due to the amount of spin generated by the
frame. At times where I felt that I couldn’t get to the ball in time, a neat
slice was also helpful and the racquet again provided the stability that I needed.
Overall, I rate it 8.5/10 for running shots.

Running Shots (Defensive)

This shot is the one you all love-to-hate.
You’ve been rallying 10 shots from the baseline, no one seems to be ushering to
the net yet and no tricky signs of mooning balls or weird slices. Out of the
blue, you see yourself scampering for the nastiest dropshot you have seen and
run towards the net just in time for your racquet face to touch the ball. Yeah,
we all have those moments. The racquet was much more demanding here as the dire
situation required me most of the time to flick the wrist just to get some needed
placing off the ball. During these moments, time to prepare for a slice is also
not really available. The racquet head is light enough just to get a good flick
of the wrist to generate some added pace to the slow ball to place it to the
baseline (when I feel or guess that the opponent is coming up to put it away).
If I get a glimpse of time to hit an underspin back (to drop if I see the
opponent is still a little far back), the execution is somewhat harder even
though the racquet head is light. To me, many a times, I opted for a flick back
far to the baseline, or flick it crosscourt. Maybe it’s the condition and how
well the balls were dropped, but I rarely managed to counter-drop the
opponents. But maybe it’s not the racquet eh? 6/10

Counter-Punching Crazy Spins

I played with 3 players that used a lot of
topspin in their ground-strokes. This was never a huge problem to deal with for
me, but what I really loved from the frame was how it took my game to another
level because now I felt EVEN MORE comfortable returning those hardcore spin
balls (nearly mooning, but DEFINITELY not defensive in any way). I could not
return these balls with more control (a definite plus point for me) and
redirect the ball to where I want it without having to worry about playing too
safe a ball due to aggressive ground-strokes by the opponent. This means that
whenever my opponent felt like going offensive and starts hitting hard shots, I
can easily defend those hard balls without being defensive – I punch right back
by playing offensive too (which is SURELY my idea of playing the game). Even
against a lefty who packs a punch (which I normally do have to adjust due to
the opposite spin) I find lesser problems when using this racquet cause I do
not feel the aggressive spin as much as my older racquet (don’t get me wrong,
the spins are still there, just to a lesser degree). 9/10

­Tired Rallying Strokes

Fatigue HAPPENS when the tournament goes
from 8am – 10pm at night. Playing 3 matches in a row (best of 3, if we have
more players, then it’s a Pro set of 9 games) will cramp you down at the last
set of the last game and at the last point. It’s important that at my worst of
conditions, the racquet does not become a burden to my game. For player
racquets, being heavier always seems to be the problem here. For me, the weight
of the K95 is not a problem at all, seeing that I’ve played with old metal
racquets (HEAD.. forgot which version before) when I was little… but the
racquets of whatever weight (expect juniors) would feel heavy after a while.
Trust me! So what does this racquet provide when fatigue sets in? It forces you
to play right. NOT SAFE, play RIGHT. For this frame, you have to hit your full
strokes, you have to be there, prepare early, get yourself in the right motion
if you want to deliver a good (if not winning stroke). It is important to note
that the racquet of such open string pattern already provided me with enough
response from the stringbed, and most of the time, I just completed my swing
without much energy into it. When I was tired and had not much power to give
in, I needed to adjust my reserves into preparing for the stroke and motion
rather than trying to moon balls in. I could put in decent balls in as though
it was a practice rally but smacking in winners wouldn’t be possible due to the
frame DEMANDING power from ME. 5-6/10

Overall

For competitive match-ups, this racquet
provided me with very good control without compromising power-hitting which is
quite a big part of my game. I didn’t want a racquet that had a lot of control,
but needed me to hit HARDER or hit DIFFERENTLY because that would need me to
alter my game or strokes quite a bit. So far, this racquet has no complaints
from me besides the fact that off-centre hits are very noticeable (very rare so
far in my time of using this frame). Overall, a good racquet that I’m going to
stick with compared to some other racquets I’ve demoed (just for a short while)
with.

I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS SHIT!

I’M NOT GOING FOR THIS YEAR’S MASUM TOURNAMENT IN SABAH!

Here’s the result of the interview with Adrian Tan.

Interviewer (I): So Adrian, what is your opinion about the whole situation?
Adrian Tan (AT): MuthA#!*@!*!@ stupid and !(@!@)$%)&)(* fellas better watch their (#!(&$#&(*#$#(*)&$ backs

I: Ok, but then…
AT: ()&$@#)&*@#) fellas *(&@#&@#*(&*( kiss my ()*)#@#@@)(*#@ silly )(*#@#*

I: We understand, but isn’t there…
AT: (@#)@#*()@#) idiots better (*)#@#*)#@ have no freaking (@)*#@#@

I: HOLD IT! Wait! LET ME ASK…
AT: WHAT?  YOU WANNA (*)*#@)@#&)@  piece of )(*()@*#(*)@(#*@#*)

I: OK OK,  we get it. Let’s have a more constructive discussion ok? What do you wanna say to those who did this to you?
AT: Well, first of all, I’ve devised a plan to get themselves killed. It’s simple. Ask them to jump off a cliff, into a ravine where there is nothing but sand and rocks. On top of that, make sure that the ravine is populated by mangy mongrels or hyenas to ensure that JUST IN CASE they survive the fall (Watching too much of DISCOVERY’s ‘True Heroes’) the mongrels will devour their bodies. Also, to make it even more effective, tie a hand held grenade to their heads and ensure that the pin is just about to be released (pull it out slightly, not fully), so when they hit the ground, the impact will cause the pin to fall of by itself. Also, for added effect, they could hire a few good Masais to come and hack their bodies till it’s all bite size for the mongrels. Oh, did I mention that they should do it when it’s hot and sunny? Yeah, cause if it’s raining, the mongrels can’t smell the rotting bodies and blood. Last thing, make sure they ‘eat right’ because they’re JUDGMENT DAY will somehow evaluate their eating habits as well.

I: ??? Ok, well, any news for those who will face similar problems as this?
AT: Yeah, copy and paste the answer above, and blog it in your website. You know why? Cause you can’t do s**t about it!

I: How about…
AT: *throws a punch right at the interviewers face and gives a nice karate chop to his shoulders while doing a roundhouse kick to his abdomen. While doing the karate-chop-roundhouse-esque move, a poke to the eyes and a pull of the nostril hair is done with exquisite matrix-esque motions.

… Paybacks a B****

Wilson [K]factor K6.1 95 (16/18)

I’ve been playing with this stick for about 2 months now, averaging about 6 days per week, clocking about 2 1/2 hours ++ each time. I’ve been doing some practice rallies and used this stick to play in the inter-university ranking league (amongst the other university players).

Thus far, the racquet has proven to be extremely solid. I dare say that this stick is the best racquet I’ve ever used compared to  many which I have tried (though not as long) such as:

1. HEAD Microgel Extreme,
2. Head Microgel Radical Mid,
3. Babolat Pure Drive Standard,
4. Babolat Aerodrive,
5. Prince O3 Tour,
6. Prince O3 Hybrid Shark,
7. Wilson Ksix-one Tour 90.

This racquet compared to the others have proven to be more suited for my game and has improved on the comfort of my game. To me, it was important that the racquet improved on my strengths without having to make too much of adjustments to my strokes and game. Though the 320++ grammes (Strung weight) was a little heavier than my previous stick (Prince Triple Threat Scream), I didn’t find it harder to adjust my swing or the timing of my racquet swing.

Overall, this stick has great feel on the serve, groundstrokes, and volleys. Thus far, serving with this stick has been very pleasant. My serves generate more spin in the kick serves though when I wanted to hit a flat ace, the racquet did not produce the power that I usually get with a 100 square inch frame (my previous stick). However, the extra heft on the racquet provided a lot of good plow through the serve which helped greatly in increasing the control of the ball placing in my serves.

On the groundstrokes, the feedback, response, stability, and spin-potential really made me happy with the racquet. Hitting the shots harder didn’t reallly matter due to the extra spin I can generate with this stick. Presumably due to the weight of the stick also, hitting the ball reduced a lot of unnecessary twisting and the result was a nice feel on the racquet’s sweetspot. However, the racquet does demand for the player to hit it at the sweetspot (which is pretty small on a 90-95 square inch frame) but that did not alter or affect my game at all.

My net game has always been a big problem. Though I occasionally come up to the net to keep my opponents guessing, it is not in my mainframe during the game. Especially during tournament matches, my net game mostly comes after approach shots which already is a 85% point ending shot (if not, I’ll not come up at all). However, hitting these approach shots (running shots, flicking forehands - to keep the low balls in) were extremely comfortable. The extra spin I get from this racquet makes me very confident when hitting my approach shots. Thus, making me feel more comfortable to step up inside the service box. When I’m already there, the racquet deserves all the credit because my net game is merely a touch-put-away game without much of a punch that some strong doubles-player (or general net-players) would have. But again, that is ME to be blamed ’skill-wise’. The racquet improved my touch and feel at the net though not giving me outstanding net games during real competitive games. Once again, it’s all ME.