Yonex Arcsaber Z-Slash Taufik Review

Written February 16^th, 2011

Stiff

3U G4 (87g requested)

BP: 291mm with supergrap

Strung w/ BG65 at 25lbs

SP code

First Impressions:

Stunning. I must admit, I’m not the biggest fan of super red rackets, kind of think it’s overdone now but this thing is beautiful. I can do without the white bits but everything is perfect in my opinion. When I held it in my hand, it felt quite evenly balanced, and light. A few swings through the air created little resistance, nice sharp sound as it cuts through. The stiffness of this thing is very similar to that of my old NS9000-S or maybe even a bit stiffer, but not as stiff as the AT900P or the NS9900.

Warm Ups:

Clears were easy although it’s been a while since I last used BG65s so it felt a bit different. There was minimal vibration with every hit and contrary to what many people have said, I didn’t have any mishit but this was only a warm-up. Drops were excellent and drives were simple although I felt I needed to push a little bit more to get it really going. Net shots were kind of everywhere? I found it really difficult to keep it down and in (with cross court net shots) but this could be due to the strings.

Game Time:

Game speed is much faster than warm up! And this racket performs well when the game is fast XD Net shots still remained a bit high and occasionally killable but everything else was easy. Crosscourt drops from the back were simple, and slices were executed with great ease, the lighter weight really helped here. Defensive lifts/ smash returns were surprisingly simple. I expected something really dull but it kind of exploded to the back line. Backhand serves were easy to control as were flick serves, although I did hit it long a few times. Now onto smashes. “Recovery smashes” or half smashes I like to do when scrambling to the back were quite fast and simple to perform. Backhand smashes took some time to get the timing of but the few times I did get it were amazing. Full smashes were simply amazing. So much power for so little effort on my part, this is where the ArcZ excels. Net shots did improve towards the end of the day but I still think it has something to do with me not being used to the strings, might change them very soon.

Conclusion:

The ArcZ was a great racket, nice and fast for doubles, but still powerful enough for singles. I’m really interested to see how this racket will perform with more time so it is now my No.1 XD Overall, I didn’t seem to have the same timing issues as most people seem to have but I might’ve just been lucky, being able to get one with such favourable characteristics for me =P This thing might not suit everyone so it’s best to try it out for yourself before forking out the dough as it is very expensive.

Ratings:

Power – 9.5/10

Control – 8.5 to 9/10

Feel – 9/10

Defence – 9/10

Value – 6/10 (it’s very expensive, just go for the yellow version)

Wallace