I played Tennis 20 years ago. My last Racket was a Dunlop 200g. Now i'm back on the court und i tried several Rackets. Head, Yonex..... What should i say, now i'm playing with a Dunlop SX 300. Dunlop build very good Rackets and i think we will see more good stuff from Dunlop in the future. Regards from Germany.
My recollection is that the lower numbers are more players frames. Berdych played with a 300 (Biomemetic?) before switching to Head. So anything 300 should be fairly control-oriented. I'm still playing with frames from 2011 and I'm curious about the new frames but I hate the process of finding new frames. I played with the Dunlop Revelation Tour Pro in the 1990s - great control frame - thin-beam, 62 RA, great platform frame and coloring was like the Prestige.
I made the switch to the FX Tour from the CX Tour so I could get more power on ground stroke winners and it worked, more so on flat backhands but the forehands have a surprising amount of jump spin as do topspin serves. There is too much paralysis by analysis on racquets just give them a demo you never know what works for any given person.
Nice review ! I'm a beginner, but want to rise. 40 years, 5,6 feets (172 cm), 72 kg, - confused - FX 500 or FX 500 LS ? What a better choice ? One more question: as I understand the characteristics of FX 500 and FX 500 LS are different, and LS is not so good as regular one (including stability) - am I right ? Thank You ! Greetings from Lithuania !!!
😂 on the other hand I can probably say that old-school tennis was all about serve and volley. No power. Boring. Progress is not for everyone I guess. No matter how the racket and strings help, the one who is better still wins.
Yes, I have to agree that serve and volley could be deadset boring, unless you had an opponent who could return well and make it a contest. As a kid, all the major domestic tournaments were played on grass and the early rounds were often boring, with really short rallies. Guys with big serves and not much else could dominate. As well as advances in equipment, I think the switch from grass to hardcourt had a major impact on serve and volley. The speed and unpredictable bounce of grass worked in the s/v's favour, but the true bounce and slower speed of hardcourts made it a harder proposition. Grass courts were plentiful initially in Oz, but the high cost of maintenance made them unviable. There are still a few grass courts around (eg. Bacchus Marsh) but they are few and far between. The art of the volley is not completely lost - it was still used during the Oz Open, though prudently in the singles and more prominently in the doubles. Tend not to be all that interested in the early rounds of the majors - they can be boring too!
A larger head size , non leather grip and more athletic dynamic play with aggressive all court activities is what I wanted for myself and did , back in 1985 against the norm , of basic 3 hit volley and end at the net . What is being done today , is only starting to go back to serve volley all court play .
I bought my first Dunlop racket, the FX500 Team and I love it, definitely I will get the FX 500 when I get the chance. Exceptional quality at a ridiculous price.
Demo'd the FX 500 Tour a few weeks back and found it to be a fun, lively upgrade from my Blade V8. Flatter shots, like serve, bh and return of serve were pretty great. Sometimes awesome. Where I struggled was hitting fh's, specifically hitting topspin fh's. I had a hard time using the modern ATP swing where you use the upper part of the hoop when contacting the ball. The FX 500 Tour seemed to have a lower sweetspot.
@@glademaster I think bc I use a more modern swing and hit the ball on my fh closer to the top of the hoop (vs dead center), my fh often just died and I was unable to really impart any spin or power. I was consistently hitting outside the sweetspot on the FX 500 Tour compared to my Blade, which I think has a slightly higher sweet spot.
I have the same experience with my previous gen FX. I hit the sweetspot on the bh and often get more topspin than my fh side. I use a semi western grip, but I think I could use better technique and footwork so it's just not the racquet 😁
I have heard on the tennis warehouse dunlop cx forum , that it may come mid year or towards the end of 2023 when it turns summer in Australia. Since the time is unsure , the cx line is expected to be updated for 2024 . Every 3 years , since they were a 2021 product line . I would expect a tour 16x19 and 18x20 in the 98's. Hopefully they will integrate the sx spin grommets and power from fx .
Going a bit off topic , I have realized recently that the easiest way to fade away pickelball or any sport really is to use it against itself . Pickel ball is a faster closer serve volley underhand tennis skill generator , and therefore for childreen can support adult tennis performance . Since pickel ball seeks in the short term to occupy the tennis court , one can use their nets to train very young children in tiny tot tennis and form leagues were everything needs to be to scale . Let pickel ball players wait for court use . This is the true adapt and overcome which can bring back true dynamic tennis skills .
The normiclatures for these Fx's as LS and L is exactly the same . The LX is also the 2 racquet designations that are in white that are greater than 100 inches for the club player as the 800 and 1000 . They make this unnecessarily confusing , unless there attempting like Head a racquet line series switch around as well .
yes you are .... they are designed in Japen/England but as with 99% of racquets manufactured in China... but their quality and quality control is very good.
Basically players abandoned them because there was no money to play with them. Their market really shrunk as well but their price didn't which rather surprised me. With the new FX models coming out you can get last year's for 50% off until they drain the stock.
Dunlop has pumped a lot of money into sponsorship. All rackets made cheaply in China. Dunlop used to be British in the early eighties and McEnroe / Graf were the flag bearers and the technology/ quality were high. The brand suffered under the ownership of Sports Direct who did little to promote it other than as a cheap product.
You are totally mistaken ... Sports Direct do not own the Dunlop Brand they are owned by the Japanese company Sircom and I have the CX200 and SX 300 and they are top quality racquets .... I believe you are thinking of Slazenger Brand which is owned by Sports Direct ? .... You're welcome
@@timlewis7087 previous to Srixon purchasing Dunlop they were purchased by an American company headquarters in South Carolina which is now the regional hq for the United States . I own 2 cx 200 tour 18x20's and started with the Black Max in 1985 , the previous generation Sx and Fx that I tested was definitely balanced for spin , control and power . The Fx for power . Unfortunately as they were stock , the Sx and Fx felt unplayable. There were good days and bad ones . There was no playable consistency, which made dunlop change to a 98 in the Sx which I have also tried and it lost that balance as previously stated , yet became more playable . I will test the newly updated Fx in the spring , since I am in NY , but the same issues may occur in which there was a feel in the new 98 SX of a 5 gram like mass in the string bed that did not feel right . Yes sports direct now ownes Slazenger , I have 2 , four ball cans and the British people did not like this company purchasing it from dunlop U.S.A when they sold itself to the Japanese rubber tire company , and I agree . They lost part of themselves since the company wanted it so bad in the early 20th century . The Cx acts far better with weight at 12 , 10 and 2 .
@@timlewis7087 "In December 2016, Sports Direct announced it had agreed to sell the Dunlop brand to Sumitomo Rubber Industries for £112 million ($137.5 million)" @Tim you have to learn to read before posting. You're welcome.
Those dumbo royal british weights don' mean anything to us in Europe. Total racket science... How abt adding the racket weights in GRAMS on the screen for reference? Thank you Harry.
You should have told him, or rather reminded him, that color of blue has been used to death. Could be mistaken for a Pure Drive or a EZone. Is that what they want? Because it doesn't stand on its own.
These rackets and strings today have ruined tennis, 14 year old's are hitting as hard and good as Ivan Lendl or a Boris Becker to name a few, and they were No. 1 player's in the world, and these 14 year old's today would be happy to make a HS or college tennis team, the rackets and strings are doing most of the work, adding more power than ever with little to no additional talent / effort. Everyone is using the same and hitting so hard, yet the court's have stayed the same size, the physics doesn't work. It's why 37 million people have moved to Pickle Ball. And many pro players have moved to Pickle Ball. It's all about power now, makes the game robotic and boring, the days of s/v, drop volleys, half court volleys, touch at the net are gone and now they stand behind a baseline and swing as hard as possible and the ball stays in longer than ever, now 95% of all players are using a 2hbh, the baseline play and 2hbh go hand and hand, baseliners have adopted the easier and very limited 2hbh as well. The most athletic and exciting players were from the 80's and 90's, they did everything, they used real (small) rackets and one type of string, now it's giant (comedian's props) rackets, 1,000 different fake (artificial material) strings and half of the original game is eliminated, can you imagine if they eliminated half of baseball or football.
You are definitely correct . What makes it worse is really the perversion of the sport by tour promoters and media to invigorate a sport that does not need it . They pervert for economics and now gambling . The dark zeitgeist and yet the spirit of the sport is based on the spirit of the self and the personal mastery expressed in true dynamic athletics that is occasionally seen . More grass in nature play is key to one's connection back to it's best state .
@@derekpappas1556 wow, I've been criticizing, screaming and arguing for a few years, and finally I see a comment from someone with a brain and a passion for something that was once a magical art form. Now it's like playing a video game or racketball, it's gotten so frustrating, it's all about the rackets, the strings, the racket companies, the lobbyists, who allowed this to happen. The MLB and NFL have rules to stick by, NBA, NHL, the ability must come from the individual. Everything in this industry is artificial now, if you want power you choose this, if you want control you choose this, they are literally telling you which racket to use to make up for an inability. It's like selling snake oil off a shelf now.
Improvise, adapt, overcome. Instead of complaining about time passing you by, look for the positives in the sport. Or you can move onto pickle ball and find new things to complain about :b
Ok boomers.... next I'm expecting to hear you guys screaming at kids to get off your lawn, lol. It's the evolution of the game and technology . You know , like cars evolved from the model T , firearms evolved from flint locks etc... Either evolve with the game or get left behind .
I wish he just did not act silly and speak to the audience as if they were elementary school children and like a salesman with BS vs a professionally detailed representative . This must be a west coast lazzy like mentality and speach vs the more serious professional nature of the east coast . Weather helps the west . I hope that Tennis spin does not think that their viewer's are mental infants . Unfortunately all we seem to see now is targeted advertising from the channel, which is disrespectful to the viewing audience .
A ton of people don’t understand tennis racquets and the technology associated with them. As someone who does know a lot about them, I think he did a great job at getting the everyday tennis player to understand the basics on what Dunlop is doing and how their racquets work. This has nothing to do with east coast vs west coast lol
@@Mewborne89 In his own statement , he even stated that he did not even know much about dunlop products and it shows . I have communicated with the u.s headquarters that use to own Dunlop sports and even there reps know little on the products in detail . His statements which state that he cannot tell how it's braided or constructed is true but not because it's a secret but because he does not know .
@@derekpappas1556 he said he’s only been there for a short amount of time, which was obvious when he talks about “secrets” and “can’t explain the technology down to the science”… But what I am saying is the way he showed and explained things (dumbing it down) it makes it much easier for the everyday tennis goer to understand. That’s all.
I played Tennis 20 years ago. My last Racket was a Dunlop 200g. Now i'm back on the court und i tried several Rackets. Head, Yonex..... What should i say, now i'm playing with a Dunlop SX 300. Dunlop build very good Rackets and i think we will see more good stuff from Dunlop in the future. Regards from Germany.
My recollection is that the lower numbers are more players frames. Berdych played with a 300 (Biomemetic?) before switching to Head. So anything 300 should be fairly control-oriented. I'm still playing with frames from 2011 and I'm curious about the new frames but I hate the process of finding new frames. I played with the Dunlop Revelation Tour Pro in the 1990s - great control frame - thin-beam, 62 RA, great platform frame and coloring was like the Prestige.
Typical sales guy / rep, talks a lot but doesn't really know what he's talking about. It never fails.
I made the switch to the FX Tour from the CX Tour so I could get more power on ground stroke winners and it worked, more so on flat backhands but the forehands have a surprising amount of jump spin as do topspin serves. There is too much paralysis by analysis on racquets just give them a demo you never know what works for any given person.
Can you get a 3.0 doubles women play tester for the oversized racquets going forward? Or a junior for the light versions? they watch the channel too!
Nice review ! I'm a beginner, but want to rise. 40 years, 5,6 feets (172 cm), 72 kg, - confused - FX 500 or FX 500 LS ? What a better choice ?
One more question: as I understand the characteristics of FX 500 and FX 500 LS are different, and LS is not so good as regular one (including stability) - am I right ? Thank You ! Greetings from Lithuania !!!
Hey, I actually know Kevin! Never thought I'd see anyone I know on this channel. Thanks for posting this video!
😂 on the other hand I can probably say that old-school tennis was all about serve and volley. No power. Boring. Progress is not for everyone I guess. No matter how the racket and strings help, the one who is better still wins.
Yes, I have to agree that serve and volley could be deadset boring, unless you had an opponent who could return well and make it a contest. As a kid, all the major domestic tournaments were played on grass and the early rounds were often boring, with really short rallies. Guys with big serves and not much else could dominate. As well as advances in equipment, I think the switch from grass to hardcourt had a major impact on serve and volley. The speed and unpredictable bounce of grass worked in the s/v's favour, but the true bounce and slower speed of hardcourts made it a harder proposition. Grass courts were plentiful initially in Oz, but the high cost of maintenance made them unviable. There are still a few grass courts around (eg. Bacchus Marsh) but they are few and far between. The art of the volley is not completely lost - it was still used during the Oz Open, though prudently in the singles and more prominently in the doubles. Tend not to be all that interested in the early rounds of the majors - they can be boring too!
A larger head size , non leather grip and more athletic dynamic play with aggressive all court activities is what I wanted for myself and did , back in 1985 against the norm , of basic 3 hit volley and end at the net . What is being done today , is only starting to go back to serve volley all court play .
I bought my first Dunlop racket, the FX500 Team and I love it, definitely I will get the FX 500 when I get the chance. Exceptional quality at a ridiculous price.
Demo'd the FX 500 Tour a few weeks back and found it to be a fun, lively upgrade from my Blade V8. Flatter shots, like serve, bh and return of serve were pretty great. Sometimes awesome. Where I struggled was hitting fh's, specifically hitting topspin fh's. I had a hard time using the modern ATP swing where you use the upper part of the hoop when contacting the ball. The FX 500 Tour seemed to have a lower sweetspot.
What was wrong with the topspin FH? Just didn’t feel good, or something off with the launch angle or spin level?
@@glademaster I think bc I use a more modern swing and hit the ball on my fh closer to the top of the hoop (vs dead center), my fh often just died and I was unable to really impart any spin or power. I was consistently hitting outside the sweetspot on the FX 500 Tour compared to my Blade, which I think has a slightly higher sweet spot.
@@petershort936 The FX isn't too heavy and doesn't have too high of a swing weight, so would a bit of lead in the hoop solve that problem?
I have the same experience with my previous gen FX. I hit the sweetspot on the bh and often get more topspin than my fh side. I use a semi western grip, but I think I could use better technique and footwork so it's just not the racquet 😁
Is the cx line being updated this year?
I have heard on the tennis warehouse dunlop cx forum , that it may come mid year or towards the end of 2023 when it turns summer in Australia. Since the time is unsure , the cx line is expected to be updated for 2024 . Every 3 years , since they were a 2021 product line . I would expect a tour 16x19 and 18x20 in the 98's. Hopefully they will integrate the sx spin grommets and power from fx .
It has
Started playing with the LX 800 eight months ago. Srixon technology is going to make Dunlop a player again in the racquet market!
Try the 500 Tour with leathergrip and some lead at 12. A really good racket.
I met Kevin today in my local tennis shop in Boise. Nice guy, I recognized him from this video.
Dunlop superior quality racquets i had aerogel 98 absolutely mind blowing..
Going a bit off topic , I have realized recently that the easiest way to fade away pickelball or any sport really is to use it against itself . Pickel ball is a faster closer serve volley underhand tennis skill generator , and therefore for childreen can support adult tennis performance . Since pickel ball seeks in the short term to occupy the tennis court , one can use their nets to train very young children in tiny tot tennis and form leagues were everything needs to be to scale . Let pickel ball players wait for court use . This is the true adapt and overcome which can bring back true dynamic tennis skills .
The normiclatures for these Fx's as LS and L is exactly the same . The LX is also the 2 racquet designations that are in white that are greater than 100 inches for the club player as the 800 and 1000 . They make this unnecessarily confusing , unless there attempting like Head a racquet line series switch around as well .
God I miss Dunlop. I could have sold a bunch of those.
Blayde is still my favorite rep.
for some unfounded reason I look at Dunlop as cheaper quality racquets. Im sure Im wrong thou.
yes you are .... they are designed in Japen/England but as with 99% of racquets manufactured in China... but their quality and quality control is very good.
Basically players abandoned them because there was no money to play with them. Their market really shrunk as well but their price didn't which rather surprised me. With the new FX models coming out you can get last year's for 50% off until they drain the stock.
awesome show how the racket behaves :)
Can you do a review on fx700?
Dunlop has pumped a lot of money into sponsorship. All rackets made cheaply in China. Dunlop used to be British in the early eighties and McEnroe / Graf were the flag bearers and the technology/ quality were high. The brand suffered under the ownership of Sports Direct who did little to promote it other than as a cheap product.
Except Yonex, it is made in Japan
The Black Max in 85 , a cheaper version of the 200G was made in Taiwan .
You are totally mistaken ... Sports Direct do not own the Dunlop Brand they are owned by the Japanese company Sircom and I have the CX200 and SX 300 and they are top quality racquets .... I believe you are thinking of Slazenger Brand which is owned by Sports Direct ? .... You're welcome
@@timlewis7087 previous to Srixon purchasing Dunlop they were purchased by an American company headquarters in South Carolina which is now the regional hq for the United States . I own 2 cx 200 tour 18x20's and started with the Black Max in 1985 , the previous generation Sx and Fx that I tested was definitely balanced for spin , control and power . The Fx for power . Unfortunately as they were stock , the Sx and Fx felt unplayable. There were good days and bad ones . There was no playable consistency, which made dunlop change to a 98 in the Sx which I have also tried and it lost that balance as previously stated , yet became more playable . I will test the newly updated Fx in the spring , since I am in NY , but the same issues may occur in which there was a feel in the new 98 SX of a 5 gram like mass in the string bed that did not feel right . Yes sports direct now ownes Slazenger , I have 2 , four ball cans and the British people did not like this company purchasing it from dunlop U.S.A when they sold itself to the Japanese rubber tire company , and I agree . They lost part of themselves since the company wanted it so bad in the early 20th century . The Cx acts far better with weight at 12 , 10 and 2 .
@@timlewis7087 "In December 2016, Sports Direct announced it had agreed to sell the Dunlop brand to Sumitomo Rubber Industries for £112 million ($137.5 million)" @Tim you have to learn to read before posting. You're welcome.
Those dumbo royal british weights don' mean anything to us in Europe. Total racket science...
How abt adding the racket weights in GRAMS on the screen for reference? Thank you Harry.
I dont like that either but I just do the conversion to grams while I pause video
try dropping those dumbo weights into google and working it out for yourself ? DOH !
Kevin seems like a good rep.
You should have told him, or rather reminded him, that color of blue has been used to death. Could be mistaken for a Pure Drive or a EZone. Is that what they want? Because it doesn't stand on its own.
This product rep has the most patronising manner ever.
I miss the use of Aerogel in Dunlop racquets. Wish they brought back the Maxply McEnroe (Graphite one)
These rackets and strings today have ruined tennis, 14 year old's are hitting as hard and good as Ivan Lendl or a Boris Becker to name a few, and they were No. 1 player's in the world, and these 14 year old's today would be happy to make a HS or college tennis team, the rackets and strings are doing most of the work, adding more power than ever with little to no additional talent / effort. Everyone is using the same and hitting so hard, yet the court's have stayed the same size, the physics doesn't work. It's why 37 million people have moved to Pickle Ball. And many pro players have moved to Pickle Ball. It's all about power now, makes the game robotic and boring, the days of s/v, drop volleys, half court volleys, touch at the net are gone and now they stand behind a baseline and swing as hard as possible and the ball stays in longer than ever, now 95% of all players are using a 2hbh, the baseline play and 2hbh go hand and hand, baseliners have adopted the easier and very limited 2hbh as well. The most athletic and exciting players were from the 80's and 90's, they did everything, they used real (small) rackets and one type of string, now it's giant (comedian's props) rackets, 1,000 different fake (artificial material) strings and half of the original game is eliminated, can you imagine if they eliminated half of baseball or football.
You are definitely correct . What makes it worse is really the perversion of the sport by tour promoters and media to invigorate a sport that does not need it . They pervert for economics and now gambling . The dark zeitgeist and yet the spirit of the sport is based on the spirit of the self and the personal mastery expressed in true dynamic athletics that is occasionally seen . More grass in nature play is key to one's connection back to it's best state .
@@derekpappas1556 wow, I've been criticizing, screaming and arguing for a few years, and finally I see a comment from someone with a brain and a passion for something that was once a magical art form. Now it's like playing a video game or racketball, it's gotten so frustrating, it's all about the rackets, the strings, the racket companies, the lobbyists, who allowed this to happen. The MLB and NFL have rules to stick by, NBA, NHL, the ability must come from the individual. Everything in this industry is artificial now, if you want power you choose this, if you want control you choose this, they are literally telling you which racket to use to make up for an inability. It's like selling snake oil off a shelf now.
Improvise, adapt, overcome. Instead of complaining about time passing you by, look for the positives in the sport. Or you can move onto pickle ball and find new things to complain about :b
@@TimTheMusicMan All true , perhaps we are in a similar generation . I am 51 . Dumbing down skill for power and money .
Ok boomers.... next I'm expecting to hear you guys screaming at kids to get off your lawn, lol. It's the evolution of the game and technology . You know , like cars evolved from the model T , firearms evolved from flint locks etc... Either evolve with the game or get left behind .
I wish he just did not act silly and speak to the audience as if they were elementary school children and like a salesman with BS vs a professionally detailed representative . This must be a west coast lazzy like mentality and speach vs the more serious professional nature of the east coast . Weather helps the west . I hope that Tennis spin does not think that their viewer's are mental infants . Unfortunately all we seem to see now is targeted advertising from the channel, which is disrespectful to the viewing audience .
A ton of people don’t understand tennis racquets and the technology associated with them. As someone who does know a lot about them, I think he did a great job at getting the everyday tennis player to understand the basics on what Dunlop is doing and how their racquets work. This has nothing to do with east coast vs west coast lol
@@Mewborne89 In his own statement , he even stated that he did not even know much about dunlop products and it shows . I have communicated with the u.s headquarters that use to own Dunlop sports and even there reps know little on the products in detail . His statements which state that he cannot tell how it's braided or constructed is true but not because it's a secret but because he does not know .
@@derekpappas1556 he said he’s only been there for a short amount of time, which was obvious when he talks about “secrets” and “can’t explain the technology down to the science”… But what I am saying is the way he showed and explained things (dumbing it down) it makes it much easier for the everyday tennis goer to understand. That’s all.
@@Mewborne89 and yet insulting to the rest , all to advertise. At least he had some use in this video vs his last .
@@derekpappas1556 Gosh Derek .. you really must learn how to use their , they're and there on the East Coast 🤣