Peter Lehrner about the YONEX VCORE Pro: "The precision in production is simply above all others"
With the sixth generation of the VCORE Pro series,YONEX has raised its flagship model to a completely new level. In an interview with tennisnet.com , racket service expert Peter Lehrner reveals what distinguishes the new rackets from the Japanese supplier and which trends are shaping the development of racket frames!
by tennisnet.com
last edit: Sep 19, 2021, 11:56 am
Mr.Lehrner, in the last interview with tennisnet we talked a lot about the developments in covering technology in tennis, but of course there is also a lot going on in terms of frames - especially during the period in which you are active in the racket service. In your opinion, what are the most important trends in this area?
The big leap, of course, was with the introduction of graphite frames. In the last few years, companies have tried to use even lighter, thinner, more stable glass fiber graphite mats to make the racket feel more comfortable and easier to play, and that the racket has more self-acceleration. These are the issues that the racket frames deal with. You also have to differentiate between grassroots and professional sports. In professional sport it is the case that very often frames are played that were played ten or fifteen years ago. Some top players use models that existed ten years ago because the players simply want to have as little change as possible once they get used to their device. Young players who have not yet got used to a certain model, of course, get used to today's models. But that's exactly what they'll want in ten years' time. That means, you have to distinguish between professional rackets and rackets for popular sports.
So the bigger changes can be observed in popular sport ?
Basically, the racket companies and producers try to breathe even more comfort and self-acceleration into the frame with newer materials. Overall, however, the game develops because the athleticism gets better, because the coordination skills get better. There, where almost more is happening, is the string sector. In the past, Ivan Lendl started to take a new string whenever he received new balls. Then Boris Becker did it that way. And today practically everyone is doing it. Because the performance of the racket and stringing is very dependent on the strings. And if the string is notched at this high intensity after nine games and is no longer as fresh as it was at the beginning, then the players take a new string when they get new balls. This is also something that is emerging more and more in popular sport. Most of them used to play with the coverings for a year, and in the past we even repaired the coverings. If the gut strings broke in the middle, we threaded two new ones. Now it is the case that even the hobby player begins to notice after two or three weeks that the string is no longer elastic and puts a new one in. So the stringing intensity is much higher.
Let's get back to the frame:One manufacturer that acts as a trendsetter in this area is YONEX. The new flagship model, the YONEX VCore Pro, came onto the market just this week. What distinguishes this racket?
Basically, you have to say that YONEX is a company that lives up to the principle of "quality first" at its best. Because this Japanese precision and accuracy is already one step more than with the others, because they really make even more effort in production that the clubs are the same. That what is written on it is also inside. At YONEX there are three major lines, the VCORE Pro, the VCORE and the EZONE.
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The VCORE Pro series is the line that includes the sportiest devices, with the slimmest frames, also with a slightly smaller face. There is the VCORE Pro with face 97 and face 100. These are the clubs that are the most technically demanding and that require you to play very precisely. You can get a lot out of the racket, but you have to have the technical tools to do it. The VCORE Pro 97 is available with 330, 310 and 290 grams, so that virtually everyone can find the frame that suits them best according to their technique and strength. The VCORE Pro 100 models, the frames are a bit wider with a 23mm profile, so they are a tad more good-natured - if you will - more forgiving. They also have a little more self-acceleration, because a larger clubface still brings a little more self-acceleration. But even there it is the case that the clubs are preferred by players who have the necessary technical equipment and who simply enjoy good striking technique.
With the professionals, Stan Wawrinka, Hubert Hurkacz and Francis Tiafoe rely on the premium model from YONEX. For hobby players, is the VCORE Pro particularly suitable for those players who are technically very sophisticated?
The people who tend towards the VCORE Pro tend to be the sportier, more ambitious players. That has not so much to do with the skill level, they are simply those who try to play the ball cleanly, who want to play in a variety of ways, who not only want to "thrash a full pot", but who play slice once, that once want to sprinkle a stopball. The frames from the entire YONEX package are also the softer, the more elastic, and the new VCORE Pro is even more supple because they have built in a new fiber that retains the frame's stiffness a little more, but still maintains the feel a soft, elastic frame is in the foreground.
YONEX is a brand that has recently tried to take on the top dogs Babolat, Head or Wilson. What are the general advantages of YONEX rackets?
I believe that that alone speaks for itself, that this precision in the final production is simply superior to any other. In other words, the fluctuation range at which some companies write on it that the club has 300 plus / minus seven grams, that is quite a lot. At YONEX - I measure every club that goes through my hands - the clubs have a fluctuation range of one, at most two grams, and the clubs only differ by one millimeter in terms of their balance. If you buy two clubs - even if they have not been specially treated - you, as a hobby player, have the feeling that you have two identical clubs. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. But that is the Japanese philosophy that they are simply very precise and this “quality first” principle is a trademark of YONEX.
What you should also mention is this unique club head shape from YONEX. The idea behind this is simply to increase the sweetspot by a few percentage points so that the string lengths stay a bit more balanced. You have to imagine, with the oval shape, the middle strings are always the longest and they get shorter towards the outside. With this slightly angular shape, the strings are just a bit longer. There is just the argument that the sweetspot gets a little bigger and so the ball still goes away well even if the hits are not hit very centrally. It's a somewhat unusual shape - some of course don't like it either - but the players who appreciate it are very, very happy with it. Because that's a YONEX peculiarity after all.
Now we have talked a lot about the here and now, but the development of the racket does not stand still any more than the development of the string segment. Mr. Lehrner, you as an expert: where do you think the journey is going in terms of framework development?
As already said: Here, too, you have to distinguish between professional and amateur players. In professional sport, ball control is really in the foreground due to this athleticism and good physical fitness and good technique. This means that the players - even the girls - can make the ball so fast because of their technique and of course their clubs that it is almost more important not to get too much acceleration because otherwise the ball simply won't stay in the field.
Basically, the greatest reserve is in the covering. As already said, there is of course a reason why the players take a new string and not a new racket after nine games. Of course they also take a different club, but that's purely because of the stringing. The string is the engine of the whole thing. I also see it in the hobby area that the ambitious championship players pick up a new covering for every match. As I said, whether there is still so much that can be achieved in terms of materials, I like to be surprised. Maybe a new fiber will hit the market. But the club shape is practically exhausted, there is everything between 95 and 110 area - what else should you do? And it is also clear that you shouldn't bring the racket weight down too far. Because the mass of the racket plays along again and a racket that is too light is certainly not suitable for a technically good player. The hobby player, who is not that technically savvy, will certainly love lighter clubs and larger hitting surfaces, but there it is more or less exhausted. So I just believe that the strings will be re-strung a lot more often in the future, because the individualists will also realize that a new string is a lot more fun than a string that has been in the racket for two or three months. Another great opportunity for improvement lies in the more individual adaptation of the clubs to the player. Just as the professionals adapt the rackets to their specifications, racket tuning is also becoming more and more an issue in popular sports.
The new YONEX VCORE Pro is now available in seven different models. From next week you can buy and test the flagship model of the Japanese equipment supplier in the House of Tennis from service expert Peter Lehrner!