Italian Andreas Seppi has survived two five-set battles in the Australian Open 2017 and now has a huge test on his hands when he plays Stan Wawrinka in the fourth round (see my predictions here).
Seppi doesn’t use any of the big name racquet brands such as Wilson, Babolat, Yonex or Head, but a smaller Taiwanese company called ProKennex. ProKennex has focused on tennis elbow friendly technology they call “kinetic”. Andreas Seppi endorses the ProKennex Q Tour
 (325 grams version) which is a players racquet similar to the Head Prestige line which Seppi used previously.
I’ve used the ProKennex Redondo 98Â myself and must say that’s an absolutely spectacular racquet if you can handle the weight. Arm-friendly, control-oriented, but not powerless and with great feel – it’s definitely one of my favorite racquets of all time. I haven’t tried the Q Tour series, but have heard from many players out there that ProKennex create high quality racquets.
Seppi strings his racquet with Luxilon Alu Power
and wears Fila tennis gear
.
Here are Andreas Seppi’s racquet specs:
369g strung
18×20 string pattern (Alu Power 22/21kg ATW stringing pattern)
57RA stiffness
19mm beam
353 SW
8 comments
Just bought myself a Pro kennex g5 kinetic 295. Suffer from tennis elbow so hope this is going to solve the problem. Saw only good reviews and was able to pick one up cheap. Here is holding thumbs.
Let me know how it goes – really like ProKennex racquets. Good luck!
Err… no. Pro Kennex is not american (they’re from Taiwan) and they can’t be overlooked by any tennis nerd as they introduced, among other things, the Black Ace 95, the first 100% graphite mid. :-)
They invented both the H22 mold and the Destiny mold in the 80’s, and the APD mold as well! Without PK we wouldn’t have Blades, Radicals nor Pure Drives and AeroPro Drives. They sold the H22 mold to Head in the mid 80’s (Head refers to the Pro Tour mold as H22057 btw) and the Destiny and APD molds to Babolat in the mid 90’s.
Here are Andreas Seppi’s racquet specs btw:
369g strung
18×20 string pattern (Alu Power 22/21kg ATW stringing pattern)
57RA stiffness
19mm beam
353 SW
Thanks a lot! This post badly needs updating and ProKennex is a great racquet brand.
They made the Ki5PSE that was very similar to the Federer racquet. It was just a little heavier. Great racquet. I am surprised Seppu did not play with it.
Jonas – I’d like to ask a bit more feedback on your experience with the Redondo 98. You mentioned it is heavy. The swingweight is listed at 324 – did you weight it up? I have been having a hard time adjusting to modern players racquets. I grew up using traditional racquets – my favorites were the Head Prestige Tour (wine colored version) and the Wilson PS 95. I had an iPrestige but remember being scared of it :-). Too stiff for me. I am finding modern, lighter racquets either too stiff, or not enough plow through. Wdyt of the Redondo 98 nowadays.
I just signed up via Patreon btw
Thanks for signing up for Patreon! I do like the Redondo 98. If you like classic frames, I would definitely give a try. It’s quite low-powered due to the low stiffness rating, but if you produce your own power, you might really like it. So I’d recommend you give it a go.
Thanks Jonas – appreciate the feedback!