He has just had his breakthrough moment at the Cordoba Open in Argentina. But what is Luciano Darderi’s racquet?
Darderi is yet another talented Italian coming up the ranks. You can check out our Luciano Darderi Player Profile here. Sinner is the obvious one, and Berrettini has been established for a while but struggled in recent years, but we also have Arnaldi, Nardi, and a bunch of other ones. Italian tennis is in better shape than ever before.
Darderi has had his best results on clay and will, with his title in Cordoba, reach his best ranking ever. This is a good time for his birthday, which is on Valentine’s Day, February 14.
What is Luciano Darderi’s racquet?
Darderi was previously using a Dunlop CX 200 with a generous helping of lead tape at 3 and 9. I don’t know his specifications, sadly, but if someone has an idea, please comment below.
The young Italian has recently made a switch to the Yonex Percept line, where it looks like he is using the Percept 97D with a lead tape at 3 and 9. This is similar to Marcos Giron’s new racquet. You can check out the popular Yonex Percept racquets from our friends at Tennis Warehouse.
EDIT: Thanks to Sebastian Arruti in the comments, we got the following info: I was the stringer of the tournament in Punta del Este challenger in January, and I got to add weight to his rackets as he requested 16g total. 11 at the top of the grip and 5 at the trap door. I didn’t get to measure swing weight, but weight and balance were 360g 31.8cm after customization was 376g 30.7cm all strung with overgrip.
In terms of string setup, he uses what looks like natural gut in the mains and Yonex Poly Tour Pro in the crosses, but that is just by eye sight. He used a yellow string also when he was with Dunlop, so it could be something else.
However, he has made some racquet changes in recent years. He used to play with the Blade, then to Dunlop and now with Yonex.
Playing style
You can’t be too one-dimensional in today’s tennis, but Darderi looks happiest on clay courts trading blows from the baseline. But he has a versatile enough game to transition his success to faster surfaces. He doesn’t have a knockout punch, but he is very steady and a good mover with a strong head on his shoulders. I am sure we will see more titles from him in the future.
Do you have any info about Luciano Darderi’s racquet? And have you seen Luciano Darderi play? What do you think of his game?
4 comments
I was the stringer of the tournament in punta del este challenger in january and i got to add weight to his rackets as he requested 16g total. 11 at the top of the grip and 5 at the trap door. didnt get to measure swingweight but weight and balance were 360g 31.8cm. after customization was 376g 30.7cm all strung with overgrip.
This is such crazily hefty specs!
376 g, wow!
The 97D already had a ton of weight in the throat area, so I can’t imagine adding 11g to the top of the handle.