tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-153141012024-03-14T00:11:33.170+08:00Regentville Tennis SingaporeWelcome to the Regentville Tennis Blog! This blog is dedicated to all my tennis buddies playing in Regentville Condominium. I hope this blog will give us more exposure to others sharing a similar interest in the game of tennis. We also regularly hold friendly group and inter condo competitions, so if you are interested in having friendly game, please feel free to contact me. Regentville is located at Hougang Street 92 next the Hougang Festival Market or Hougang Point.regentvillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02482321552754544921noreply@blogger.comBlogger126125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15314101.post-40007401411155844802010-10-17T11:27:00.004+08:002010-10-17T12:19:09.394+08:00Regentville versus Bukit RegencyThe <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville tennis</a> team had our first tennis friendly match (home leg) of 2010 against the team from Bukit Regency Condo based in Bukit Timah Singapore. Despite of the haze yesterday, we were fortunate to have good sunny weather and played a staggering totally of <span style="font-weight: bold;">16 games</span> (different double pairings) which in itself is a record as we had never played that many games in one friendly match session before. Regentville tennis fielded both our men's and mix doubles teams.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://images57.fotki.com/v66/photos/9/1028519/9160645/IMG_1957-vi.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266.5px;" src="http://images57.fotki.com/v66/photos/9/1028519/9160645/IMG_1957-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Regentville and Bukit Regency Tennis Team Photo<br /></span></div><br />This is Bukit Regency's first friendly tennis match and its great for the local <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Singapore tennis</a> scene that we are seeing more competitive social tennis teams being formed and participating in these <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">social tennis</a> friendly matches.<br /><br />On behalf of the <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville tennis team</a> would like to personally Thank Peter (team organizer) and all the players from the Bukit Regency tennis team for coming all the way down to Hougang to have this friendly tennis match with us. Away leg for the next friendly against Bukit Regency is yet to be confirmed.<br /><br />More <a href="http://public.fotki.com/regentville/regentville-vs-buki/">photos of Regentville versus Bukit Regency tennis</a> here.regentvillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02482321552754544921noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15314101.post-68579265478473228082009-11-08T11:58:00.001+08:002009-11-08T12:04:11.774+08:00Regentville versus SIM Varsity Team<a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville tennis</a> hosted the varsity team from the <a href="http://www.sim.edu.sg/">Singapore Institute of Management (SIM)</a> yesterday. The weather yesterday was perfect as it has been raining for the last couple of days. We managed to play a total of 9 men's double's matches against a team of 5 players from the SIM university team. In all, it was great experience to have played against a much younger and youthful opposition.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images51.fotki.com/v750/photos/9/1028519/8132521/IMG_0200-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266.5px;" src="http://images51.fotki.com/v750/photos/9/1028519/8132521/IMG_0200-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Regentville & SIM Varsity tennis team photo<br /></span></div><br />On behalf of the Regentville tennis team, I would like to Thank Calvin, team organizer for the SIM tennis team for having this friendly tennis match with us.<br /><br />More <a href="http://public.fotki.com/regentville/regentville-versus-sim/">photos of Regentville versus SIM tennis team</a> here.regentvillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02482321552754544921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15314101.post-64480748475019659602009-09-13T17:09:00.001+08:002009-10-10T10:35:04.866+08:00Fake Babolat Aero Pro Drive Tennis RacquetI have been getting many emails and <a href="http://www.facebook.com/nawin">facebook</a> requests asking to verify if a tennis racquet that had been purchase is either genuine or fake after I wrote my initial articles on the <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2007/03/fake-babolat-pure-drive.html">fake Babolat Pure Drive</a> and <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2008/04/fake-wilson-tennis-racquet.html">fake Wilson K Blade 98</a>. All these requests had one very similar thing in common and shared a common trait - They were all purchased from either online auctions sites or unknown China based websites not linked to any authorized tennis reseller or manufacturer.<br /><br />I had the opportunity to get a first hand look of a fake Babolat Aero Pro Drive - APD (Cortex Version) courtesy of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Lot Tan</span> who is a moderator of <a href="http://www.tfntennis.com/">Tennis Friendz Network</a> a local tennis forum here in Singapore. He had acquired this racquet from eBay thinking it was a great buy and genuine tennis racquet. When he finally received the racquet, to much to his surprise, he discovered that there were some inconsistencies with it as I will highlight below in my review of the fake Babolat Aero Pro Drive (APD).<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images110.fotki.com/v1585/photos/9/1028519/7925136/IMG_0576-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 266.6px; height: 400px;" src="http://images110.fotki.com/v1585/photos/9/1028519/7925136/IMG_0576-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Can you spot the difference between the genuine APD and fake APD? The one with the Black overgrip (left) is the authentic one<br /></span></div><br />Before I start with my review, I would have to say that the counterfeiters manufacturing these fake racquets are getting even better at making these conterfeit racquets. I personally rate the Babolat Aero Pro here as a "Class A" fake. Unlike the <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2007/03/fake-babolat-pure-drive.html">fake Babolat Pure Drive</a>, that I had previously reviewed, which had some glaring inconsistencies that you will be able to spot from a mile away, this fake Babolat Aero Pro Drive racquet bares an uncanny similarity to a genuine Babolat Aero Pro Drive in many aspects and it would take a fair bit of scrutiny comparing it with a genuine Aero Pro Drive to spot the differences. From a distance, I hardly could tell the difference! I hope my review and images below documenting the differences between a genuine and fake Babolat Aero Pro Drive would benefit the folks doing some research on the Aero Pro Drive before making a big mistake by purchasing a fake tennis racquet.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images41.fotki.com/v1577/photos/9/1028519/7925136/IMG_0691-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266.5px;" src="http://images41.fotki.com/v1577/photos/9/1028519/7925136/IMG_0691-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Can you spot the difference between the genuine APD and fake APD? The one with the Black overgrip (right) is the authentic one. They look exactly identical from a distance.<br /></span></div><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Differences between a Genuine Babolat Aero Pro Drive and a Fake Babolat Aero Pro Drive</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1. Racquet Balance & Weight</span><br /><br />This is almost a dead give away if you have the opportunity to physically see and examine the racquet. A weight balance test from the throat of the racquet reveals the "fake" Aero Pro Drive to be severely "head heavy". The entire racquet tips towards the head of the racquet. The genuine Babolat Aero Pro drive should be closer to an even balance.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images50.fotki.com/v1569/photos/9/1028519/7925136/IMG_0517-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266.5px;" src="http://images50.fotki.com/v1569/photos/9/1028519/7925136/IMG_0517-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">The fake Babolat Aero Pro Drive is totally head heavy! (racquet in front) As seen from this racquet balance test with a pencil.</span><br /></div><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br />2. Silver highlights versus Matte finish on wordings and logos</span><br /><br />All the wordings and propriety Babolat Technology and brand logos on the genuine Babolat Aero Pro Drive contains a Silver finishing or gleam. The fake Aero Pro Drive only has a dull greyish finish.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images51.fotki.com/v178/photos/9/1028519/7925136/BabolatSilverversusMatte2-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 321.5px; height: 300px;" src="http://images51.fotki.com/v178/photos/9/1028519/7925136/BabolatSilverversusMatte2-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">The authentic APD had a silver glossy finish to all its wordings compared to a matte dull finished found of the fake APD.</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">3. Identical colored paintwork but different colored "Cortex" V shaped section</span><br /><br />The "Yellow" coloring on the fake Babolat Aero Pro Drive are identical but the "White" has a more bright white coloring towards it. The genuine Aero Pro Drive has a more pearly yellowish white look. The most obvious give away here would be the more brightly yellow color on the plastic v shaped cortex section that is on the fake Aero Pro Drive compared to the more duller yellow found on the cortex section of the genuine Aero Pro Drive.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images51.fotki.com/v178/photos/9/1028519/7925136/IMG_0631-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 266.5px; height: 400px;" src="http://images51.fotki.com/v178/photos/9/1028519/7925136/IMG_0631-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">The fake Babolat Aero Pro Drive (Right) has a more brightly yellow colored plastic cortex section compared to the genuine Aero Pro Drive which is more dull yellow.</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">4. Totally different Grommets colors & Bumper guard design</span><br /><br />Another dead give away here. The Grommets on the fake Babalat Aero Pro Drive are different in color. Its in black instead of grey and of low quality. The patterns on the grommets also are totally different compared to the orginal Aero Pro Drive. This comes as a surprise to me as as grommets are relatively cheap plastic and easy to manufacture. The counterfeiters went to such great lengths to fake the cosmetic look of the racquet, but didn't bother to invest any time on making a good imitation of cheap plastic grommets. The most logical reason would be perhaps they felt that the grommets would be the least looked at compared to the racquet cosmetics on the frame.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images51.fotki.com/v178/photos/9/1028519/7925136/IMG_0598-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266.5px;" src="http://images51.fotki.com/v178/photos/9/1028519/7925136/IMG_0598-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">The bumper guard grommets on the fake APD (top) has a totally different design and color.<br /></span></div><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">5 Different location of the Trade mark "TM" logo</span><br /><br />The Trade Mark "TM" logo of the fake Babolat Aero Pro Drive is located inside the grommet section and the inner section of the racquet frame compared to the genuine Aero Pro Drive which has the "TM" logo visible on the outer side of the frame. Thing to also note here is the location of the spelling of "T" in the words Babolat. The fake Aero Pro Drive has the T spelling printed just stopping short of grooves where the grommets are housed. The authentic or genuine Aero Pro Drive has the "T" logo printed in the inner section of the grommet grooves.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images52.fotki.com/v1567/photos/9/1028519/7925136/IMG_0300-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 266.5px; height: 400px;" src="http://images52.fotki.com/v1567/photos/9/1028519/7925136/IMG_0300-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">The TM logo found logo on the fake Aero Pro Drive (left) is found on the inner section of the grommet groves.</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">6. Butt cap color and etched 3 letter character code.</span><br /><br />The butt cap on the original authentic Babolat Aero Pro Drive is a deeper red in color and contains an additional product code. The genuine APD which I have had the 3 character codes "MAC" etched into it. There might be different codes etched into each genuine Aero Pro Drive but I guess the thing to generally look out for would be the deeper red color of the Babolat logo and a character code embedded at the bottom section of the butt cap.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images41.fotki.com/v1577/photos/9/1028519/7925136/babolatbuttcap-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 280.5px;" src="http://images41.fotki.com/v1577/photos/9/1028519/7925136/babolatbuttcap-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Serial characters on the butt cap and a darker RED color on the Babolat logo (left) might indicate that you have a genuine Babolat racquet</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">7. Poor QC alignment in specification box.</span><br /><br />The alignment on the specs section of the fake Babolat Aero Pro Drive is out of alignment. As you can see from the image below. The "XCEL" box and the words "COMFORT" is slightly crooked and misaligned for the fake APD. The counterfeit Babolat APD is the racquet at the bottom in the image below.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images40.fotki.com/v1301/photos/9/1028519/7925136/IMG_0267-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266.5px;" src="http://images40.fotki.com/v1301/photos/9/1028519/7925136/IMG_0267-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Quality control has always been an issue with fake tennis racquets as seen in the (bottom) image.</span><br /></div><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />8. Paint overlay on the genuine Babolat Aero Pro Drive</span><br /><br />A distinct paint over lay was noticed near the hologram section where the yellow paint intersects the white for the genuine Aero Pro Drive. You can literally feel the layer of yellow paint above the white paint causing an impression as you run your fingers through it and a bulge in the grip size sticker above it. In the case of the fake or counterfeit Aero Pro Drive, (APD) there is no pronounced yellow layer and it feels smooth to the touch. All these minor inconsistencies could be prevalent in other counterfeit Babolat racquets and might lead you to quickly determine if a future Babolat racquet you come across is either genuine or fake.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images51.fotki.com/v178/photos/9/1028519/7925136/babolatpaintoverlay-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 352px;" src="http://images51.fotki.com/v178/photos/9/1028519/7925136/babolatpaintoverlay-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">More differences between a fake (top) and genuine (bottom) Babolat Aero Pro Drive<br /></span></div><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">9 Racquet cover and zipper</span><br /><br />The racquet cover on the fake Babolat Aero Pro Drive is noticeably much lighter than compared to an original Aero Pro Drive cover. The genuine APD racquet cover is much heavier and chunkier in feel. The color of the words "Aero Series" is different for both the genuine and fake racquets. The one on the genuine APD has the word "series" labeled in Green. The counterfeit APD had the entire words "Aero Series" all in Yellow.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images44.fotki.com/v1581/photos/9/1028519/7925136/IMG_0524-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 266.5px; height: 400px;" src="http://images44.fotki.com/v1581/photos/9/1028519/7925136/IMG_0524-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">The racquet covers doesn't lie, poorer quality is evident in the fake cover (left) in terms of weight and quality.</span><br /></div><br />The zipper on the genuine Aero Pro Drive has a greater quality finish, is much thicker in feel and has a matte finish look towards it. The zipper on the fake APD however has a more silvery look and feels much thinner to the touch. The logo on the zipper has a very crude look towards it indicating low quality control.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images53.fotki.com/v1579/photos/9/1028519/7925136/IMG_0547-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 266.5px; height: 400px;" src="http://images53.fotki.com/v1579/photos/9/1028519/7925136/IMG_0547-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Better quality matte finish found on the Babolat genuine racquet zippers (right) compared to the silvery crude looking zippers (left) found on the fake racquet covers.<br /></span></div><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">One possible way to check if your Babolat racquet is genuine.</span><br /><br />Over the years and from experience using many Babolat tennis racquets. I realized that Babolat usually has two serial holograms on their racquets. One is located on the inner section of the racquet throat and the other is found on the handle of the racquet which is only accessible when you remove your original grip. The serial numbers of the two stickers should match. Refer to the image below of my genuine Babolat Aero Pro Drive.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images51.fotki.com/v178/photos/9/1028519/7925136/babolatmatchingserialnumber-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 169.5px;" src="http://images51.fotki.com/v178/photos/9/1028519/7925136/babolatmatchingserialnumber-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Is it Real? One possible way to find out is to check that the serial numbers matches on both the racquet throat and handle (only accessible if you remove the original grip).</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Why you should never buy a fake tennis racquet racquet...</span><br /><br />As I was doing this review of the fake Aero Pro Drive and examining the grommets I noticed that this fake APD was already damaged and the frame had been already cracked. Counterfeit racquets are known to use cheaper less stronger composites and materials that are bad for you arm. You can risk serious injuries playing with fake tennis racquets and I strongly urge you to never consider buying an imitation tennis racquet or fake tennis frame. In the case of this counterfeit APD, I believe the crack on the frame was its inability to handle the stresses put on the string. The fake APD had a hybrid synthetic string setup on it. I feel that its material was never built to handle the stresses put on this racquet due to its cheap composites. I have no reason to believe this racquet was abused in anyway as a crack on the inside of the racquet usually indicates more of structural fatigue. It could be the result that this racquet was strung at a higher tension or gave way during play. I was looking for further evidence of abuse but could not find any leading me to conclude that the crack was more of a structural failure due to bad composites than anything else as a fake racquet with its poor quality materials and composites could not simply handle the stringing tension and the racquet finally gave way.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images50.fotki.com/v392/photos/9/1028519/7925136/babolatcrackedframe-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 323px;" src="http://images50.fotki.com/v392/photos/9/1028519/7925136/babolatcrackedframe-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Crack frame from racquet fatigue. Fake racquets are notorious for low quality composites that can lead not only to cracked frames but serious injuries.</span><br /></div><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Conclusion</span><br /><br />If you have already purchase a fake tennis racquet, I'm sorry that this has happened, but its at least a good lesson learnt that you should never try to shave off a couple of bucks in costs and buy from a reputable tennis dealer or store instead of auction sites that you have no way of verifying if the tennis racquet you purchase is real or fake. My advice is to know as much as possible about a genuine racquet before you buy it. Try to physically see and touch the racquet assuming you're buying it off somebody and meeting the seller. It helps to know how the racquet feels - it's weight, balance and some aspects of its cosmetics. If you cannot physically see and touch the racquet as you're buying it online, I would highly recommend that you purchase your tennis racquets from either reputable online stores, sellers or dealers of authorized tennis racquets.<br /><br />I am not saying that all sellers on online auction sites are selling fake racquets. Most sellers are selling genuine items and you can get them for a good deal as they might have purchased an original authentic racquet from an authorized store and might just want to sell it after sometime. This happens in most cases, but there are always some unscrupulous sellers who wants to sell fake tennis racquets to some unsuspecting buyers so the onus is on the buyer to always be aware and cautious when buying online. Many seller of fake products will posts images of the real product and sell you a fake product later. I sympathize with folks who don't really know much about tennis racquets and buy these imitation racquets thinking that they are genuine. Mind you these fake racquets are not exactly dirt cheap and still considerably cost some money. I sincerely hope my findings on the fake Babolat Aero Pro Drive would help some folks not get conned into buying a counterfeit product.<br /><br />Incidentally the moderators on our local Singapore tennis forum does not condone in such illegal activities and will not hesitate to refer this matter to the local authorities. I hope similar tennis forums and online auction sites follow suit.<br /><br /><a href="http://public.fotki.com/regentville/fake-babolat-aero-p/">More images of the genuine and fake Babolat Aero Pro Drive here</a>.regentvillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02482321552754544921noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15314101.post-83854846974025541162009-08-10T22:21:00.000+08:002009-08-10T22:22:23.647+08:00Write up on Fake Tennis RacquetsI was surfing the web today and was surprised that an online tennis store based in Melbourne Australia called <a href="http://worldoftennis.com.au/">World of Tennis</a> really loved my original <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2007/03/fake-babolat-pure-drive.html">write up on the fake <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Babolat</span> Pure Drive</a> that they actually "stole" it and repackaged the content as if it was there's! <a href="http://worldoftennis.com.au/have-you-bought-a-fake-tennis-racquet.html">See the stolen <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">Regentville</span> write up on fake tennis <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2">racquet</span></a> here. Now whose the one advocating piracy here? Nobody from World of Tennis had the decency to actually write me to ask for permission for the rights to use my pictures and content. They just stole my entire content made a few replacements to suit their page copy and there you have it.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images52.fotki.com/v1551/photos/1/1028519/4443578/article-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 405px; height: 800px;" src="http://images52.fotki.com/v1551/photos/1/1028519/4443578/article-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>They proudly proclaim in the last line of the paragraph that <span style="font-weight: bold;">"World of Tennis is an authorised dealer of every brand we sell. You can contact the Australian distributors of each brand and ask them"</span>. How ironic is this statement as they openly steal content from another site and repackage the copy as if it was their own. I am fine about sharing my content as <a href="http://www.regentville.com/"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Regentville</span> Tennis Singapore</a> is all about my personal research and findings on anything and everything about tennis, but stealing the content and pictures without asking for permission is really bad.regentvillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02482321552754544921noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15314101.post-37989245831851431942009-08-09T13:40:00.001+08:002009-08-09T13:56:26.821+08:00Thailand or Malaysian Open Tennis 2009For the last couple of years tennis fans in South East Asia were pretty much restricted to the Thailand Open held in Bangkok. In 2005, Vietnam did try to follow suit by hosting the Vietnam tennis Open, but that didn't really pick up as they failed to really attract big name tennis players to their event. The <a href="http://www.pttthailandopen.org/">Thailand Open</a> had been the only premier tennis event in South East Asia that has hosted the likes of current number one Roger Federer, Andy Roddick, Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic and most recently Rafael Nadal as well as other big name tennis players. No other South East Asian country had come close to hosting a world class ATP event in such a scale and managing to attract such big name players but this year, the outlook seems very much different as Malaysia is set to stage its first inaugural <a href="http://www.malaysianopentennis.com/">Malaysian Open</a> held in Kuala Lumpur.<br /><br />When it was announced in June 2009 that <a href="http://www.atpworldtour.com/News/Tennis/2009/06/Kuala-Lumpur-Confirmed-As-Newest-Stop-On-ATP-World-Tour.aspx">Malaysia was hosting its first ATP World Tour 250 event</a> I wasn't really surprised. I believe tennis fans all around South East Asia wanted to see more tennis and big tennis names showcase their talents in this part of the region. Malaysia had been also slowly but surely gaining experience by having an <a href="http://www.entertainment-group-ltd.com/event_mtc03.htm">ATP Challenger Event in 2007</a> in addition to bringing some exhibition tennis matches which I documented in my article on the <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2007/10/clash-of-times-roger-federer-versus.html">"Clash of Times"</a> match between Pete Sampras and Roger Federer and the <a href="http://www.entertainment-group-ltd.com/">"Clash of Titans"</a> match between Rafael Nadal and Richard Gasquet.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images50.fotki.com/v1557/photos/1/1028519/4443578/showdown08-vi.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 300px;" src="http://images50.fotki.com/v1557/photos/1/1028519/4443578/showdown08-vi.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Showdown of Champions tennis event 2008 might have set the stage of bigger things to come...</span><br /></div><br />In 2008 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia was again the venue for another exhibition match dubbed the "<a href="http://www.axcess.com.my/s_showdown.asp?id=6762444695149077937122555476496530642894">Show Down of Champions</a>" between Roger Federer, James Blake and former tennis legends John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg. I soon realized that this was a prelude of more to come. My guess was that the organizers in Malaysia wanted to the test the market in addition to gain the invaluable experience of organizing world class tennis events and getting all the logistics, planning and getting the right training for the event staff and volunteers which culminated to the 2009 Malaysian Open ATP World Tour event. Learning the ropes to organizing a world class tennis tournament doesn't happen overnight. It requires lots of preparation and planing unlike in the case of the one off <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2007/12/maria-sharapova-in-singapore.html">exhibition match held in Singapore between Maria Sharapova and Anna Chakvetadze</a> which in my opinion was very poorly organized. I felt that Malaysia did the right thing by having these exhibition matches to gain all the necessary experience to stage a world class ATP tennis event and to attract bigger name players.<br /><br />All their efforts seems to be working as they have managed to get new and former players to have graced the Thailand Open in the previous years and looks to have upstaged even its more illustrious counter part the Thailand Open which until today have only 3 confirm names such as Rafael Nadal, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Marat Safin whom signed up prior the announcement of the Malaysian Open.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images51.fotki.com/v1548/photos/1/1028519/4443578/MalaysianOpen2009-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 223px;" src="http://images51.fotki.com/v1548/photos/1/1028519/4443578/MalaysianOpen2009-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">The Malaysian Open 2009 ATP event in KL has attracted many of the worlds top tennis players.</span><br /></div><br />So far the Malaysian Open has managed to attract the likes of:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Berdych, Tomas (CZE) - Previously played at the Thailand Open</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;">Davydenko, Nikolay (RUS)</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;">Ferrer, David (ESP)</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;">Gonzalez, Fernando (CHI)</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;">Hewitt, Lleyton (AUS) - Previously played at the Thailand Open</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;">Monfils, Gael (FRA) - Previously played at the Thailand Open</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;">Nishikori, Kei (JPN)</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;">Soderling, Robin (SWE) - Previously played at the Thailand Open</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;">Verdasco, Fernando (ESP) - Previously played at the Thailand Open</span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images51.fotki.com/v1546/photos/1/1028519/4443578/BangkokOpen2009-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 476px; height: 462px;" src="http://images51.fotki.com/v1546/photos/1/1028519/4443578/BangkokOpen2009-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">The Thailand Open 2009 seems to be losing out, as up till today only 3 top level players have been confirmed.</span><br /></div><br />Mind you these players are no push overs and are considered big name players. The first thought was why so many established players keen on showing up at this inaugural Malaysian Open tennis event in Kuala Lumper, Malaysia? Well the answer is fairly straight forward and simple. If you want big names to show up what's in it for them? A check on the <a href="http://www.atpworldtour.com/">ATP website</a> shows the <a href="http://www.atpworldtour.com/Tennis/Tournaments/Bangkok.aspx">Thailand Open</a> ($ 608,500) is paying a considerably lesser payout in terms of prize money amount compared to the <a href="http://www.atpworldtour.com/Tennis/Tournaments/Kuala-Lumpur.aspx">Malaysian Open</a> ($ 850,000) it is no wonder that most of the big name tennis players are flocking to the Malaysian Open!<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images52.fotki.com/v1552/photos/1/1028519/4443578/MalaysianOpenFacebook-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 484px; height: 488px;" src="http://images52.fotki.com/v1552/photos/1/1028519/4443578/MalaysianOpenFacebook-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">The Malaysian Open has attracted much interest in the social media front from both Facebook and Twitter.</span><br /></div><br />In terms of online marketing, I believe the Malaysian Open marketing and PR team made a very smart move. They employed social media techniques. Remember <a href="http://www.marketingmag.com.au/blogs/view/how-social-media-won-obama-the-us-election-865">President's Barrack Obama's social media campaign</a> during his elections which many believed was a decisive factor in winning him the US Presidency? Being a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Consultant by profession and having worked in the online industry for over a decade, I immediately realized that the Malaysian Open had addressed one of the biggest issues by engaging people and driving traffic to their website. They have been creating a social buzz and network about the upcoming Malaysian Open tennis event by having both a presence on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Malaysian-Open-Kuala-Lumpur-2009/79989632035?ref=ts">Facebook - Malaysian Open</a> and <a href="http://twitter.com/KLopentennis">Twitter - Malaysian Open</a>. There is also a blog page which is still currently under construction. The Thailand Open is unfortunately not capitalizing on any of the social media fronts. They only have a <a href="http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/event.php?eid=108983763628&ref=ts">Thailand Open Events page on Facebook</a>.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images52.fotki.com/v1553/photos/1/1028519/4443578/MalaysianOpenTwitter-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 385px; height: 496px;" src="http://images52.fotki.com/v1553/photos/1/1028519/4443578/MalaysianOpenTwitter-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">The Malaysian Open engages in social media with Twitter and Facebook</span><br /></div><br />My question now is what will be Thailand Open's response to the Malaysian Open challenge? Engaging the social media aspect is a relatively easy thing to do if you have a good online marketing team to promote it. Aside from the social media aspect, how is the Thailand Open going to attract bigger names to Bangkok? The most logical answer to that would be to increase the prize money next year. In terms of competition the Malaysian Open will be a very serious threat for the Thailand Open, both the Thailand and Malaysian Open tennis events will be held on exactly the same day <span style="font-weight: bold;">28 September to 4 October</span>. Both events clash on the same dates so in terms of ticket sales, both tournaments will be competing against each other. For a tennis fan who is based in South East Asia or Asia, I would most definitely want to go to a tennis tournament which offers me the best value for money in terms of ticket pricing and getting to see the top players in action.<br /><br />Currently the Thailand Open doesn't seem to offer this and one would be more inclined to give it a pass and opt for the Malaysian Open instead. I have been a long supporter of the Thailand Open and I try to go every year (I will be attending this year) but if all the top notch players decide to play in Malaysia instead I don't see the reason in attending Thailand Open tennis events in the future where there will only be 2 to 3 big names playing against a field of relatively unknown players.<br /><br />Its a pity that both the Thailand Open and Malaysian Open tennis ATP events are also held at the exact same dates. If the organizers had staggered them a week or a couple of weeks apart, there will be surely more fans like myself wanting to attend both tournaments. I am sure that there are reasons why the ATP holds both these events tournament on the same dates and have dedicated certain days that can accommodate the ATP schedule thus these dates might be already fixed and cannot be easily changed to hold these two events at two different times.<br /><br />In conclusion, I hope that the Thailand Open management will work on increasing its prize money and to try to win back both the players and fans alike and engage more on the social media front to develop and increase its potential fan base that they are currently losing out to the Malaysian Open.regentvillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02482321552754544921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15314101.post-5342936196438806252009-08-02T14:09:00.006+08:002009-08-02T15:52:32.498+08:00Haig Hills (Haig Court) versus RegentvilleThe team from <a href="http://www.h2ta.com/">Haig Hills</a> (Haig Court) condo hosted <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville tennis</a> for the 2nd "away" leg of our <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">inter condo tennis friendly</a>. The <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2009/07/regentville-versus-haig-hills.html">last friendly tennis match</a> held at home against the <a href="http://www.h2ta.com/">Haig Hills</a> team ended abruptly due to rain, but today's game was held in splendid weather conditions.<br /><br />This was the first time most of our players had to play on a different surface besides regular hard courts, so it was a good experience for all . The courts at <a href="http://www.haigcourt.com.sg/">Haig Court condo</a> were rubberized and well cushioned similar to that of a running track resulting in slower bounce, longer rallys and some spectacular shots on the part of both teams.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images51.fotki.com/v1549/photos/9/1028519/7806091/3IMG_9630-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="http://images51.fotki.com/v1549/photos/9/1028519/7806091/3IMG_9630-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Haig Hills (Haig Court Condo) versus Regentville Tennis team photo.<br /></span></div><br />In all we had 5 hours of solid tennis where both teams played a <span style="font-weight: bold;">total of 15 matches</span> comprising of <span style="font-weight: bold;">2 mixed doubles</span> , <span style="font-weight: bold;">2 ladies doubles</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold;">11 mens doubles</span> matches. On behalf of team <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville</a>, I would like to Thank Ivan and the <a href="http://www.h2ta.com/">Haig Hills</a> (Haig Court Condo) tennis team for hosting us and being such wonderful hosts. We look forward to having another match soon in the following months to come.<br /><br />More <a href="http://public.fotki.com/regentville/haig-court-versus-r/">Photos of Haig Hills versus Regentville tennis</a> here.regentvillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02482321552754544921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15314101.post-23739692452419378632009-07-25T09:01:00.008+08:002009-07-25T13:22:16.020+08:00mi Adidas Barricade V Tennis ShoesMy second pair of mi Adidas barricade IV tennis shoes have been already worn out and I decided it was finally time to get another pair of <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2007/02/mi-adidas-custom-shoes.html">mi Adidas custom tennis shoes</a>. The <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2008/01/mi-adidas-custom-barricade-tennis-shoes.html">mi Adidas Barricade IV</a> had been already phased out, so I had to go with Adidas' latest mi Adidas Barricade V custom tennis shoes.<br /><br />Tsonga had recently worn a bright yellow custom mi Adidas Barricade V tennis shoes for the Australian Open aka "<a href="http://www.miadidas.com/CmsView.action?getDetailCmsView=&_sourcePage=%2FWEB-INF%2Fjsp%2FsportsShoes.jsp&productVO.modelId=47502&productVO.inspirationId=1005639&productVO.navCatagory=SPORTS&productVO.modelIdent=M47502&productVO.kitbagIdent=I1223470538447_IN&productVO.detailLink=SPORTS&productVO.modelDisplayMenu=mi+Barricade+V">TSONGA 7</a>" and the base colors looked really cool. It sort of reminded me of "Bumble Bee" from the Transformers. I thus got the base color using a yellow and black theme. I would have love to stick to the "<a href="http://www.miadidas.com/CmsView.action?getDetailCmsView=&_sourcePage=%2FWEB-INF%2Fjsp%2FsportsShoes.jsp&productVO.modelId=47502&productVO.inspirationId=1005639&productVO.navCatagory=SPORTS&productVO.modelIdent=M47502&productVO.kitbagIdent=I1223470538447_IN&productVO.detailLink=SPORTS&productVO.modelDisplayMenu=mi+Barricade+V">TSONGA 7</a>" theme colors, but unfortunately for the mi Adidas Barricade V, you were NOT allowed to have different colored Adidas stripes for the inner and outer base section of the shoes. If I were to stick with black stripes, similar to the "<a href="http://www.miadidas.com/CmsView.action?getDetailCmsView=&_sourcePage=%2FWEB-INF%2Fjsp%2FsportsShoes.jsp&productVO.modelId=47502&productVO.inspirationId=1005639&productVO.navCatagory=SPORTS&productVO.modelIdent=M47502&productVO.kitbagIdent=I1223470538447_IN&productVO.detailLink=SPORTS&productVO.modelDisplayMenu=mi+Barricade+V">TSONGA 7</a>", the stripes will NOT stand out against the black background on the inner base part of the shoe which can be seen in the image below.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images51.fotki.com/v1550/photos/9/1028519/7496385/tsongamiadidas-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 330px; height: 396.5px;" src="http://images51.fotki.com/v1550/photos/9/1028519/7496385/tsongamiadidas-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">As you can see the "<a href="http://www.miadidas.com/CmsView.action?getDetailCmsView=&_sourcePage=%2FWEB-INF%2Fjsp%2FsportsShoes.jsp&productVO.modelId=47502&productVO.inspirationId=1005639&productVO.navCatagory=SPORTS&productVO.modelIdent=M47502&productVO.kitbagIdent=I1223470538447_IN&productVO.detailLink=SPORTS&productVO.modelDisplayMenu=mi+Barricade+V">TSONGA 7</a>" does not have the black stripes clearly visible on the inner base of the shoe (left shoe)</span><br /></div><br />I thus choose to stick with the main theme colors but used Slime Green or Lime Green for the stripes instead and silver base eyelets instead of gold. The end result was achieved with the Slime Green stripes contrasting against the black inner base.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images51.fotki.com/v1549/photos/9/1028519/7496385/miadidasbarricadevnawin1-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 448px; height: 349px;" src="http://images51.fotki.com/v1549/photos/9/1028519/7496385/miadidasbarricadevnawin1-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images51.fotki.com/v1547/photos/9/1028519/7496385/miadidasbarricadevnawin2-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 448px; height: 349px;" src="http://images51.fotki.com/v1547/photos/9/1028519/7496385/miadidasbarricadevnawin2-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">What I like about & what could be better improved on the mi Adidas Barricade V.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">What I like about:</span><br />1. Nicer custom colors but still limited to the main base colors.<br /><br />2. Lighter compared to the Barricade IV. Note this is not a mi Adidas issue but Adidas Barricade Vs are known to be generally more lightweight compared to the Barricade IVs.<br /><br />3. Having the ability to go online to <a href="http://www.miadidas.com/CmsView.action?getDetailCmsView=&_sourcePage=%2FWEB-INF%2Fjsp%2FsportsShoes.jsp&productVO.modelId=47502&productVO.inspirationId=1005639&productVO.navCatagory=SPORTS&productVO.modelIdent=M47502&productVO.kitbagIdent=I1223470538447_IN&productVO.detailLink=SPORTS&productVO.modelDisplayMenu=mi+Barricade+V">customize your mi Adidas Barricade V</a> and choose your own color custom color themes. This feature however is only available on the US site and not the Singapore site.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Can be better improved:</span><br />1.<span style="font-weight: bold;"> No Geo Fit sock liner option. </span> The Geo Fit Sock liner provides added stability and cushioning for the ankle and provides for a better fit. I would say that this is the main highlight which really disappointed me as I feel that the Geo Fit option is really a critical part of the shoe and stands outs from the normal off the shelf versions.<br /><br />2. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Customized name on the rubber sole instead of being stitched on compared to the mi Adidas Barricade IV</span>. I liked the more customized stitched on feel of your name on the canvas material rather than the name just being embossed on the rubber sole section. The printing on the rubber is also very small and cannot be really noticed.<br /><br />3. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Cannot customize different names on each shoe.</span> This option was also not available for the mi Adidas Barricade IV. But this is a very simple add on as it would be really neat to have customize words for each shoe instead of a standard word on each side of the shoe.<br /><br />4. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Limited international flag option for the tongue.</span> When we did a mass customization for the <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville tennis team</a>, some of my tennis players wanted the Philippines flag on their mi Adidas Barricade V although the Singapore flag was available, the flag option for the Philippines, Thailand or Malaysia was not available for the mi Adidas Barricade V.<br /><br />5. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Not being able to customize different colors stripes on the outer and inner base.</span> As mentioned earlier, I was not able to customize the inner and outer Adidas 3 stripes on the inner and outer base of the shoe this issue was also prevalent with the mi Adidas Barricade IV but was restricted to one standard color. I couldn't use the <span style="font-size:85%;">"<a href="http://www.miadidas.com/CmsView.action?getDetailCmsView=&_sourcePage=%2FWEB-INF%2Fjsp%2FsportsShoes.jsp&productVO.modelId=47502&productVO.inspirationId=1005639&productVO.navCatagory=SPORTS&productVO.modelIdent=M47502&productVO.kitbagIdent=I1223470538447_IN&productVO.detailLink=SPORTS&productVO.modelDisplayMenu=mi+Barricade+V">TSONGA 7</a>"</span> theme in the end, as if I were to choose black, the 3 stripes would not stand out against the black inner base of the shoe which was indeed a pity. If there were the option to choose two colors for the stripes one for the inner and one of the outer it would be really neat.<br /><br />6. <span style="font-weight: bold;">The wider the feet the longer the shoe.</span> As with my previous Adidas Barricade IV, the width and the shoe design have always been an issue with severely flat footed people like myself. Although the mi Adidas shoes fit extremely well in terms of comfort, since I was going for the wide option on my feet the shoes had to be built longer. A regular size US size 8.5 for me would have to go to a customized US size 10. So all my mi Adidas shoes would physically look longer or bigger but fits well.<br /><br />7. <span style="font-weight: bold;">More custom colors would be great.</span> I love orange, and I used orange exclusively for my stripes on both my <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2008/01/mi-adidas-custom-barricade-tennis-shoes.html">custom Barricade IV</a>. Orange was not available for the Barricade V this time round. More color selection would be fantastic. I have had lots of questions if you can customize your mi Adidas shoes to your own color theme. The answer is NO. While you can choose your very own colors there are a standard color theme that you are allowed to choose from. You cannot customize the shoe according to whatever colors you want. I would really like to see some variations of lighter blue (i.e. Djokovic's Blue CC Genius), army green and orange from mi Adidas in the future ;)<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Conclusion:</span><br /><br />Despite having more items that can be "better improved", I still personally consider the mi Adidas Barricade V one of the best tennis shoes available in the market today. It has great stability and durability compared to any other tennis shoes that I have personally used in the market today. Remember if you have <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2007/02/mi-adidas-custom-shoes.html">feet problems</a> like myself, <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2007/02/mi-adidas-custom-shoes.html">mi Adidas customization</a> provides not only greater support, comfort and fantastic fit but will greatly save your knees and legs in the long run. I strongly advocate mi Adidas if you have flat feet problems. Do keep in mind that spending a little more on your feet is a worthwhile investment. There is no use trying to save a couple of bucks and destroying your feet in the process.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images46.fotki.com/v1492/photos/9/1028519/7496385/IMG_8515-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 448px; height: 349px;" src="http://images46.fotki.com/v1492/photos/9/1028519/7496385/IMG_8515-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>The end result... <a href="http://public.fotki.com/regentville/mi-adidas-barricade-5/">More images of my mi Adidas Barricade V</a> here.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images51.fotki.com/v1546/photos/9/1028519/7496385/verdascomiadidasv-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 330px; height: 400px;" src="http://images51.fotki.com/v1546/photos/9/1028519/7496385/verdascomiadidasv-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Incidentally, <a href="http://www.press.adidas.com/DesktopDefault.aspx/tabid-11/16_read-10560/">Fernando Verdasco has just recently switched to mi Adidas Barricade V</a> as well.regentvillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02482321552754544921noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15314101.post-4994379927897437692009-07-12T00:51:00.003+08:002009-07-18T09:21:36.988+08:00Regentville versus Haig HillsThe <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville tennis</a> team kick started the 2009 campaign with an inter condo friendly tennis match against <a href="http://www.h2ta.com/">Haig Hills tennis</a>. The team from Haig Hills comprises of of mostly Indonesian expats based here in Singapore.<br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images50.fotki.com/v1530/photos/9/1028519/7735410/IMG_9031-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="http://images50.fotki.com/v1530/photos/9/1028519/7735410/IMG_9031-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Regentville and Haig Hills tennis team photo</span><br /></div></div><br />We were fortunate to squeeze in 11 matches as the weather had threatened to rain all along. A total of 11 matches were played.<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><span style="font-weight: bold;">8 mens doubles</span>, <span style="font-weight: bold;">1 ladies doubles</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold;">2 mixed doubles</span> before rain finally stopped play with two hours remaining.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images51.fotki.com/v1543/photos/9/1028519/7735410/IMG_9159-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="http://images51.fotki.com/v1543/photos/9/1028519/7735410/IMG_9159-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Ivan (right) Haig Hills tennis team organizer and me.<br /></span></div><br />As always, I am grateful to Haig Hills organizer Ivan Surjadi who had been coordinating this tennis friendly with us for the last couple of months, as bad weather and other commitments had kept us from organizing this friendly tennis match earlier. On behalf of the <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville tennis</a> team, I would like to thank Ivan and his team from <a href="http://www.h2ta.com/">Haig Hills tennis</a> for making this friendly tennis match a success and look forward to the return leg at Haig Courts condo.<br /><br />More <a href="http://public.fotki.com/regentville/regentville-versus-/">Photos of Regentville versus Haig Hills tennis</a> here.regentvillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02482321552754544921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15314101.post-5360382978107594272009-04-25T09:24:00.001+08:002009-07-18T09:44:03.717+08:00Grayling Clay Court Mixed Doubles 2009Juan and Serene represented team <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville</a> in the 2009 Grayling mixed doubles tennis invitational tournament held at <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2008/04/clay-courts-in-singapore.html">Singapore's only clay court venue</a> at Alexandra park. Having only just recently transitioned to clay<span style="visibility: visible;" id="main"><span style="visibility: visible;" id="search"> and HAR-TRU® it was a commendable effort on the part of both Juan and Serene to make the Silver Group semi finals on their first attempt.<br /><br /></span></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images46.fotki.com/v1492/photos/9/1028519/7496123/P1010257-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="http://images46.fotki.com/v1492/photos/9/1028519/7496123/P1010257-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="visibility: visible;" id="main"><span style="visibility: visible;" id="search"><br /><a href="http://public.fotki.com/regentville/grayling-mixed-doub-1/">Photos of the 2009 Grayling mixed doubles tennis invitational</a> here.<br /></span></span>regentvillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02482321552754544921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15314101.post-24518868240674198502009-03-22T12:49:00.000+08:002009-03-22T12:50:07.578+08:00Regentville Tennis Birthdays Mar09The <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville tennis</a> team celebrated the birthdays of BK, Nick, Juan, Apollo, Jacques (overseas) and Jason our newest <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville</a> tennis team member. Despite of the thunderstorm and heavy showers that threatened to ruin our BBQ cum pot luck birthday celebration for our 6 <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville tennis team members</a>, the rain finally let up and we all could tuck in to the sumptuous spread of Local and Filipino cuisine.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images45.fotki.com/v1480/photos/9/1028519/7355600/P1010060-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://images45.fotki.com/v1480/photos/9/1028519/7355600/P1010060-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">A "Wilson K Six One 90" custom birthday cake</span>!<br /></div><br />The highlight of the evening was most definitely the custom 2 KG "Wilson K Six One 90” designed birthday cake with a tennis ball in the middle. Thanks to all who were present to make this event a memorable one despite of the bad weather. I would also like to take this opportunity to wish our team members a very happy advance/belated birthday and welcome Jason, our latest addition to the <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville tennis team</a>.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images46.fotki.com/v1482/photos/9/1028519/7355600/P1010077-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://images46.fotki.com/v1482/photos/9/1028519/7355600/P1010077-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.regentville.com">Regentville tennis</a> team photo<br /></span></div><br /><a href="http://public.fotki.com/regentville/regentville-tennis--5/">More Photos of the March 2009 Regentville Tennis Birthday Celebration here</a>.regentvillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02482321552754544921noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15314101.post-88107771987223498952009-03-01T17:44:00.005+08:002009-03-22T12:38:54.623+08:00Wilson K Pro Staff 88 Review & IssuesI wrote an article a while back on my experiences and findings on the <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2007/08/wilson-k-six-one-95-differences.html">Wilson K Six One 95 having quality control issues</a>. There were a lot of talks and complaints about the inconsistencies on various Wilson tennis racquets models. They either had shoddy paintwork, differences in grip sizes, differences in overall unstrung weight and different racquet balance. My last article on <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2007/08/wilson-k-six-one-95-differences.html">Wilson’s quality control issues</a> was written about a year and a half ago on the Wilson K Six One 95 (Asian) having such alarming inconsistencies and variations which really surprised me. Based on that article, I had received lots of <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2007/09/wilson-k-six-one-95-issues.html">feedback as well as comments about the general public’s experiences with this frame or Wilson tennis racquets in general</a>. I believe this issue might not be only restricted to Wilson, but perhaps with other racquet manufacturers as well. I was hoping that Wilson would at least try to correct this problem to silence their critics and vindicate themselves with all the negative feedback about the quality of their tennis racquets and quality control issues that have plagued them as well as some other racquet manufacturers over the years. <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2008/04/fake-wilson-tennis-racquet.html">Fake Wilson tennis racquets</a> from China that have been flooding the markets have not helped them as well. I for one have never, will adopt or advocate the purchase or the use of these cheaper fake alternative tennis racquets and would rather get the “read deal” offering more “quality” for of course a more "premium price". Others on the other hand might have to reconsider their options now, I don’t really see the prices of Wilson tennis racquets dropping, what I do see is the poor quality control and inconsistencies of a product that so far in the spate of 2 years have been experiencing major issues with two of their flagship racquet models. <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/Reviews/K6116/K6116Review.html">The Wilson Factor K Six One 95 (Asian)</a> and now of late the <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/descpageRCWILSON-KPS88.html">Wilson K Pro Staff 88</a> (Pete Sampras Signature) series which this article is about.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Weight balance issues with the </span><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/descpageRCWILSON-KPS88.html">Wilson K Pro Staff 88</a><span style="font-weight: bold;"> (Pete Sampras Signature Series tennis racquet)</span>:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images46.fotki.com/v1453/photos/9/1028519/7258235/IMG_8124-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://images46.fotki.com/v1453/photos/9/1028519/7258235/IMG_8124-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images15.fotki.com/v261/photos/9/1028519/7258235/IMG_8127-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://images15.fotki.com/v261/photos/9/1028519/7258235/IMG_8127-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Images of two of my Wilson K Pro Staff 88 "BEFORE" it was replaced by Royal Sporting House. The racquet with the "weight balance issue" is the one with the sealed plastic wrapper with the "K Factor" logo on the handle. As you can see, the balance of the one with the plastic wrapper is more head light than my original racquet.</span><br /></div><br />As with the image shown above, I found two issues with the Wilson K Pro Staff 88. Firstly the weight balance was totally out. I used a pencil to balance the two racquet at its throat to see if they were similar. The first K Pro Staff 88 I purchased was much less head light compared to the second K Pro Staff 88 (shown still sealed with plastic on the handle) which I purchased a week later from the same store.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images47.fotki.com/v1464/photos/9/1028519/7258235/IMG_8181-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://images47.fotki.com/v1464/photos/9/1028519/7258235/IMG_8181-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">I wasn't too impress by the inconsistencies and poor paintwork of the Wilson K Pro Staff 88 either.</span><br /></div><br />The second difference was more to its cosmetics. The paintwork on my second K Pro Staff 88 was shoddy and the paintwork on the edges were not smooth but rather clumpy in appearance. More <a href="http://public.fotki.com/regentville/wilson-k-pro-staff-/">pictures on the Wilson K Pro Staff 88</a> can be found here. Take note my second racquet still has the plastic wrap on its handle while my first Wilson K Pro Staff 88 does NOT have the plastic on its handle as I have been playing with it for a week.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images47.fotki.com/v1464/photos/9/1028519/7258235/IMG_8159-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://images47.fotki.com/v1464/photos/9/1028519/7258235/IMG_8159-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Comparing my Wilson K Pro Staff 88 (9 Point Headlight) with my Wilson K Blade Tour 93 (10 point Headlight). The 10 point head light K Blade Tour seems to be less head light compared to the 9 Point Headlight balance of the K Pro Staff. Perhaps this is not a really accurate comparison as both the physical weights of these racquets are differ.</span><br /></div><br />I compared the balance of my second Wilson K Pro Staff 88 (plastic wrap on handle) with my <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/Reviews/KBL93/KBL93Review.html">Wilson K Blade Tour 93</a>. The K Blade Tour 93 is supposed to be more head light (10 points) compared to the 9 points head light weight of the Wilson K Pro Staff 88, but surprisingly the K Pro Staff 88 seems to be more head light when I did a side by side comparison.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images45.fotki.com/v1440/photos/9/1028519/7258235/IMG_8163-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://images45.fotki.com/v1440/photos/9/1028519/7258235/IMG_8163-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Comparing my Wilson K Pro Staff 88 (9 Point Headlight) with my Wilson K Blade Tour 93 (10 point Headlight). The 10 point head light K Blade Tour seems to be less head light compared to the 9 Point Headlight balance of the K Pro Staff. Perhaps this is not a really accurate comparison as both the physical weights of these racquets are differ.</span><br /></div><br />This might be not so much of an accurate representation as I was not doing an Apple versus Apple comparison but more to an Apple versus an Orange. I just wanted to find out which was more headlight for my own information. The balance here could have been skewed due to the fact of the different physical weight of both racquets. The K Blade Tour 93 weights 324 grams unstrung while the K Pro Staff 88 had an unstrung weight of 349 grams or 12.3 ounces.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Getting my Wilson K Pro Staff 88 replaced:</span><br /><br />I had brought up this issue with <a href="http://www.royalsportinghouse.com/">Royal Sporting House</a> who is the agent for <a href="http://www.wilson.com/wilson/racquet/region.jsp">Wilson Tennis</a> racquets here in Singapore. They have been very nice in the past helping me resolve the same <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2007/09/wilson-k-six-one-95-issues.html">issue I had with my Wilson K Six One 95</a> previously. As with the last incident, my complaint was received by one of their marketing managers who promptly called me to find out more about my issue. From my previous experience with Royal Sporting House, up till today, I would have to say that the level of service that they provide to their customers is second to none! There had been numerous complaints about customer service and support has been sadly lacking in Singapore. But I am glad to say that the staff at Royal Sporting House are extremely committed to customer satisfaction. They were polite and listened intently to my complaint. What’s most important was that they tried their very best to resolve the issue with my K Pro Staff 88. In fact, I have received about 3 to 4 follow up calls from Royal Sporting House and numerous emails updating me on the status of getting a suitable replacement for my K Pro Staff 88 and on Wilson’s take on this issue. Due to the already very limited supply of the Wilson K Pro Staff 88 here in Singapore, Royal Sporting House still managed to source out for two additional K Pro Staff 88 (most of them are out of stock here in Singapore already). They made a very special exception to obtain two K Pro Staff 88 (most likely from their store or warehouse) for me to select from. To top that up, their customer service representative advised me in her email that should I not be happy with the two racquets that were offered for replacement, they will inform me of when their next shipment of Wilson K Pro Staff 88 will arrive so that I can have a look at the racquets again until I find an identical frame that is to my liking. Royal Sporting House has clearly left no stone unturned to assist with customer satisfaction. This effort on the part of Royal Sporting House and their absolute commitment to customer service is indeed commendable and I personally applaud them for this. True customer service and after sale support is sadly lacking here in Singapore and other retailers should learn from Royal Sporting House’s example (<a href="http://www.rshlimited.com/contact.php">Feedback to Royal Sporting House Here</a>). At the end of the day, Royal Sporting House had managed to resolve the weight balance problem of my Wilson K Pro Staff 88 in about a week. Their turn around time was fairly quick. I must say that I was extremely fortunate to find a matching frame out of the two racquets which was provided for replacement which had a fairly similar balance to my first Wilson K Pro Staff 88.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images47.fotki.com/v1464/photos/9/1028519/7274763/IMG_8334-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://images47.fotki.com/v1464/photos/9/1028519/7274763/IMG_8334-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images45.fotki.com/v1450/photos/9/1028519/7274763/IMG_8342-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://images45.fotki.com/v1450/photos/9/1028519/7274763/IMG_8342-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Images of two of my Wilson K Pro Staff 88 "AFTER" it was replaced by Royal Sporting House. The "replaced racquet" is the one with the sealed plastic wrapper that has the the "K Factor" logo on the handle. As you can see, the balance of the one with the plastic wrapper now more closely resembles the balance of my first racquet but still not exactly identical. It is however so much better compared to the K Pro Staff 88 that Royal Sporting House had replaced for me.</span><br /></div><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span>I noted that the "other racquet" which was offered for replacement from Royal Sporting House which I did NOT choose, was more head light and balance had resembled that of the racquet that I had wanted replace. This led me to personally think that there might be two “different” variants of the K Pro Staff 88 a more balanced version and a more head light version. Incidentally, after sharing this info with a friend of mine, he told me that when he was looking at same racquets from two different stores he realized that there were two weight variations of the Wilson K Pro Staff 88 as I have highlighted in my article and as the images of the Wilson K Pro Staff 88 here suggests with different degree of head lightness. This could be perhaps due to the fact that they were manufactured from different batches or different Wilson factories <span style="font-weight: bold;">(this is just my own personal theory, so don’t quote me on this!)</span>. I have also not gone to these stores to verify his claims so I cannot comment on my friend's claims. What I can personally say is from the images depicted here of the Wilson K Pro Staff 88, I found that there were two different variants or versions of these racquets. Going back to my article, the images here generally displays the same findings and the weight distribution on the Wilson K Pro Staff 88 generally differs from my two racquets. It also seems that I am NOT the only person finding <a href="http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=244169">inconsistencies with the Wilson K Pro Staff 88</a> I was reading a recent thread on the Tennis Warehouse Forum in which a user claimed that the head size of his K Pro Staff 88 was even larger than the K Six One 90! He also provided a very detailed analysis on how he came to this conclusion.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images45.fotki.com/v1450/photos/9/1028519/7274763/IMG_8444-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://images45.fotki.com/v1450/photos/9/1028519/7274763/IMG_8444-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">The 10 point head light of the K Blade Tour 93 versus the 9 point head light of the K Pro Staff 88. The K Blade Tour 93 seems to have a more headlight balance now compared to the new K Pro Staff 88 AFTER it was replaced by Royal Sporting House. Is this about right?</span><br /></div><br />The question that comes to mind now is when you purchase a Wilson K Pro Staff 88, which version are you actually purchasing? The more balanced or the more head light one? Your guess is just as good as mine. It is therefore highly recommended that you do a balance test (assuming if you already have purchased your first K Pro Staff 88). Perhaps you might like the more balanced (lesser headlight) version or the more head light version of the Wilson K Pro Staff 88? I still need to get Wilson’s take on which is the actual “true” balance of the Wilson K Pro Staff 88? (It should be 9 points head light). So the million dollar question here is which of the two Wilson K Pro Staff 88s have the actual accurate specification as provided by the manufacturer? Is the more balanced Wilson K Pro Staff 88 the correct version or the more head light Wilson K Pro Staff 88 the actual version? <span style="font-weight: bold;">Incidentally, which version of the K Pro Staff do you current have now? Would appreciate if you can send me some of your pictures so that we have a discussion here.</span><br /><br />I have also made a feedback to Royal Sporting House about Wilson’s poor quality control and since they are the distributors for Wilson Tennis racquets here in Singapore, they should bring this up to Wilson. They have since reverted my case to Wilson and will be getting back to me once they get a response from Wilson directly. I will detail my “experiences” in my next post to hopefully end the “Wilson Saga” and what does Wilson have to say about this. This was quoted by Wilson the last time round when I had similar problems with my Wilson K Six One 95<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">“This racket is in our production spec. range although the handle size is on upper limit and weight is on lower limit after our R&D and QC review it. We think it should be the reason causing your customer has different playability and gripablity on the both rackets. But since the return sample is still in our production range, so it will not belong to defective racket, please understand. WRD# 2074 production range Prestrung weight : 325 +/- 7.5 g Prestrung balance : 32.5 +/ - 1 cm”</span><br /><br />I was shocked at Wilson’s response as these are totally acceptable ranges! I won’t have any of this! A +/- 7.5 g tolerance level for weight and a Prestrung balance of +/- 1 cm is absolutely ridiculous and unacceptable to the consumer! I am also not getting any special discounts for the huge differences in weight and balance variations of my tennis racquets and will have to still dish out a premium price for a huge degree of tolerance. For the time being it looks like I will have only one K Pro Staff 88 to review now. Be sure to check out the <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville Tennis Blog</a> in the next couple of months to get my review on the Wilson K Pro Staff 88.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Conclusion:</span><br /><br />As most of my readers will know I purchase many different types of tennis racquets to review and test them out. I offer my reviews as more of a “serious” amateur tennis player (whom I believe) most tennis racquets will be sold to. Tennis for me is not only a sport, but a great passion and I would like to share my passion, experiences and findings to my readers. I don’t mind purchasing a few tennis racquets just to review them as we don’t have much options to review or demo tennis racquets here in Singapore. I will have constantly stress that if you want to purchase two similar racquets try to bring your first racquet to do a weigh balance test at the store. It will be difficult as the new racquet will be unstrung so you’ll need to do a basic weight compensation test. I didn’t bring my first racquet as I was rushing to get my second one as initial stocks for the K Pro Staff 88 here in Singapore were very limited. I had to just try my luck and at the end got a totally “different” racquet in terms of balance. The price I am paying for tennis racquets have never been much of an issue for me, but I am more concerned about the quality of the tennis racquets or the products that I will be paying for. Does the performance and quality meets the actual high manufacturing standards that have been promised by the racquet manufacturers? In these days I would hardly think so!<br /><br />I sincerely hope that Wilson as well as the other racquet manufacturer who license their manufacturing in places such as China put more emphasis on their quality control processes as well as have some better QA to their products. It’s not like we’re getting a major discount on this product so there’s nothing to complain about. Here we’re playing a premium price thinking that your purchase would be that of at least some quality and standards, however for the price you’re paying, you’ll be sadly disappointed about the tennis racquet that you have invested in. If this continues to be the case, and if Wilson doesn’t improve their quality control, I am concerned that people at the end of the day might go for other brands that offer better quality such as Fischer tennis racquets with the “<a href="http://www.fischer-ski.com/en/news.php?show=detail&id_news=1627">Fischer No Tolerance Rackets</a>” or the high build quality of the “made in Japan” Yonex tennis racquets. I generally like using Wilson tennis racquets and I sincerely hope that they work on better quality control and maintain some consistency levels when they mass produce their tennis racquets.<br /><br /><a href="http://public.fotki.com/regentville/wilson-k-pro-staff-/">Images of my Wilson K Pro Staff 88</a> Before it was replaced.<br /><a href="http://public.fotki.com/regentville/wilson-k-pro-staff--1/">Photos of my Wilson K Pro Staff 88</a> After it was replaced.regentvillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02482321552754544921noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15314101.post-66175531348940025782009-02-28T20:40:00.003+08:002009-03-22T12:32:50.413+08:00Regentville Tennis Birthdays Feb09The <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville Tennis Team</a> celebrated the birthday parties of Sandra, Hector, Andre and myself (Nawin). As usual, we'll try to incorporate a tennis session into our birthday celebration with tennis and a half time break with a mini feast and cake cutting ceremony.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images19.fotki.com/v359/photos/9/1028519/7284212/P1000920-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://images19.fotki.com/v359/photos/9/1028519/7284212/P1000920-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>I would like to personally Thank all the <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville tennis players</a> who were present to celebrate this joyous tennis cum "makan" session with us. Everybody had an excuse to play badly today cos we were all stuffed.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images42.fotki.com/v1466/photos/9/1028519/7284212/P1000949-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://images42.fotki.com/v1466/photos/9/1028519/7284212/P1000949-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>I would like to that this opportunity to Thank:<br /><br />Sandra - Bringing the chicken wings, hotdog and bee hoon...<br />Francis - Leche plan<br />Andy - Our Boss and Bartender... for the drinks...<br />Susie - Satay and Rojak<br />Serene - For organizing and getting the special birthday cakes<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images45.fotki.com/v1451/photos/9/1028519/7284212/P1000960-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://images45.fotki.com/v1451/photos/9/1028519/7284212/P1000960-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>There will be a "Cheers" session sometime in March. Sandra and Serene will be coordinating. <a href="http://public.fotki.com/regentville/regentville-tennis--4/">More photos of the Regentville Tennis Birthday celebration can be found here</a>.regentvillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02482321552754544921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15314101.post-11637865334445544252008-08-24T21:26:00.002+08:002008-08-24T22:10:40.910+08:00Discontinued Tennis Racquets<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_euoP3CaMW_c/SLFj9UQFyZI/AAAAAAAAALs/EXNHwIkSZ-g/s1600-h/sampras-pro-staff-classic.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_euoP3CaMW_c/SLFj9UQFyZI/AAAAAAAAALs/EXNHwIkSZ-g/s320/sampras-pro-staff-classic.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5238077746667964818" border="0" /></a>I was doing some research on trying to get a couple of classic <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/Reviews/60/60Review.html">Wilson Pro Staff 6.0</a> (95 sq inch frames) and found out that <a href="http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=175093">Wilson has discontinued manufacturing the Wilson Pro Staff 6.0 indefinitely</a>! Until sometime last year we still could order them through <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/">Tennis Warehouse</a>, but according to some posts on the <a href="http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/index.php">Tennis Warehouse forum</a>, Wilson has decided to totally stop production of this legendary tennis racquet.<br /><br />The <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/Reviews/60/60Review.html">Wilson Pro Staff 6.0</a> came in two different frames sizes, the famed 85 sq inch version made popular by Pete Sampras and the more forgiving 95 sq inch model. Looks like the only frame classic old school tennis racquet which is still being sold and manufactured now was Michael Chang’s Prince Original Graphite.<br /><br />The list goes on… For those who were playing in the late 80s to 90s era, who would forget such classic tennis racquets such as the Head Genesis racquets, Wilson’s Profile Hammer and Fan Shaped Sledge Hammer Series, Prince’s CTS Thunder Sticks and Lightning series? Of course there are many others like the fabled <a href="http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=181814">Yamaha Secret 04</a> (<a href="http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=181814">specs for the Yamaha Secret 04 racquet here</a>) and EX Series which I used to play with and no longer in production as well as signature series racquet’s such as Ivan Lendl’s Adidas and Mizuno frames. Not forgetting Becker's Puma signature lines but these tennis racquet frames have been long discontinued.<br /><br />I would rate these racquets below as one of the most classic tennis frames that has been ever produce to this date!<br /><br />1. <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/Reviews/60/60Review.html">Wilson Pro Staff 6.0</a> (85 sq inch and 95 sq inch models) – (Out of Production)<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_euoP3CaMW_c/SLFiyGMIbXI/AAAAAAAAAK8/ah6FtGFMsxs/s1600-h/Wilson-Pro-Staff-6.0.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_euoP3CaMW_c/SLFiyGMIbXI/AAAAAAAAAK8/ah6FtGFMsxs/s400/Wilson-Pro-Staff-6.0.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5238076454403075442" border="0" /></a>2. Wilson Pro Staff Classic 6.1.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_euoP3CaMW_c/SLFi83fvPXI/AAAAAAAAALE/WXTv4QiEgdE/s1600-h/Wilson-Pro-Staff-Classic-6.1.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_euoP3CaMW_c/SLFi83fvPXI/AAAAAAAAALE/WXTv4QiEgdE/s400/Wilson-Pro-Staff-Classic-6.1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5238076639437340018" border="0" /></a>3. <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/descpageRCPRINCE-GRO.html">Prince Original Graphite OS</a> (Still currently in production and on sale at Tennis Warehouse)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_euoP3CaMW_c/SLFjH4uxhyI/AAAAAAAAALM/IpbyUdwhXH0/s1600-h/Prince-Original-Graphite.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_euoP3CaMW_c/SLFjH4uxhyI/AAAAAAAAALM/IpbyUdwhXH0/s400/Prince-Original-Graphite.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5238076828747400994" border="0" /></a>4. <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/descpageRCDUNLOP-DP1OS.html">Donnay Pro One OS</a> (No longer in production but <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/descpageRCDUNLOP-DP1OS.html">Tennis Warehouse sells reissues of the Donnay Pro One</a> original). More Information about the <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/Reviews/DP1OS/DP1OSReview.html">Donnay Pro One Reissues Here</a>.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_euoP3CaMW_c/SLFjV53hVcI/AAAAAAAAALU/YLJpepEhARs/s1600-h/Donnay-Pro-One-OS.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_euoP3CaMW_c/SLFjV53hVcI/AAAAAAAAALU/YLJpepEhARs/s400/Donnay-Pro-One-OS.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5238077069570692546" border="0" /></a>5. Dunlop Max 200 (Out of Production).<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_euoP3CaMW_c/SLFjfFLJ4RI/AAAAAAAAALc/2KqM_t5gv8o/s1600-h/Dunlop-Max-200G.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_euoP3CaMW_c/SLFjfFLJ4RI/AAAAAAAAALc/2KqM_t5gv8o/s400/Dunlop-Max-200G.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5238077227224654098" border="0" /></a>6. Head Prestige Classic (Out of Production).<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_euoP3CaMW_c/SLFjoht_g5I/AAAAAAAAALk/hCSBgCwZJzg/s1600-h/Head-Prestige-Classic.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_euoP3CaMW_c/SLFjoht_g5I/AAAAAAAAALk/hCSBgCwZJzg/s400/Head-Prestige-Classic.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5238077389505790866" border="0" /></a>There are however still a handful of old school tennis racquet<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_euoP3CaMW_c/SLFkZK78w-I/AAAAAAAAAL0/I2l330JkdDg/s1600-h/andre-agassi-pro-one.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_euoP3CaMW_c/SLFkZK78w-I/AAAAAAAAAL0/I2l330JkdDg/s320/andre-agassi-pro-one.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5238078225203905506" border="0" /></a> players and collectors alike who swear by these old tennis frames. They either still are currently playing with these legendary tennis racquets or have them in their personal collection. Till today many players still prefer the classic weight and old school tennis feel that have been often found missing in today’s newer generation lighter frames. Unfortunately very little resource is available on the internet about old discontinued tennis racquets. There are also very few tennis racquet dealers and collectors who are selling and trading them in the market. In most cases, you can find them off online auction sites such as eBay. If you can find a classic tennis frame available, its either in a really beat up condition or if it’s still in good condition, would cost you exorbitant prices within the range of US$300 to US$500 and sometimes even more or a piece of history!<br /><br />I have consolidated a list of websites that gives you more information about old discontinued tennis racquets that are no longer in production now. Some of these are really classic, vintage tennis racquets that come in different brands, shapes and sizes with different patented technologies or the era of old that have long been discontinued. I have also listed a couple of old classic racquet frame dealers as well as websites that sell rare tennis racquets and tennis frames. Some of them are either discontinued tennis racquets that are no longer in production or not available for sale in certain countries. These are very rare tennis racquets and frames that you might not have even thought existed and are the original production and not reproductions. When in doubt check with the dealer or get some references.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.80s-tennis.com/index.html">Rare Discontinued Tennis Racquets</a><br /><a href="http://www.rakuten.ne.jp/gold/tennis-c/">Find and Buy Rare Discontinued Tennis Racquets</a> (Japanese Site).<br /><br />Another thing to note when purchasing older tennis racquets would be that the frame might have lost its strength especially if it has been used or strung before. The other thing you should worry about are the plastic bumper and grommets that could be brittle over years of use and might break and eat into the racquet frame when strung at a high tension. Its always good to ask if they have new or replacements grommets available. If it’s a really old and rare racquet however, the chances getting a replacement is extremely difficult or next to impossible. Should you still want to play with that frame, try to string it at lower tension and make sure that your stringer places additional plastic tubing into the grommets to reinforce them so that they won’t eat into the original grommets and into the frame of the tennis racquet which can often happen should the grommets give way.regentvillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02482321552754544921noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15314101.post-20245912317550162592008-07-22T00:42:00.006+08:002008-08-07T00:23:17.717+08:00Regentville Tennis featured on The New Paper<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images41.fotki.com/v1252/photos/1/1028519/4323891/TNPRegentville-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://images41.fotki.com/v1252/photos/1/1028519/4323891/TNPRegentville-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>A few of the <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville tennis</a> players myself included had a rare privilege to be interviewed by <a href="http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/">The New Paper (TNP)</a> for its Sunday edition sports column written by TNP reporter Lim Say Heng dated on the 21 July 2008 entitled <a href="http://tnp.sg/printfriendly/0,4139,171282,00.html">"Men are from Mars, and they don't like Venus"</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.regentville.com/2005/08/players-kenneth.html">Kenneth</a>, <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2006/02/players-beng-koon-bk.html">Beng Koon (BK)</a>, <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2005/08/players-arnelio-delos-reyes.html">Arnelio</a> and myself had the chance give our views on our favorite tennis players, what attributes do we like about them and who are we looking out for to win the Olympics Tennis Gold medal in August.<br /><br />It was a great opportunity for our players to talk about our greatest passion – Tennis! I believe that all of us spoke our hearts out about which tennis players we supported and why?<br /><br />For more information, click on the link below to see the <a href="http://tnp.sg/printfriendly/0,4139,171282,00.html">Regentville tennis players interview with The New Paper</a>. Or download the <a href="http://docs.google.com/gb?export=download&id=F.d1c6e1d0-40dc-4311-a8d8-5f41551ed2a7">PDF version of team Regentville’s interview with The New Paper here</a>.regentvillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02482321552754544921noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15314101.post-262428245173130322008-07-20T18:10:00.001+08:002008-07-20T18:39:00.942+08:00Regentville Tennis Birthday PartyThe <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville tennis</a> team held a birthday celebration for three of our tennis players yesterday. <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2005/08/players-andy.html">Andy</a>, <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2006/02/regentville-tennis-players-francis.html">Francis</a> and <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2005/08/players-serene_20.html">Serene</a> were all born on the same day - the 24th of July.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images41.fotki.com/v1252/photos/1/1028519/6488710/IMG_6645-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://images41.fotki.com/v1252/photos/1/1028519/6488710/IMG_6645-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Regentville tennis players enjoying great food and karaoke session.</span><br /></div><br />As always, our <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville</a> tennis team members brought lots of food and drinks “pot luck” style. We started with a candlelight BBQ session with kebabs and satays and then adjourned to the karaoke room where we had a Filipino cuisine courtesy of our <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Filipino tennis players</a>.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images40.fotki.com/v1249/photos/1/1028519/6488710/IMG_6773-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://images40.fotki.com/v1249/photos/1/1028519/6488710/IMG_6773-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Regentville's tennis players (from left) <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2005/08/players-serene_20.html">Serene</a>, <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2005/08/players-andy.html">Andy</a> and <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2006/02/regentville-tennis-players-francis.html">Francis</a> cutting their birthday cake.</span><br /></div><br />The highlight of night was of course the birthday cake cutting ceremony as well as the karaoke session. On behalf of all the <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville tennis players</a>, we would like wish <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2005/08/players-andy.html">Andy</a>, <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2006/02/regentville-tennis-players-francis.html">Francis</a> and <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2005/08/players-serene_20.html">Serene</a> all the best for the coming year.<br /><br /><a href="http://public.fotki.com/regentville/regentville-tennis--3/">More photos of the Regentville Tennis Players birthday celebrations here.</a>regentvillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02482321552754544921noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15314101.post-71283945075526772162008-05-11T10:10:00.003+08:002008-05-11T12:19:48.953+08:00Regentville versus The BayshoreThe <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville tennis</a> team hosted the team from <a href="http://www.thebayshore.com/">The Bayshore</a> condo yesterday. This is the first leg of a two leg friendly tennis match. The 2nd leg will be held and hosted by <a href="http://www.thebayshore.com/">The Bayshore</a> at a later date. <a href="http://www.thebayshore.com/">The Bayshore</a> condo is situated near East Coast Park. They are not to be confused by a neighboring condo called Bayshore Park which is another place altogether. This was the 2nd time we played against another tennis team from the Eastern part of Singapore. The last friendly we had against a team from the East was with Melville Park from Simei. <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2008/04/regentville-versus-melville-park.html">More details of the match against Melville Park here</a>.<br /><br />The cool and cloudy weather yesterday was perfect for tennis, but rain had always been a concern. As the scheduled time of the match drew nearer, it was evident that there was not going to be any rain in Singapore for that day and there was fine weather throughout.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images36.fotki.com/v1175/photos/1/1028519/6218463/IMG_5814-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://images36.fotki.com/v1175/photos/1/1028519/6218463/IMG_5814-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">The two organizers... Desmond team organizer for <a href="http://www.thebayshore.com/">The Bayshore</a> and me.</span><br /></div><br />I am glad that we could finally have a game with <a href="http://www.thebayshore.com/">The Bayshore tennis team</a>. We were supposed to have this friendly tennis match against <a href="http://www.thebayshore.com/">The Bayshore</a> much earlier last year, but both our teams were committed with other competitions at that time and it was eventually forgotten. It was indeed fortunately that we could finally organize this friendly tennis match between our two team this time round. <a href="http://www.thebayshore.com/">The Bayshore</a> tennis team consisted of a good mix of youth and experience and were primarily an all men’s tennis team. They had also a great wealth of competitive inter constituency tennis experience and was a great opportunity to play against a team with competitive background.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images20.fotki.com/v356/photos/1/1028519/6218463/IMG_5890-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://images20.fotki.com/v356/photos/1/1028519/6218463/IMG_5890-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville</a> & <a href="http://www.thebayshore.com/">The Bayshore</a> Tennis Group Photo</span><br /></div><br />We managed to play <span style="font-weight: bold;">a total 12 men’s doubles matches</span>. The game between the two tennis teams were all played in a friendly and competitive spirit. It’s always great to have these friendly tennis matches to both get to know as well as play with other social tennis teams in Singapore. On behalf of the <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville</a> tennis team, I would like Thank Desmond, (<a href="http://www.thebayshore.com/">The Bayshore</a> team organizer) and <a href="http://www.thebayshore.com/">The Bayshore tennis team</a> for coming down to Hougang to have this friendly tennis match with us. I would like to also Thank our own <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville tennis players</a> for making this weekend’s tennis friendly a success.<br /><br /><a href="http://public.fotki.com/regentville/regentville-vs-theb/">Photos of the friendly tennis match between Regentville & The Bayshore here</a>.regentvillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02482321552754544921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15314101.post-50843543568832475682008-05-07T18:32:00.005+08:002008-05-11T10:17:54.698+08:00Tennis Elbow and Babolat Racquets<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images35.fotki.com/v1171/photos/1/1028519/4443578/babolatpuredrive-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://images35.fotki.com/v1171/photos/1/1028519/4443578/babolatpuredrive-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>I have been play testing so many different tennis racquet brands and models and found while others vary considerably in terms of power, consistency and weight balance, one particular racquet brand that had always been very different in terms of “feel” and shock absorption - <a href="http://www.babolat.com/english/tennis/technology/index_techno.php?imagecle=">Babolat</a>.<br /><br />My first experience with the <a href="http://www.babolat.com/english/tennis/technology/index_techno.php?imagecle=">Babolat tennis racquets</a> was back in 2005 when I bought both the legendary <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/Reviews/BPDP/BPDPReview.html">Babolat Pure Drive Standard</a> and <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/Reviews/BPDP/BPDPReview.html">Bobolat Pure Drive Plus </a>(these were the regular non cortex version). My original <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2005/08/babolat-pure-drive-love-it-or-hate-it.html">Review of the Babolat Pure Drive Standard</a> and <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2005/08/babolat-pure-drive-love-it-or-hate-it.html">Review of the Babolat Pure Drive Plus</a> found here (pictured right).<br /><br />Back then, even before <a href="http://www.babolat.com/english/tennis/technology/index_techno.php?imagecle=">Babolat</a> introduced the <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/ractechpage.html?PCODE=BAS">Cortex technology</a> (shaft vibration dampening system), <a href="http://www.babolat.com/english/tennis/technology/index_techno.php?imagecle=">Babolat</a> had already patented the <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/ractechpage.html?PCODE=BAS">Woofer technology</a>, which that in itself was revolutionary from the very start. Having been using and trying out so many different tennis racquets, the feel on nearly all <a href="http://www.babolat.com/english/tennis/technology/index_techno.php?imagecle=">Babolat tennis racquet</a> were very similar. All of them had the very dampen feel ,you don’t get much feedback off from the strings and felt muted. I play with shock dampeners by default on ALL my racquets. Even with shock absorbers or dampeners on my tennis racquets, almost ALL the other makes, none could emulate the feel of a <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/ractechpage.html?PCODE=BAS">Babolat’s dampened effect</a> which is unbelievable!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images36.fotki.com/v1178/photos/1/1028519/4443578/babolatcortexsystem-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://images36.fotki.com/v1178/photos/1/1028519/4443578/babolatcortexsystem-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Personally I found <a href="http://www.babolat.com/english/tennis/technology/index_techno.php?imagecle=">Babolat</a> to make one of the best sticks in terms of comfort, playability and power. It is no wonder why most touring professionals use them and why they are one of the most popular tennis racquets where sales are concern. So popular are they, that there are even counterfeit and <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2007/03/fake-babolat-pure-drive.html">fake Babolat tennis racquets</a> flooding the market now.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images36.fotki.com/v1177/photos/1/1028519/4443578/babolatwoofertechnology-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://images36.fotki.com/v1177/photos/1/1028519/4443578/babolatwoofertechnology-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>In terms of comfort, with the combination of the woofer and with its now most recent patented <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/ractechpage.html?PCODE=BAS">cortex shock absorption system</a>, I would consider it second to none in this area as well. I loved the power off the <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2005/08/babolat-pure-drive-love-it-or-hate-it.html">Babolat Pure Drives</a> which was built for raw pace. If you read many reviews, you will find that many players have difficulty taming the power of the <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2005/08/babolat-pure-drive-love-it-or-hate-it.html">Babolat Pure Drives</a>. Many had to increase the tension to 60 pounds and some even higher to try to tame the beast. Since I had <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2007/02/tennis-elbow-treatment.html">tennis elbow issues</a> before, my maximum string tension is always around 53 pounds. My <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2007/02/tennis-elbow-treatment.html">write up on tennis elbow treatment</a> here. I regulate between 50 to 53 pounds seldom going above this maximum tension.<br /><br />I never had any problems with the power of the <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2005/08/babolat-pure-drive-love-it-or-hate-it.html">Babolat Pure Drives</a> and the so called “unstability” issues that had been plaguing so many players, labeling it a very uncontrollable racquet. The key to playing with all <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2005/08/babolat-pure-drive-love-it-or-hate-it.html">Babolat Pure Drive</a> is the element of spin. Put enough spin on the ball and even at a lower tensions, it will serve you well. Regulating play with a series of flat as well as spin shots will clearly enable you to play to the racquet’s maximum potential with raw power and accuracy. The <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2005/08/babolat-pure-drive-love-it-or-hate-it.html">Babolat Pure Drive</a> is one of the most enjoyable and playable racquets that I have played with. I find that many people who have used the Babolat racquets and never had any issues with the racquet in terms of control will agree with me. My love for Babolat racquets however ENDS here!<br /><br />My last case of <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2007/02/tennis-elbow-treatment.html">severe tennis elbow</a> which took a year and a half to heal, I believe was attributed<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images36.fotki.com/v1179/photos/1/1028519/4443578/babolataeroprodrive-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://images36.fotki.com/v1179/photos/1/1028519/4443578/babolataeroprodrive-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a> to the <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2005/08/babolat-pure-drive-love-it-or-hate-it.html">Babolat Pure Drive</a>. Some of my friends and even my wife who played with it also experienced tennis elbow problems or pain in the wrist. I got severe tennis elbow after playing with the Babolat Pure Drive. I never had any issues with any tennis racquets after that, or prior to that, with the exception of the <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/DonnayRacquets.html">Donnay Pro One Midsized</a> a long time ago. I had experienced pain in the wrist while using the <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/Reviews/BAPDP/BAPDPReview.html">Babolat Aero Pro (Non Cortex)</a> version (pictured right) but that really didn’t put me out of action as I was not using it all the time regulating between that and my <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2007/03/yonex-rds-001-review.html">Yonex RDS 001 MP</a>. My <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2007/03/yonex-rds-001-review.html">review of the Yonex RDS 001 Mid Plus</a> here.<br /><br />The last straw came with my most recent purchase of latest in the form of the Babolat Storm series. The <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/Reviews/BAS/BASReview.html">Babolat Storm series</a> were notably less stiffer than the Babolat Pure Drives, they were also considered lesser powered control oriented racquets, meant more for control than power. The particular model I purchased was the <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/Reviews/BAS/BASReview.html">Babolat Aero Storm</a> which like all the Babolat racquets that I have tried was a fantastic stick. My full review of the Babolat Aero storm here.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Babolat Aero Storm a Mini Review:<br /><br /></span>I however also decided to do a short mini review of the <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/Reviews/BAS/BASReview.html">Babolat Aero Storm</a> here since this was the racquet that eventually caused my tennis elbow to flare up. During my first session with the Babolat Aero Storm (pictureed right), I was already initially experiencing some wrist pain and felt some stain on the shoulder and forearm. I attributed this to the heft of the <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/Reviews/BAS/BASReview.html">Babolat Aero Storm</a>. The <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/Reviews/BAS/BASReview.html">Babolat Aero Strom</a> was 320g unstrung which is a pretty hefty frame. You didn’t feel much of the weight due to Babolat’s patented <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/ractechpage.html?PCODE=BAS">Aero technology</a> and what I really like most about it was the aero shape profile of the throat which felt really nice for the single handed back hand grip. With its heft you could really feel the <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/descpageRCBAB-BAS.html">Babolat Aero Storm</a> racquet plowing through the shots. Unlike the <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2005/08/babolat-pure-drive-love-it-or-hate-it.html">Babolat Pure Drive</a>, the <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/descpageRCBAB-BAS.html">Babolat Aero Storm</a> didn’t fire bullets or had great pace<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images35.fotki.com/v1164/photos/1/1028519/4443578/babolataerostorm-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://images35.fotki.com/v1164/photos/1/1028519/4443578/babolataerostorm-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a> on the shots, it compensated lack of pace with “control oriented power” with its slower but heavy shots. You could physically feel and see that the ball was travelling at a much slower pace, but still had a lot of mass and weight behind it from the momentum of the heavy swings. With the <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/descpageRCBAB-BAS.html">Babolat Aero Storm</a> you tend to slug your shots at your opponents.<br /><br />My shots according to my opponents didn’t come with much pace but the momentum behind the “heavy” shots were there and would trouble them. Because it had some heft, it was really stable on returns as well as well volleys and smashes. In short, the <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/descpageRCBAB-BAS.html">Babolat Aero Storm</a> was a sheer joy to use. I was playing some really solid tennis with the <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/descpageRCBAB-BAS.html">Babolat Aero Storm</a> which I could have never asked for.<br /><br />My single handed backhand drives were more solid and some of my friends were even saying that I played better with this stick. I had managed to also come back from some “come from behind wins” while fending off several match points and attributed this to the consistency, power and control that the <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/descpageRCBAB-BAS.html">Babolat Aero Storm</a> was delivering.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images35.fotki.com/v1162/photos/1/1028519/4443578/babolataeromodulartechnology-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://images35.fotki.com/v1162/photos/1/1028519/4443578/babolataeromodulartechnology-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>After around 5 sessions with the <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/descpageRCBAB-BAS.html">Babolat Aero Storm</a>, my elbow told me that it couldn’t take it anymore. Initially I had some slight pain but I managed to play some more matches with it. I believe that my elbow lasted so long due to the dampened effect of the racquet masking the vibrations. To come to think of it, how <a href="http://www.babolat.com/english/tennis/technology/index_techno.php?imagecle=">Babolat</a> actually managed to mask the vibration was really amazing.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images35.fotki.com/v1165/photos/1/1028519/4443578/babolataeromodular-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://images35.fotki.com/v1165/photos/1/1028519/4443578/babolataeromodular-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>There was definitely some stiffness in the racquet and the vibration, even with the <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/ractechpage.html?PCODE=BAS">Woofer</a> and <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/ractechpage.html?PCODE=BAS">Cortex technology</a> must have been dissipated somewhere. It most likely would have gone into the arm and elbow, but the great thing about Babolat’s <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/ractechpage.html?PCODE=BAS">Woofer</a> and <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/ractechpage.html?PCODE=BAS">Cortex system</a> was that it managed to absorb the shock without your arm or elbow feeling it until much later. There have been several reports that Babolat generally make stiff frames according to the listed <a href="http://av.warehousesports.com/tw/Features/RDC/RDC.html">Babolat RDC ratings</a> and some tennis forum listings and tennis reviews sites. Was this one of the reasons why <a href="http://www.babolat.com/english/tennis/technology/index_techno.php?imagecle=">Babolat</a> came up with the <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/ractechpage.html?PCODE=BAS">Cortex system</a> to reduce the vibrations and stiffness in their racquets?<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images35.fotki.com/v1172/photos/1/1028519/4443578/babolataerobeam-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="http://images35.fotki.com/v1172/photos/1/1028519/4443578/babolataerobeam-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Another question would be could the <a href="http://av.warehousesports.com/tw/Features/RDC/RDC.html">Babolat RDC stiffness rating</a> also vary from one tennis racquet manufacturer to another? How much of a variation and significance this would be between the two makes and models we just wouldn’t know. Its just like how the grip sizes vary from tennis racquet models and manufacturers. Although the <a href="http://av.warehousesports.com/tw/Features/RDC/RDC.html">Babolat’s RDC stiffness measurement</a> is considered to be a universal measurement, how can we, the consumer be exactly sure that it will be exactly the same between one make or one model? Would they also be consistent from racquets coming from different manufacturing plants or batches? See my article on <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2007/08/wilson-k-six-one-95-differences.html">Wilson Racquet differences</a> here. Contrary to what is suggested about the <a href="http://www.racquetresearch.com/complete_idiot.htm">use of a heavier racquet to limit the </a><a href="http://www.racquetresearch.com/complete_idiot.htm">potential cause of tennis elbow</a>, the Babolat Aero Pro Storm was one of heavier racquets I was using (320g) unstrung. A heavier racquet for me didn’t <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2007/02/tennis-elbow-treatment.html">reduce the risk of tennis elbow</a> it could have in fact aggravated it! Again, I have no way to verify this and what I am saying is based more on my personal experiences as well as what I read on tennis forums and tennis related websites:<br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">"Some references made here stating </span></span><a style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.tennis.com/messageboard/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=2171&start=1&posts=8">Babolat racquets destroying the arm with tennis elbow</a><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"> (not everybody agreed with this guy though... As there were others who didn't have any problems".<br /><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">"An epinions.com review of a playtester getting </span><a style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.epinions.com/review/Babolat_Pure_Drive_Team_Tennis_Racquet/content_152930061956">a sore elbow after playing with a Babolat racquet</a><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">".</span><span style="text-decoration: underline; font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br /></span></span><a style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;" href="http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/showthread.php?t=8938">"Babolat = Elbow Pain</a><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"> (A post on the </span><a style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;" href="http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/index.php">Tennis warehouse forum</a><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">)".</span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">"Another post on the </span><a style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;" href="http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/index.php">Tennis Warehouse Forum</a><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"> on </span><a style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;" href="http://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/archive/index.php/t-14133.html">elbow pain caused by Babolat racquets"</a><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">.</span><br /><br /></span>It seems from what is suggested, Babolat frames are generally stiffer and MAY cause tennis elbow or wrist related injuries. I for one have experienced this. I have used other racquet makes and models before and hardly had any issues with my elbow or wrist related problems. When I used the Babolat Pure Drive, I was out for a year and a half, when I tried the Babolat Aero Pro Drive, I encountered wrist pain and finally when I played with the Babolat Aero Storm with cortex, my tennis elbow got inflamed again, this time pretty badly as I have to be on pain medication now. Its either just plain coincidence or simply bad luck, I think its neither of these. Somehow it seems that my elbow just cannot tolerate Babolat frames and I don’t actually know the reason why. If it was poor technique or swing style I would have been already injured awhile back while testing various frames but Babolat always seems to give some pain with different severity.<br /><br />I shall not want to go into details about stiffness and the composite materials that was put into the racquet as I am no scientist and I have no way to calculate the stiffness of the composite materials that was used while manufacturing Babolat racquets. Clearly the Babolat Woofer and Cortex did help me, I felt really comfortable with the racquet, but it was only later on that I realized that I was in pain. So the Cortex system while it helped reduce the feel and impact on the racquet, in the long run this dampened feel caused me to get an inflamed elbow. To me, it worked TOO well, that it defeated its actual purpose that is to project the elbow from harmful vibrations. If you asked me, if I had felt any difference with a Babolat racquet WITH a Cortex system and WITHOUT a Cortex system, I couldn’t really tell the difference. What I could safely say was that with the old Woofer system, that older Babolat models had were sufficient with a very comfortable and dampened feeling. With or without the Cortex system, I still managed to get an inflamed elbow, resulting in tennis elbow. So it really didn’t benefit me.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Conclusion:</span><br /><br />My advice is if you play regularly and never had any issues with tennis elbow before and feel some pain after you switch frames, new string type or moved to a higher tension stop playing immediately! Try maybe another session or so, If the pain still persists, you have roughly isolated the cause as being induced or related to the new tennis racquet or strings. Dump it immediately! It’s not worth getting yourself injured due to this. I believe that I went on too long with the Babolat Aero Storm resulting in more inflammation to the tendons in my elbow. To make things worse, I only felt the pain much later on. The dampened effect of the Babolat’s Woofer and Cortex system did work, and in fact, I felt it worked too well disguising the vibration as well as the stiffness of the racquet until it was too late. This is however only my personal opinion. It could also be from different styles or ways we play and also due to different muscle and bone structure.<br /><br />There is also some talk in general that Babolat racquets causes tennis elbow and wrist pains (some examples in the links above). In my case, this happens to be true but I am sure there are many individuals out there who don’t have of these issues or pain from playing with Babolat tennis racquets and continue to play without any pain or discomfort. I know some of my friends who play with the exact same racquets not having any issues, they also string their racquets at a higher tension compared to me.<br /><br />Personally, I have given up on Babolat tennis racquets, as it seems apparent that my elbow is just not meant to play with a Babolat. If you also have any prior issues with <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2007/02/tennis-elbow-treatment.html">tennis elbow</a> or have just come back with any <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2007/02/tennis-elbow-treatment.html">tennis elbow injury</a> just be more cautious and listen to what you body is trying to tell you. Stop immediately if you feel any pain or slight strain. This might be an indication warning you of potential problems later on. This advice concerns whatever racquet or strings you’re using. It does not have to be a certain make or model with a stiffer <a href="http://av.warehousesports.com/tw/Features/RDC/RDC.html">Babolat RDC</a> rating. What I would suggest if possible, is to play test or demo the racquet for a few sessions. We do not have the luxury to demo tennis racquets here in Singapore for a considerable period of time. I had to buy the Babolat Aero Storm and play test it after some months.<br /><br />If you never had any tennis elbow problems or wrist pain before, check out the Babolat line of tennis racquets. In my opinion, they make some exceptional frames with their fantastic technological breakthrough in their woofer and cortex systems. If I had no issues with my elbow, I would definitely play with a Babolat no questions asked. If you have had some pain or discomfort in your shoulders, elbow or wrist and want to try out a Babolat get an extended demo session if possible, stop immediately if you feel any pain or discomfort. If you’re ok after a few sessions, go get the Babolat, its really one of the best tennis racquets I’ve played with!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Are Babolat Tennis Racquets more prone to causing Tennis Elbow?<br /><br /></span>So we again come back to the "million dollar question", are <a href="http://www.babolat.com/english/tennis/technology/index_techno.php?imagecle=">Babolat tennis racquets</a> more prone to causing tennis elbow? I believe this may be <span style="font-weight: bold;">true ONLY for certain individuals</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold;">NOT everybody</span>. Certainly for me, Babolat seems to be <span style="font-weight: bold;">NOT</span> a good match for my elbow and wrists. I have had no problems with other brands. Some of my friends also had problems with tennis elbow from the use of <a href="http://www.babolat.com/english/tennis/technology/index_techno.php?imagecle=">Babolat tennis racquets</a>. While others didn’t, and loved it. I think the question in general about which racquet causes tennis elbow or which ones are more prone to cause tennis elbow is very subjective and varies from person to person. I believe there are also people getting or are more prone to getting tennis elbow with some other racquet models as well and after they switched to Babolat they had no issues.<br /><br />So it’s all very subjective. The racquet plays a part in tennis elbow, but the swing technique, string tension and string type also plays a huge part. I have been playing tennis for sometime and have been using the same strings and low tension generally for all my racquets so in my case I have eliminated most of the variables that leaves me to think it has something to do with my racquet rather than all the other factors. I will have to give up on Babolats as they are just no good on my elbow and wrist.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.polldaddy.com/s/0AFEF838AEB8DCAB/">Tennis Elbow Survey</a>:<br /><br /></span>To settle this question once and for all I have decided to set up a <a href="http://www.polldaddy.com/s/0AFEF838AEB8DCAB/">Tennis Elbow Survey</a>. This <a href="http://www.polldaddy.com/s/0AFEF838AEB8DCAB/">Tennis Elbow Survey</a> is to determine one's general knowledge about tennis elbow, their causes and treatment. There is also a section to find out if the participants of the <a href="http://www.polldaddy.com/survey.aspx?id=0afef838aeb8dcab">tennis elbow survey</a> had any issues with Babolat racquets and also add in their personal insights they have about Tennis Elbow and Babolat tennis racquets.<br /><br />Once I have collected enough information I will publish the results of my survey here to determine one's basic knowledge about Tennis Elbow as well as if people in general had experienced tennis elbow after the use of any Babolat tennis racquets. I would greatly appreciate if you could take some time to participate in the Regentville <a href="http://www.polldaddy.com/s/0AFEF838AEB8DCAB/">Tennis Elbow Survey</a> here to gather information about the global knowledge on tennis elbow in general.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.polldaddy.com/s/0AFEF838AEB8DCAB/">Click here to participate in the Tennis Elbow Survey.</a><br /></div>regentvillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02482321552754544921noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15314101.post-23951764717791224962008-04-27T12:30:00.002+08:002008-04-27T13:33:41.061+08:00Regentville versus Melville ParkThe <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville tennis team</a> hosted the team from <a href="http://www.melvillepark.com.sg/">Melville Park condo</a> based in Simei yesterday. This will be the first home leg for the <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville</a> tennis team as an away match at <a href="http://www.melvillepark.com.sg/">Melville Park</a> will be scheduled at a later date. The weather had been fortunately with us and we had perfect sunny conditions great for tennis. The last couple of days prior to the match had been plagued with foul weather and thunderstorms especially in the afternoons and late evenings that would have definitely brought a premature end to our scheduled tennis friendly.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images34.fotki.com/v1148/photos/1/1028519/6165203/IMG_5596-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://images34.fotki.com/v1148/photos/1/1028519/6165203/IMG_5596-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville</a> & <a href="http://www.melvillepark.com.sg/">Melville Park</a> Tennis Team Photo</span><br /></div><br />Incidentally, this was also our first tennis friendly against a side from the eastern part of Singapore. Most of the other tennis teams we had played against before had been more from the western or northern ends of Singapore. It’s always nice to meet new players and increase our tennis network by having more matches against other tennis groups in Singapore. In all, we played a <span style="font-weight: bold;">total of 12 matches</span>. <span style="font-weight: bold;">10 men’s doubles</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold;">2 mixed doubles</span>.<br /><br />The tennis matches were played in good friendly spirit and gamesmanship which is the most important aspect of any game. Both teams put up a great effort in making this friendly a successfully one. On behalf of the <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville</a> tennis team, I would like to Thank the <a href="http://www.melvillepark.com.sg/">Melville Park</a> tennis team for coming down to Hougang to play with us. I would like to also Thank Jenny from <a href="http://www.oubcentre.com.sg/retail/sports.html"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sports Report (OUB Center)</span></a>, the match organizer, for <a href="http://www.melvillepark.com.sg/">Melville Park</a> for arranging the friendly tennis match between the two teams.<br /><br /><a href="http://public.fotki.com/regentville/regentville-vs-melv/">Photos of the tennis friendly between Regentville & Melville Park here</a>.regentvillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02482321552754544921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15314101.post-85580338246153143732008-04-21T22:51:00.003+08:002008-04-21T23:26:14.701+08:00Clay Courts in SingaporeI finally got a chance to visit <a href="http://www.theclaycourts.com/">Singapore’s only public clay tennis courts</a> located at Alexandra Park last week to catch some of the <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville tennis players</a> compete in the <a href="http://www.theclaycourts.com/Events.htm">Grayling Mixed doubles invitational 2008</a> tournament. I had previously heard much about the coveted clay tennis courts in Singapore, but never really had a chance to actually find out where these clay courts in Singapore were located. I only got to know there were actually clay courts in Singapore about two years ago from some of my expat friends who were based here in Singapore. I also had conflicting views of how to get there. Last week, I finally had an excuse to visit <a href="http://www.theclaycourts.com/">the clay courts</a> at Alexandra park to see for myself what was it like and how do you actually get there. If you go online, there are almost no references about <a href="http://www.theclaycourts.com/">clay tennis courts in Singapore</a> and instructions to get there. I have decided to write an article to provide more information about Singapore’s one and only public clay tennis courts, its exact location and how you can actually find your way there by public transport.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images33.fotki.com/v1139/photos/1/1028519/6124556/mapfortheclaycourtsingapore-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://images33.fotki.com/v1139/photos/1/1028519/6124556/mapfortheclaycourtsingapore-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Directions on how to get to the <a href="http://www.theclaycourts.com/">Singapore Clay Courts</a> from Queensway shopping center.</span><br /></div><br />In my opinion, the reason why Singapore’s one and only public clay tennis courts remains pretty much an unknown entity is mainly due to its “hidden” location. Those who know about it would have<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images33.fotki.com/v1137/photos/1/1028519/6124556/IMG_5373-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://images33.fotki.com/v1137/photos/1/1028519/6124556/IMG_5373-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a> heard it by word of mouth through friends like myself. The public clay courts at Alexandra Park are not easily accessible or located on any major roads or landmarks in Singapore. Its situated deep inside a wooded residential part of Singapore which houses one of the very few remaining British colonial bungalows.<br /><br />Unlike Yio Chu Kang tennis center, which sits directly opposite the Yio Chu Kang MRT station or Kallang Tennis Center that has been around for ages and is located at the intersection of Geylang and Nicoll Highway. The clay tennis courts in Singapore is situated in place where it’s not easily seen or accessible by the public. It is more easier to get there by taxi or car, but it is still possible to walk from the main road - Alexandra Road.<br /><br />Where landmarks are concerned, the Singapore clay courts are located very close to Queensway Shopping Center, Alexandra Hospital and IKEA Alexandra. To walk from clay tennis courts to Queensway shopping center for example will take you around 15 to 20 minutes. The total distance would be around 2km or so. Refer to map above to see distances in relation to familiar “landmarks” around that area. I hope that map below will give you clear directions how to get to the <a href="http://www.theclaycourts.com/">Singapore clay courts at Alexandra park</a>.<br /><br />For more detail <a href="http://www.theclaycourts.com/Location.htm">instructions on how to get to the clay courts</a> you can also refer to this map here. The address, fees and contact numbers for the Singapore clay courts are found below:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Address:<br />10A Winchester Road</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;">Alexandra Park</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;">Singapore 117784<br /><br />Operating Hours: 7am to 7pm (not sure if its later now with added flood lights)<br />Court Booking Fee: $15/Hr<br />Contact: 96362007, 81779351<br /></span><br />And you can find out more about the <a href="http://www.theclaycourts.com/">Singapore Tennis Clay Courts at their website</a>. There are a total of 4 tennis courts. 3 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clay_court">red clay</a> and one looks like a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clay_court">greenish Har-Tru surface or "American" clay</a>. From what I understand, they have just recently installed flood lights for play during the night. So you can now play clay court tennis at night as well. The clay courts in Singapore is run by an ex Canadian pro Art Hobbs who also played Davis Cup for Singapore in 1993 with an <a href="http://www.daviscup.com/teams/playerwinloss.asp?team=SIN">impressive 5-1 Davis cup record</a>. I knew Art from my Kallang Tennis Center days with the Puma Tennis Coaching program back in the late 80s. <a href="http://www.victoriaopen.ca/pdfs/2006.VictoriaOpen.Press.LudoArt.Public.pdf">More information about Art Hobbs</a> can be found here. <a href="http://www.victoriaopen.ca/pdfs/2005.VictoriaOpen.Press.LudoArt.Public.pdf">Art Hobbs Bio</a>. Besides, Art there are also 4 resident tennis coaches at the Singapore tennis clay courts. You can give Art a call to <a href="http://www.theclaycourts.com/lessons.htm">organize tennis coaching and tennis clinics</a> as well. More information about coaching and <a href="http://www.theclaycourts.com/lessons.htm">clay court tennis lessons in Singapore</a> can be found here.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Graylings Annual Invitation.</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images20.fotki.com/v367/photos/1/1028519/6124556/IMG_5375-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://images20.fotki.com/v367/photos/1/1028519/6124556/IMG_5375-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br />The clay court at Alexandra park also holds an annual mixed doubles clay court tennis event in Singapore which has been running since 2003, called the <a href="http://www.theclaycourts.com/Events.htm">Grayling Mix Double’s Tennis Invitational</a>.<br /><br />Sponsored by <a href="http://www.westminster.com/index.cfm">Grayling</a> a PR and events management company. This event celebrated its 5th anniversary last week. It’s great to see competitive tennis played on <a href="http://www.theclaycourts.com/">clay courts in Singapore</a>.<br /><br />Most of tennis courts found here in Singapore are mainly hard courts, we have a few lawn courts in private clubs and some synthetic grass courts. To play tennis on a clay court surface here in Singapore, is indeed a great experience for somebody who hasn’t played on this surface before. I certainly have not, but after visiting the <a href="http://www.theclaycourts.com/">Singapore clay courts</a> I wouldn’t mind giving it a try the next time I am there.<br /><br />If you want to get a <a href="http://www.theclaycourts.com/">taste of clay court tennis in Singapore</a>, I strongly recommend you check out the <a href="http://www.theclaycourts.com/">clay courts at Alexandra park</a>. Remember it's hidden amongst old British Bungalows and a lush forested area. Use the map above to find your way there. For the distance, I think it’s worthwhile to be able to get a taste of <a href="http://www.theclaycourts.com/">clay court tennis here in Singapore</a>. <span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">(Pictured right Didi & Eri representing the <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville Tennis Team</a>). (Above Top - Yoshi).</span></span><br /><br /><a href="http://public.fotki.com/regentville/grayling-mixed-doub/">Photos of Grayling Mixed Doubles Tennis Invitational 2008</a>.regentvillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02482321552754544921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15314101.post-74639368525237862502008-04-08T16:46:00.003+08:002008-04-08T19:01:58.855+08:00Fake Wilson Tennis RacquetAbout a year ago I wrote an article about a <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2007/03/fake-babolat-pure-drive.html">fake Babolat Pure Drive</a> and how <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2007/03/fake-babolat-pure-drive.html">fake tennis racquets being passed off as genuine</a> item. A year has passed and the counterfeit tennis racquet industry has grown even more in prominence and stature. It has now even got to the point where buyers are scrutinizing each and every aspect of the racquet especially if they intend to purchase 2nd hand or used tennis racquet from an online tennis forum, online auction site or from a racquet trader. Looking at the amount of fake tennis racquets flooding the market, one can hardly blame an overzealous tennis racquet buyer. Let’s face it, one has to be more cautious now… This has generally ruined the market for used or 2nd tennis racquets.<br /><br />I personally like to demo and review tennis racquets. Here in Singapore, we hardly have access to any demo tennis racquets unlike in the US. What I usually do is to purchase a brand new or used tennis racquet, string the racquet with my preferred strings and tension and then play test them. At the end of my play test, I would write my personal racquet review and then sell the racquet off once I’m done with it. In the past, that was a relatively easy thing to do. You just put up an ad in the local tennis forum or let some of friends or contact know. Depending on the condition of the racquet, popularity of the brand, as well as model and price the racquet, it would be sold relatively quick. A done deal so you say? Absolutely Not! Now I will get inquiries about if the tennis racquet is genuine or fake? If it was a counterfeit from China, or if I had any receipts, papers, guarantee cards or hologram labels to determine its full authenticity? It’s more of a hindrance now to have fake tennis racquets in the market if you personally ask me.<br /><br />The fake tennis racquets are looking every bit as genuine as their authentic cousins. To make matters worse, In Asia, we do not get the latest tennis racquet models only until two to three months later after the tennis racquet is introduced into the US markets. So one is often extremely tempted to buy a tennis racquet online to be the first to own one here in Singapore. I highly recommend that you’d be careful, as being the first, does not always mean getting an authentic tennis racquet! To the naked eye, it’s very hard to tell if the tennis racquet is genuine or fake now which brings about serious implications to the buyer. What’s worst, is most of the fake tennis racquets are coming out from China which incidentally are where the real or genuine tennis racquets are made under license from the original tennis racquet manufacturers.<br /><br />Most of the major tennis manufacturers such as Head, Wilson, Babolat, Dunlop, Prince and a few others are produced under license from racquet manufacturing plants in China. The question in one’s mind now is whether this is a genuine or counterfeit tennis racquet? Truth be told, it’s now very difficult to judge unless you really know your tennis racquet. You will also need to take into account where the tennis racquets came from, as although genuine, they might have slight cosmetic differences coming from different factories or batch processes. Like the <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2007/08/wilson-k-six-one-95-differences.html">differences discovered with my genuine </a><a href="http://www.regentville.com/2007/08/wilson-k-six-one-95-differences.html">Wilson K Factor K Six One 95</a> Asian tennis racquets.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images36.fotki.com/v1161/photos/1/1028519/6095953/FakeKbalde-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://images36.fotki.com/v1161/photos/1/1028519/6095953/FakeKbalde-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">The Fake K Blade comes with a longer than usual throat.<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div>Recently, there also had been a stir caused by a seller trying to pass off a fake tennis racquet as a genuine one on a local tennis forum. I shall not want to dwell whether it was an accidental or deliberate act or what exactly happened in full detail. If you want to read more about it visit this link to find out about the <a href="http://tfntennis.com/smf/index.php?topic=7581.msg48809#msg48809">Fake Wilson K Blade racquet</a>. What I would like to point out is that the fake tennis racquet in this case, a Fake Wilson K Blade had been passed off as a authentic Wilson racquet. Personally it looked like the “Real Deal” to me. There are some obvious distinctions and some of the potential buyers had spotted the differences from a mile away.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images35.fotki.com/v1167/photos/1/1028519/6095953/Fakekbladehead-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://images35.fotki.com/v1167/photos/1/1028519/6095953/Fakekbladehead-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Fake K Blade has White letterings instead of Gold letterings that a genuine K Blade comes with.</span><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><br /></span></div>I got some information courtesy of Reynold a moderator from this forum (TFN). He briefly explains the differences between an original and a fake <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/Reviews/KBL93/KBL93Review.html">Wilson K Blade</a>. See more pictures of the Fake Wilson K Blade below.<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images35.fotki.com/v1165/photos/1/1028519/6095953/rumscreenshotfaketennisracquet-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://images35.fotki.com/v1165/photos/1/1028519/6095953/rumscreenshotfaketennisracquet-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Screenshot of the TFN forum posting/entry about the Fake Wilson K Blade</span><br /></div><br />There is also some information that about the Chinese based online site that the seller had purchased from. I have not personally verified or authenticated these claims. You can refer more to the <a href="http://tfntennis.com/smf/index.php?topic=7581.msg48809#msg48809">posting in the forum about the fake Wilson K Blade</a>. I am however unsure if this counterfeit tennis racquet was supposed to be a <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/descpageRCWILSON-KBL93.html">Wilson K Blade Tour</a>, <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/descpageRCWILSON-KBLD98.html">Wilson K Blade 98</a> or <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/descpageRCWILSON-KBLADT.html">Wilson K Blade Team</a> versions.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images34.fotki.com/v1126/photos/1/1028519/6095953/Kbladencodegrommet-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://images34.fotki.com/v1126/photos/1/1028519/6095953/Kbladencodegrommet-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Check out the Ncode Grommets instead of the K Factor Grommets a dead give away!<br /><br /></span></div>This article is to just highlight that a buyer has to really beware of what has been peddled online before they make their purchase, as well as spot the differences between a fake <a href="http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/Reviews/KBL93/KBL93Review.html">Wilson K Blade</a> compared to a genuine one. I hope this information provided had been useful in your research. I would appreciate if anybody has more information and pictures detailing fake or counterfeit tennis racquets to kindly email me some photos so that I can post them on my site. I want to create more awareness towards fake tennis racquets and how buyers should be wary of them. I am a strong advocate against purchasing fake tennis racquets and will strongly advise anybody from attempting to purchase one.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images33.fotki.com/v1142/photos/1/1028519/6095953/Fakewilsondampener-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://images33.fotki.com/v1142/photos/1/1028519/6095953/Fakewilsondampener-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">When it comes to "faking it" even the racquet dampeners are not spared. Genuine K Factor 95 in background.</span><br /></div><br />When in doubt, ask or try to make note of the racquet differences with the genuine one. It’s always safer to err on the safe side by being cautious. Go with the genuine product, its always better that way than getting yourself injured for frustrated when you found out that you have purchased a cheap imitation or fake later on by trying to save a couple of bucks.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images33.fotki.com/v1135/photos/1/1028519/6095953/Wilsoncover-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://images33.fotki.com/v1135/photos/1/1028519/6095953/Wilsoncover-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Here's something you probably might have not noticed the trimmings on the racquet cover.</span><br /></div><br />More <a href="http://public.fotki.com/regentville/fake-wilson-tennis-/">images and description of the Fake Wilson K Blade</a> can be found here. Thanks to Reynold a moderator from TFN for sending me the pictures and detailed description on the differences between a genuine and fake Wilson K Blade tennis racquet.regentvillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02482321552754544921noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15314101.post-54122028106194491512008-03-30T18:35:00.001+08:002008-03-30T18:39:21.133+08:00Yew Mei Green versus Regentville<a href="http://www.yewmeigreen.com.sg/">Yew Mei Green condo</a> from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yew_Tee">Yew Tee</a> hosted the <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville tennis</a> team yesterday. This was the 2nd leg of the tennis friendly between the two condo tennis teams from the northern part of Singapore. The <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2008/03/regentville-versus-yew-mei-green.html">first friendly tennis match was hosted by Regentville</a> two weeks earlier in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hougang">Hougang</a> followed by this return leg at <a href="http://www.yewmeigreen.com.sg/">Yew Mei Green</a>. We played a total of 15 matches which consisted of <span style="font-weight: bold;">men's doubles</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold;">ladies doubles</span> as well as <span style="font-weight: bold;">mixed doubles </span>tennis matches.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images34.fotki.com/v1146/photos/1/1028519/6066694/IMG_4995-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://images34.fotki.com/v1146/photos/1/1028519/6066694/IMG_4995-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Our visting <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville</a> tennis players at <a href="http://www.yewmeigreen.com.sg/">Yew Mei Green</a>.</span><br /></div><br />From the beginning, the encounter promised to be an exciting affair. Both teams had their fair share of "play of the day" moments and we were entertained to some sensationally long rallies, net calls at crucial points of the game and spectacular shot making of the highest caliber. Rain had continuously threatened to derail our tennis friendly, and it had rained about an hour before our schedule tennis match with <a href="http://www.yewmeigreen.com.sg/">Yew Mei Green</a>. We were however very fortunate that when the <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville</a> team got there, the courts were already in playable condition and we quickly settled into the match. The ominous dark clouds hovered above us and the heavens looked as if it was going to open up as our tennis matches continued. Halfway through the friendly the clouds blew away and it was great weather till the end of match.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images31.fotki.com/v1095/photos/1/1028519/6066694/IMG_5160-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://images31.fotki.com/v1095/photos/1/1028519/6066694/IMG_5160-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Time Out? Both the <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville</a> and <a href="http://www.yewmeigreen.com.sg/">Yew Mei Green</a> players taking a break & enjoying the food & refreshments.</span><br /></div><br />Apart from hosting the <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville tennis team</a>, Yew Mei Green's two organizers David Loh and CC Chia had catered for some light snacks and refreshments as well as a box of 18kgs worth of energy boosting bananas perfect for a long day of tennis. Both teams enjoyed the satay which David and Chia had catered for and it was great that we had some snacks as well while waiting for our turn to play. I am sure and can attest for both teams that everyone enjoyed the good food and refreshments provided by the <a href="http://www.yewmeigreen.com.sg/">Yew Mei Green</a> organizers yesterday. We managed to take this time to also get to know more players while increasing our tennis network, as well as getting to know other tennis players based here in Singapore. This was a perfect tennis networking opportunity to get acquainted and mingle with more social tennis players from other parts of Singapore.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images36.fotki.com/v1158/photos/1/1028519/6066694/IMG_5289-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://images36.fotki.com/v1158/photos/1/1028519/6066694/IMG_5289-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville</a> versus <a href="http://www.yewmeigreen.com.sg/">Yew Mei Green</a> tennis team photo.</span><br /><br /></div>On behalf of the <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville tennis team</a>, I would like to thank both organizers CC Chia and David Loh from <a href="http://www.yewmeigreen.com.sg/">Yew Mei Green</a> for hosting the <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville</a> team. I would like to especially thank David and Chia for taking the trouble to get all the refreshment and catering food for the event. I am sure that all the players had appreciated that as well as fantastic satay provided. A special thanks to both the <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville</a> and <a href="http://www.yewmeigreen.com.sg/">Yew Mei Green</a> tennis players for making this weekend tennis friendly successful one. Great job guys!<br /><a href="http://public.fotki.com/regentville/yew-mei-green-vs-re/"><br />Photos of the tennis friendly between Yew Mei Green & Regentville here</a>.regentvillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02482321552754544921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15314101.post-51941391229430347342008-03-09T10:25:00.001+08:002009-03-22T13:09:23.253+08:00Regentville versus Yew Mei GreenThe team from <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville</a> were up against the tennis Team from <a href="http://www.yewmeigreen.com.sg/">Yew Mei Green</a> yesterday. The weather leading up to the friendly tennis match between the two teams had not been fantastic, but we were indeed fortunate to have fine sunny weather to start our 3rd tennis friendly for 2008 which is the first home leg between the two condos held at <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville</a> in Hougang. The 2nd leg away match will be held at <a href="http://www.yewmeigreen.com.sg/">Yew Mei Green</a> at a later date.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images31.fotki.com/v1101/photos/1/1028519/5990524/IMG_4865-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://images31.fotki.com/v1101/photos/1/1028519/5990524/IMG_4865-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville</a> versus <a href="http://www.yewmeigreen.com.sg/">Yew Mei Green</a> match schedule.</span><br /></div><br />We played a total of 15 tennis matches in all, which consisted of 11 mens double matches, 3 mixed doubles and 1 ladies doubles matches. The team from <a href="http://www.yewmeigreen.com.sg/">Yew Mei Green</a> consisted mainly of Singaporeans and Filipino players. Since the social tennis community in Singapore is pretty small, we saw a couple of familiar faces. It was great that this friendly tennis match had not only given us the opportunity to meet new players, but also a chance to catch up with some old<br />friends that we have not seen in awhile.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images33.fotki.com/v1117/photos/1/1028519/5990524/IMG_4888-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://images33.fotki.com/v1117/photos/1/1028519/5990524/IMG_4888-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville</a> versus <a href="http://www.yewmeigreen.com.sg/">Yew Mei Green</a> tennis team photo.</span><br /></div><br />On behalf of the <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville tennis team</a>, I would like Thank The <a href="http://www.yewmeigreen.com.sg/">Yew Mei Green</a> team organizers Chia and David as well as the team from <a href="http://www.yewmeigreen.com.sg/">Yew Mei Green</a> for making the trip to Hougang to have the friendly tennis match with us.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images42.fotki.com/v1434/photos/1/1028519/5990524/IMG_4980-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://images42.fotki.com/v1434/photos/1/1028519/5990524/IMG_4980-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">CC Chia (right) team organizer for Yew Mei Green pictured with me.</span><br /></div><br />I would like to also Thank our very own <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville tennis players</a> for taking the time off from their busy weekend schedules to join us in making this event a great success. Congratulations to both teams for their fine effort, sportsmanship and camaraderie shown. Looking forward to the 2nd away leg to be held at <a href="http://www.yewmeigreen.com.sg/">Yew Mei Green</a> in a couple of weeks time.<br /><br /><a href="http://public.fotki.com/regentville/regentville-vs-yew-/">Photos of the tennis friendly between Regentville & Yew Mei Green here</a>.regentvillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02482321552754544921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15314101.post-10068417103192276422008-02-17T11:50:00.000+08:002008-02-17T12:02:47.818+08:00Regentville versus New Tech ParkThe <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville tennis team</a> had its second friendly match for 2008 against the <a href="http://ntptennis.multiply.com/">New Tech Park tennis team</a>. This is the first leg of a two part friendly tennis match between <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville</a> and <a href="http://ntptennis.multiply.com/">New Tech Park</a>. The first leg home tie was hosted and held here at <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville</a>. The 2nd tie would be held sometime in April at <a href="http://ntptennis.multiply.com/">New Tech Park</a> the final dates have not been finalized yet and we are still coordinating with the organizers at <a href="http://ntptennis.multiply.com/">New Tech Park</a> to get a fix date for the 2nd leg tie.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images34.fotki.com/v1143/photos/1/1028519/5915713/IMG_4270-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://images34.fotki.com/v1143/photos/1/1028519/5915713/IMG_4270-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville</a> versus <a href="http://ntptennis.multiply.com/">New Tech Park</a> match schedule.</span><br /></div><br />The <a href="http://ntptennis.multiply.com/">New Tech Park</a> team primarily consists of Filipino expats based here in Singapore. The fine weather over the last couple of days including that on match day finally spelled the end of the monsoon season here in Singapore. This was great news, as we have scheduled many more friendly tennis matches over the next couple of months. We managed to play a total 16 matches, and for the first time, we played more mixed and ladies doubles matches than we previously had before. Our past tennis friendlies were mainly contested by the guys, so this change was a welcome sight for us. We hope to have more friendlies with more ladies tennis matches in our fixture. In the last two friendlies, we also managed to also try out a few “new” doubles pairings and was glad that our new players had assimilated very well with our current players.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images34.fotki.com/v1146/photos/1/1028519/5915713/IMG_4522-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://images34.fotki.com/v1146/photos/1/1028519/5915713/IMG_4522-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;"><a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville</a> & <a href="http://ntptennis.multiply.com/">New Tech Park</a> tennis team photo.</span><br /></div><br />On behalf of the <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville tennis team</a>, I would like to take this opportunity to Thank Nonoy, (the organizer for <a href="http://ntptennis.multiply.com/">New Tech Park</a>) and the New Tech Park tennis team for making this friendly tennis match a success. We look forward to having the second leg to be held at <a href="http://ntptennis.multiply.com/">New Tech Park</a> in early April. Finally, I would like to Thank Richard for helping us organize this friendly match as well as all the <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville</a> players who had participated in this friendly.<br /><br /><a href="http://public.fotki.com/regentville/regentville-vs-tech-park/">Photos of the tennis friendly between Regentville & New Tech Park here.</a>regentvillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02482321552754544921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15314101.post-73486150518326311012008-02-03T09:25:00.000+08:002008-02-03T09:24:41.186+08:00Normanton Park versus RegentvilleThe <a href="http://www.regentville.com/">Regentville condo tennis team</a> started 2008 by hosting its first match against <a href="http://www.singaporeexpats.com/singapore-property-pictures/condo/normanton-park.htm">Normanton Park condo</a>. This was our 2nd leg match against the Normanton Park condo tennis team. <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2007/11/regentville-vs-normanton-park.html">Our first match against Normanton park</a> was held last November where we played a total of 11 matches. This time we played <span style="font-weight: bold;">a total of 10 matches</span> and like the previous encounter we had against them, all the matches were close and played in good competitive spirit between the both teams.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images34.fotki.com/v1122/photos/1/1028519/5869892/IMG_4101-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://images34.fotki.com/v1122/photos/1/1028519/5869892/IMG_4101-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">The Normanton Park players turned up in full force.</span><br /></div><br />Despite the bad weather that had been initially forecasted, it did not dampen the spirits of the two teams who turned up in full force. We managed to dry the courts and the friendly tennis matches commenced even thought rain threaten to abandon the game throughout the entire length of the match.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images33.fotki.com/v1117/photos/1/1028519/5869892/IMG_4106-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://images33.fotki.com/v1117/photos/1/1028519/5869892/IMG_4106-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:85%;">Big thanks to <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2006/02/regentville-tennis-players-richard.html">Richard</a> (right) for helping us coordinate and organize this event.</span><br /></div><br />On behalf of the Regentville tennis players, I would like to Thank the <a href="http://www.singaporeexpats.com/singapore-property-pictures/condo/normanton-park.htm">Normanton park tennis team</a> for coming down to Hougang to play with us as well as <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2006/02/regentville-tennis-players-richard.html">Richard</a>, our co organizer who handled all the logistics and coordination to make this friendly tennis match possible.<br /><br /><a href="http://public.fotki.com/regentville/regentville-vs-normanton/">Photos from the tennis friendly between Normanton Park & Regentville here</a>.regentvillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02482321552754544921noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15314101.post-59334235673398278562008-01-25T16:53:00.000+08:002008-01-25T17:31:22.970+08:00Mi Adidas Custom Barricade Tennis ShoesAfter around a month wearing my <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2007/02/mi-adidas-custom-shoes.html">custom Adidas Barricade IV</a>, I quickly came to the realization that custom shoes were really ideal for me. Sure, they cost a lot more compared to off the shelf Adidas Barricade IV’s which could be easily purchased in Queensway for around SGD$125 to SGD$135, but if you’re severely <a href="http://www.flatfoot.com/Symptoms.htm">flat footed</a> like me, these custom tennis shoes were a dream come true. Coupled with the additional Adidas Geo Fit technology, that came with <a href="http://www.adidas.com/campaigns/miadidas_teaser/content/index.asp?strCountry_adidascom=com">MI Adidas</a> <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2007/02/mi-adidas-custom-shoes.html">Customization process for my Adidas Barricade IV</a>, it was indeed a worthwhile investment for me. As mentioned in my previous article below, I also managed to extend the lifespan of my tennis shoes by using <a href="http://www.penguinshoecare.com/html/product.asp?id=athletic_shoegoo">Shoo Goo</a> a highly strong, adhesive, glue like substance to repair and prolong the soles of your tennis shoes due to the constant daily wear and tear that frequent use in the tennis court causes. Article on <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2008/01/tennis-shoe-repair.html">how to repair and prolong the life you’re your tennis shoes</a> here.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images110.fotki.com/v1114/photos/1/1028519/5825970/IMG_3735-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://images110.fotki.com/v1114/photos/1/1028519/5825970/IMG_3735-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />In conclusion, the <a href="http://www.adidas.com/campaigns/miadidas_teaser/content/index.asp?strCountry_adidascom=com">MI Adidas Customization</a> for my first Adidas Barricade IV was indeed something I never regretted. From the very beginning I knew that the <a href="http://www.adidas.com/campaigns/miadidas_teaser/content/index.asp?strCountry_adidascom=com">MI Custom process</a> for my tennis shoes will be a great benefit for me. I have never encountered any severe pains felt on my heel or foot ever since. My <a href="http://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/sma/sma_toenail_sma.htm">tennis toe</a> problem has since got better after the switch. I was so impressed and happy with my first pair of custom Adidas Barricades (<a href="http://www.regentville.com/2007/02/mi-adidas-custom-shoes.html">article on how I customized my Adidas Barricade IV here</a>) I ordered my 2nd pair of <a href="http://www.regentville.com/2007/02/mi-adidas-custom-shoes.html">Custom Adidas Barricade IVs</a> as my first one was already rather worn but still relatively in good use having prolonged its sole lifespan with <a href="http://www.penguinshoecare.com/html/product.asp?id=athletic_shoegoo">Shoe Goo</a>.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://images32.fotki.com/v1109/photos/1/1028519/5825970/IMG_3874-vi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://images32.fotki.com/v1109/photos/1/1028519/5825970/IMG_3874-vi.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />This time I didn’t have to go through the entire <a href="http://www.adidas.com/campaigns/miadidas_teaser/content/index.asp?strCountry_adidascom=com">MI Adidas custom</a> process but only have to choose the colors which I wanted. After 3 weeks I got my 2nd pair of custom Adidas Barricade IVs. I choose relatively the same color schemes keeping the black and orange, but choose to use Navy Blue instead of Grey this time. To me I wanted something dark this time. The end result wasn’t what I was truly looking for but, It still look relatively OK with me. I am just looking forward to customizing my next Adidas Barricade V’s the next time round.<br /><br /><a href="http://public.fotki.com/regentville/mi-adidas-barricade-iv/">More photos and images of my 2nd pair of Custom Barricade IVs here</a>.regentvillehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02482321552754544921noreply@blogger.com4