I find that ramy ashour and his airstick 130 is a advertising nightmare for head, it is simply negative advertisement, its really bad for their image. Although in tennis it is not uncommon for pros to stay with the same racquet through out their career but at least they stay within the same brand just adding a paintjob to the racquet they are using so looks like the latest fashion.. ..but ramy has taken this too far, because he does not come across as a believable front figure for head, but he is making really good advertisement for prince and the airstick 130

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Hey guys, Ramy back to playing with Prince again!

Have a look here: http://www.squashsite.co.uk/hurghada/today.htm

How can he do that under contract with Head :)

cheers,
J

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That's bull I reckon he hasn't used them in any tournements yet. However, Ramy's new racket is supposedly going to be this.....

http://www.strokessports.co.uk/prodpage.asp?productid=212

looks identical in design to the metallix 130 that ramy gave up on. how this can be that different is beyond me. I expected a very prince style looking racket with a dense and fanned string pattern.

then again why didn't he just sign with prince!

sparty

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Which videos are you refering to? In other words, which tournaments, because his last two I have seen him with a Prince Racquet with the head logo on the strings ... however it is still a Prince racquet.

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He's playing with a new one now as far as I can see from the videos. 

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Is there anything official yet as to when Ramy will return to the head racquet ... either the Metalix 130 or is there another in the making?

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it was the airstick 130, painted black with the head logo stenciled on. Prince have a patent on the powering design, no other manufacturers can use that.

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Ramy was using a head racquet (Saudi International 07 [October]) that looked a lot like the Prince he used previously ... did not look anything like the M130 and it appeared to be black or dark blue with a fan-like stringing pattern ... not sure I have seen that raquet, or was it a Prince with the head logo sprayed onto the strings?

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"indeed the airstick 130 is/was a great players racket. I have been looking for one myself and you can normally get discontinued rackets on ebay, but no joy so far. if anyone has one to sell let me know...."


You can get them from squashgear. Its their biggest seller. I wonder if that is because of Ramy

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I have heard from industry sources that there is a brilliant Head currently in prototype. It's a 125g racquet. No more details yet. Maybe it's the one Ramy is waiting for. As for me, I've ordered the Metallix 130 and just hope Ramy's reasons don't mean it's a bad racquet!

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indeed the airstick 130 is/was a great players racket. I have been looking for one myself and you can normally get discontinued rackets on ebay, but no joy so far. if anyone has one to sell let me know....

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I thought I was the only one who saw this! Sparty, thanks for clarifying. I've never ever seen pros changing racquets after signing a contract! You'd think they would at least paint it black or something (but I guess its hard with Prince's distinctive fanning string design).

Anyways, I play with the airstick 130 and love it, there isnt any racquet like it out there- not the Sovereign TT, not the new 03 racquets, nor racquets from other brands. It is very stiff, powerful, and has a dense string pattern that give control. The head 130 is light, stiff, powerful, but the string patter is very open so control is lacking. I can see that being important with Ashour who is a shotmaker and plays close to the tin.

When and if Ashour gets his own racquet, I will migrate off the airstick 130 and use his racquet.

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Yes ramy used the 130 for a tournament or two and is still sponsored by Head. Word on the grapefine is he is awaiting a custom designed racket by Head (ramy ashour model ????) and is using his old prince racket for the time being. how true that is , is anyones guess, but maybe he just didn't like the 130, it will certainly feel very different from his trusty old prince airstick. I doubt there is any specific flaw in the design though, although I haven't played myself with that particular model.

sparty

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