Former #1 and majorless Dame, Caroline Wozniacki looks to be heading into the 2013 Wimbledon Championships with a new weapon of choice. As you can see in the picture, Wozniacki has a blacked out frame that is a different shape than the normal Yonex “Isometric” contour (click here for the full line of Yonex tennis racquets).
A couple of years ago, right at the pinnacle of her career, Caroline went from Babolat tennis racquets – specifically the AeroPro Drive – to a Yonex VCORE Xi 100, you can read more about that switch over here. By the looks of the picture there, it seems as though she has returned to her trusty AeroPro frame – It’s definitely NOT a new Yonex, the throat totally resembles the Babolat frame. Funny how she still is using a Yonex vibration dampener.
Caroline Wozniacki switches tennis racquets a good idea?
It’s never a good idea to change equipment like a tennis racquet right before a major tournament. It looks bad on you, it looks desperate really. I would like to think that at any level, a tennis player would need quite some time to get accustom to a new frame, even if you’ve played with it before. There is still an adjustment period.
Perhaps Yonex and Woz didn’t see eye to eye on the money; Yonex probably is regretting the investment they made back late 2010. Since Woz made the switch to Yonex, her performance hasn’t been quite what we all thought it could have been. She slipped from the #1 ranking and out of the top 10, reached two major semifinals in 2011, reached only one quarterfinal in 2012, and reached only one final in all of 2013 (loss to Sharapova at the BNP Paribas Open).
It’s not all that bad but clearly she’s not feeling the Yonex frame anymore, so perhaps she never felt that the Yonex tennis racquet gave her that extra “something” to get her to the next level.
Wozniacki comments on her racquet switch
After her first round win at Eastbourne (England), Caroline was asked about her blacked out tennis racquet, “I’m just tinkering a little bit with my racket,” Wozniacki said. “I’m still under contract with Yonex, so we’re just trying to figure out, a racquet that can help me a little bit more with my game. … I just feel like I needed a little bit more power and the racquet will help.”
We’ll see just how this racquet switch will help Woz in the coming weeks on the grass swing. I wonder when she’ll get an actual paintjob.
- 2021 French Open Wilson Racquets - April 13, 2021
- Slinger Bag and Wilson Tennis Collaboration - March 2, 2021
- Wilson Tennis and Romero Britto - February 22, 2021