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One of the best for backhand. Due to its controlled catapult, but decent free speed, it can place nasty, active punch blocks quite precisely. I find myself looking for opportunities to utilize my backhand with the Rozena as I can easily speed punch the ball into side table extremities or into the elbow of the opponent where it is hard to reach.

The spring sponge gives it a clear ball feel especially on carbon blades, but it is also no slouch on all wood blades. I love this rubber.

But if you are an active spin generator on your backhand, you loop alot, open up backspin and love to chop on backhand, the Rozena's topsheet grip will leave you wanting as you get better. I'm not as confident in flicking or opening up backspin with the Rozena than say a Glayzer or a G1. It also reacts badly to regluing, if you do it a few times the sponge can crater and the topsheet can bubble. It's also not as beginner-friendly as many advertised, it's bouncy and quite unpredictable for a new player.

I would not recommend it on the forehand for the beginner or the advanced player. It is okay but it definitely has a ceiling on grip where brushing is concerned.

2.5mm review

The good;

The best thing about this rubber is the confidence it gives me to win with outright speed drives or powerloops from mid distance or further. Even at the short game, if the ball is returned to me just a little high, it's the end for the opponent. This rubber wants to kill with speed, and that fits my game style.

Next best thing, the feeling. The standard 'spring sponge X', with it's satisfying clicky feel, is further enhanced by making the sponge thick and giving the rubber a very thin topsheet. This allows players to engage and feel the sponge even more. When mid distance powerlooping, the feeling is one of its kind and out of this world. If you like the non tacky catapult feel, then this is the best you can get.

Thirdly, it's hyper grippy topsheet. Try rubbing your fingers without much force on it's new topsheet and your fingers ain't going anywhere. For a non tacky rubber, the grip levels are very impressive. This allows me to focus a lot on brushing with great confidence. Given, this rubber requires advanced thin brushing techniques, but it's high topsheet grip makes me just go for it without any hesitation. Of course D09C wins in this regard, but the Zyre-03 is not far off. If the weather isn't humid, ball slippage is virtually zero.

All this and you probably think, okay the control's gotta be bad. But it's not. Except for the short game (which I'll get to that later) this rubber with it's great feel and not very strong catapult, allows for good control. Granted, beginners shouldn't go anywhere near this thing, but in the hands of an intermediate with decent footwork and good strokes, this rubber can be used quite well.

Durability; 3 months in, 5-6 sessions per week, each 2 hours high intensity, topsheet looks a little roughed but plays like 95% new. At my intense use, I probably play about 40 hours monthly minimum, and it'll probably last me 4-6 months. It's quite sensitive to humidity though, ball slippage is there in humid weather, but nothing a wipe can't fix.

Cons

Price. Enough said. Absurd to pay so much for a rubber. If you want premium but don't wanna take a bank loan for a rubber, consider Dignics 05.

It has low dwell. If you want to spin the ball through sponge engagement, you must loop real hard to get that hard sponge to deform and meld into the shape of the ball. If you can get there, the ball will spin like a neutron star. But if you can't get there, then your only hope is thin brushing.

Short game control. It's mainly to do with spin anticipation. This rubber is quite sensitive to spin (but not as bad as T05). So when opponents serve short backspin sidespin, you really need to get your racket angles right to avoid springing the ball up. In this regard, D09C far outweighs it in short game control.

Overall

Good rubber, but get it 2nd hand from a player who bought it new and used it for a few weeks, then felt it is too demanding for them. I prefer the 2.5mm.

I love linear rubbers, so this rubber is a good one for me. It does it's job well without high catapult. It's quite a hard rubber, so it can go fast as long as you hit through it. It can also play short, chop and spin pretty well. It is balanced, but it does nothing exceptionally well, and it's price is quite high for what it is giving. There are other rubbers out there that have a higher value, but you cannot go wrong with this rubber. One thing bad about this rubber, the bottomsheet is badly affected by regluing. The Glayzer's spring sponge is durable AS LONG AS you keep it on the blade you glued on when it was new. If you reglue it, it'll crater like the moon.

I love linear rubbers, so this rubber is a good one for me. It does it's job well without high catapult. It's quite a hard rubber, so it can go fast as long as you hit through it. It can also play short, chop and spin pretty well. It is balanced, but it does nothing exceptionally well, and it's price is quite high for what it is giving. There are other rubbers out there that have a higher value, but you cannot go wrong with this rubber. One thing bad about this rubber, the bottomsheet is badly affected by regluing. The Glayzer's spring sponge is durable AS LONG AS you keep it on the blade you glued on when it was new. If you reglue it, it'll crater like the moon.

This blade is to me the Innerforce ALC improved. It is a little heavy so that might be a negative for some but it increases its overall power. It's speed is pretty close to outer carbons but has the control and dwell of inner carbons and even comparable to wood blades. It's soft outer limba layers let me spin and loop confidently, as well as play the short games nicely. Blocking with this blade is as good as it's looping games. When I want speed, I just need to dig a tad bit harder and it gives me all the speed I need with added control.

But enough about performance specs. I've always prioritized the feel of the blade in my hand when searching for the right blade, and this blade does not disappoint. The soft Limba outerply gives the initial impact a very warm and broad feeling. These soft outer layers just begs to be deformed by a strong swing though, as when it is done so, the inner ALC kicks in, giving the softer outer plies stability and power, with a metallic crisp similar to the Viscaria, but muted by soft outer plies. Combined, the soft and the stiff form to give great feedback to the hand, and speed is not compromised at all.

This is the rubber with the best balance between usable catapult and linearity. This rubber does almost everything well, from looping to short work, from flat smashing to chopping. I have been on the market searching high and low for rubbers with not too extreme catapult, but not dead either. Having tested both extremes, ultra fast catapults like T05 and hard tacky Chinese rubbers, I have concluded that I preferred a blend of both. Not necessarily tacky, but medium/low catapult with good grip. I would rank this alongside Rakza Z and Dignics09C as one of the top 'linear' rubbers out there, and the G1 is the best one among the three when it comes to price to performance ratio. Serves and receiving serves are great as the linearity helps with overshooting and the grip helps with spin insensitivity. In short, my EJ syndrome has been put to an end with this rubber for my forehand. When my backhand gets better, this'll also go to my backhand.