Latest reviews

I swapped Tneregy 64fx on my bh to V42 and I couldn´t be happier. V42 (2mm sponge) is quite light weight rubber. It has bit more speed compairig to 64fx. throw is medium low. Best thing about V42 is that eventough it has more speed compairing to 64fx V42 has much better control especiallyin short game. Punch blocking is also really easy with sthis rubber. V42 is quite similar with 64 except it is a bit better in every way.

I replaced my Instinct shoes which were great in all other aspects except durability with Instinct 2´s. What a mistake that was. Instinct 2´s are comfortable to wear but has no grip what so ever and are quite heavy as well. I have soft spot for Stiga so it does hurt a bit to say that to me these shoes are just unplayable.

Cornilleau is, to my eyes at least, a really small brand which is really under rated! This season I played with Airoc Astro M on my fh and I have to say that I was very pleased with it. Only thing that bothered me with it was durability which was pretty low. That was the reason why I looked for new rubber for next season. Luckily my practice mate plays with Cornilleau and I was able to test his old rubbers. I´m playing in second highest league in my country and my win/loose ratio is 50/50.

First of all this rubber is FAST and has really grippy, thin and elastic/soft top sheet. Overall Astro M and Ultimum 47.5 has quite similar playing characteristics (you can look my review of Asrto M) so swiching to TU was really easy.Target Ulitums speed is a bit higher than Astro M but the main difference between these rubbers is spin. With new ball, especially Nittaku premium, I can generate a lot more spin with TU than Astro M. TU´s throw angle is medium.

Serving
Grippy and elastic topsheet allows me to generate a lots of spin to my serve. It is also really easy to keep serve low and short. On the other hand I can get really nice kick to my fast and slow kick serves. Since serving is my main weapon and I get lots of straight points with my serve I really love TU and it´s properties in this department.

Blocking
Eventough TU is really fast and grippy it is quite insensitive to incoming spin. That makes blocking quite easy.

Short game
Becouse of elastic, thin and grippy top sheet TU feels quite comfortable in short game. I´m able to recieve short serves short whit nice spin quite easily. I have to say that whit Astro M I was able to keep my returns short a bit easily but I wasn´t able to generate as much spin with it compairing to TU. Flips are not strongest part of my game but I feel that those are a bit easier to execute with TU that Astro M.

Looping/driveing
When I´m looping I can generate lots of spin without maximum effort. I can control my loops really well. Lifting under spin is quite easy and when I´m at the right position I can loop hard opening loops with cood control. When I´m of the position lifting under spin with slow and spinny loop works really well with TU.

Counter loops and drives of the bounce needs good timing becouse TU is a really fast and springy rubber. I have had to close my racket a bit more on counter drives compairing to Astro M but when timing is right I can execute couterloops and drives quite nicely. Counterlooping from mid/far distance are really easy to execute without maximum effort.

Passive play
I really aggressive player so I can´t really say much about this but due to high speed/control ratio of TU I would say that this is quite good rubber for passive play.

Over all I think that Target Ultimum is really under rated rubber (meaning really few poeple are using it). It is fast and spinny rubber with good control. However I think that you need a solid technique and decent touch if you want to unleash the full potential of this rubber. I can warmly recomend this rubber all of you who are looking for a rubber for aggressive attacking game. I have played one season with Rhyzm, one season with Donic JP02, one season with Astro M and tested T05, T80 and T80fx and I have to say that to me Target Ultimum feels clearly the best rubber of all these speed spin and durability wise.

Cheers,
Tommi

I have played with Astro M about 20 hours on my fh. I have quite good serves and I try to attack with my fh everytime I have an opportunity. My game plan is to make the points with my fh with high risk.

Astro M is a really good attacking rubber with medium throw, good speed and spin and excelent control. It´s not too bouncy for a short game but gives a really good catapult effect when I drive hard. With spinny opening loops I can get excelent control and good amounth of spin. This rubber is very balanced rubber. Not too fast but fast enough to hit winners without maximum effort. Counter drives of the bounce are easy to excecute when I´m at the right possisition and if I´m a bit of the control of my strokes is still quite good. From mid distance this rubber is really good and throw angle is perfect for my technique.

All and all I have found that Astro M is easy rubber to play with. Only donwnside seems to be it´s durability. After 20h of playing time I can see significant marks of wearing on a top sheet. It still plays great tough. With better durability this would be a five star rubber for sure!

Edit. Now I have used 3 sheets of Airoc Astro M I still feel that this is playingwise the best post sg rubber for my game which I have tried. I have played about 20+ 1 tournament/sheet. After that the top sheet is too worn out for my liking. I have noticed that this rubber has to bake in before it feels perfect. With last 2 rubbers I have stressed them a bit (like a rubber band) before gluing it on my blade this way there is no brake in time and the rubber feels perfect from the first loop. NOTE do not stress the rubber while glueing otherwise it will shrink.

I have just tested a new Acuda p1 blue rubber on my fh with my Michael Maze blade and I have to say that I have a bit mixed feels about it.It´s not a rocket but with correct stroke it is fast enough. It´spinny but not over sensitive to incoming spin. Here are my observations.

Serving:
Acuda p1 has very grippy and softish top sheet. Grippyness with hard sponge makes this rubber really good for serving. It´s easy to get lots of spin to my short serves and fast serves are controllable. Serving is really one of the areas where Acuda p1 really shines!

Opening from underspin:
Acuda p1 has a lowish throw so I had to execute my opening loops from heavy under spin with thicker contact than my JP02 which has been my fh rubber for last year. If I wanted brush loop the ball I had to lift the ball really heavily and when I did that the ball was loaded with spin. However brush looping with this rubber requires really good contact to ball and it was not easy to execute if I was out of position.

Loop and drives:
Acuda p1 has a harder sponge than my normal rubber and I felt that I needed to loop and drive with thicker contact than with JP02. Loops and drives were very accurate with low arc. Looping from middle distance required quite heavy racket movement upwards due to low throw of Ap1.

Counter looping:
Counter looping if the bounce is the best thing of Acuda p1. If I was in good position for counter attack of the bounce my counter loops were really secured and precise. Out of position I still felt quite comfortable and was able to get most of the counter loops to the table. When I stepped couple meters of the table situation became very different. I wasn´t able to get good contact to the ball and the rubber felt really unstable. I think that might be because I haven´t use a rubber this hard before. But anyway this was a major thing that made me stick to JP02 for next season.

Blocking:
Acuda p1 is not really sensitive to incoming spin in blocking so I think that blocking with Ap1 was really easy.

Service return and short game:
As mentioned earlier the Acuda p1 has really grippy top sheet and this really shows in service returns. If I read the spin correctly I was able to execute an excellent return. If I miss read the spin... well the outcome wasn´t really that good. In short game Ap1 worked great for me. It was easy to keep the ball short and equally easy toput lots of spin to the ball. I don´t really do flipping on my fh sono comment in this section.


Conclusion:
If you like to play aggressive topspin game near to table and your footwork keeps you in good position most of the time Acuda p1 could be THE rubber for you. It´s not the easiest rubber to play with but it rewards your good shots.