Welcome to my new reviews! Every week I’ll be reviewing a different rubber, blade, or other equipment from my sponsors TIBHAR, the first of which is my personal favourite - the TIBHAR Evolution MX-P rubber. This rubber is currently available from my UK sponsors Bribar Table Tennis at a sale price of £34.99, reduced from £46.99. You can view and buy it here: http://shop.bribartt.co.uk/tibhar-evolution-mx-p.html
I play with this on both sides of my blade, both backhand and forehand, in 2.1mm sponge thickness which is the thickest sponge available with this rubber in order to ensure the combined thickness of the sponge and top sheet do not exceed ITTF restrictions on these things.
I first tried the TIBHAR Evolution MX-P last year and I was so impressed with it I decided I wanted to change in order to help my game. I had to wait a little while as I had matches approaching, and wanted to get a good week’s worth of practice in after playing with my old rubbers for any matches or competitions after this.
The thing I love about the TIBHAR Evolution MX-P is the medium hard sponge which provides me with just the right level of ‘rebound’ and feeling when I’m serving, opening up with my first heavy topspin loop from my opponents return and then attacking aggressively. The feeling is just right for my game, I never feel that it’s too fast so I still have the right level of control but at the same time it helps me generate a really good level of speed from my rubber which I find really important.
‘Medium-hard’ is difficult to quantify apart from by actually playing with the rubber yourself, but what I mean by this is it’s hard enough to produce really good speed but not so hard that ball dwell time on the bat is too low, making things harder to control and less easy to produce spin with. I have marked the rubber out of 10 on different aspects as above to try to help players with different styles work out if this is the best rubber for your game, if I had to mark this rubber out of 10 for the hardness of the sponge I’d say that if 1 was soft and 10 was hard, this would be around an 8 which for a player with my style is perfect.
The top sheet is a traditional European style rubber, which is slightly tacky but not like a Chinese style very tacky top rubber sheet, and again this is the perfect combination for me. I need a rubber top sheet which has the elasticity to let me produce heavy topspin on my attacking strokes and different levels of spin on my serves, but which is not to tacky as this is a very different type of feeling that isn’t quite suited to the way that I like to play. It’s a TENSOR style highly stretched top sheet and I really like the feeling that it produces.
I have found that the rubber is very durable for an attacking rubber of this level and quality. I change my rubbers regularly for my matches in the Belgian League, when playing for England and at ITTF World Tour events as I like the new and fresh feel, but these rubbers last longer than others I have played with in the past.
For speed, this rubber has to be king. I have scored it 9.5 from 10. It’s very fast, and suits the attacking player who likes to take the ball early at the table or from mid distance and play hard, attacking shots with a huge amount of spin. The rubber is not so quick that it lacks any feeling or control – the balance is excellent.
For spin, this rubber is also really excellent. I have scored it 9.5 from 10, but remember this is when talking about a player with my style. A defensive player for example may like the spin level but might find that a different sponge thickness is suited to them with the range of shots they employ. When it comes to attacking from both wings I find the level of topspin I can produce with the TIBHAR Evolution MX-P to be really brilliant.
For control, I have scored this rubber 9 out of 10. When you consider the speed it can help you to produce on your shots and the topspin it can help you generate, the control level is very, very high. It’s all about the balance and this rubber really excels in that department.
To sum up - If you like to topspin the ball strongly from both wings, open up from a backspin push or chop ball with heavy topspin, attack on the third or fifth ball aggressively, loop with heavy spin and speed from mid distance or block quickly but with control, then the TIBHAR Evolution MX-P is an absolutely first rate choice, and 100% the correct choice for me.