The sheet of Zyre 03 arrived yesterday, and I glued it onto my SDC Primorac all wood clone. On the FH. BH is Xiom Omega 8 China.
Over the last few years I have tested T05, T19, T80FX, D09C, Glayzer, Glayzer 09C. I played with both the Glayzer’s in matches for a couple of months, but the Tenergies and D09C weren’t for me, they are all very good rubbers but for me, I never felt I was looping well with them. Now this is probably because of my level, having said that my FH topspin/loop isn’t too shabby but is a little inconsistent. I think that there is that BTY ‘feel’ which is so loved by many, especially the Tenergy users. It’s that ‘feel’ I’m not keen on.
On my current match bat I have Xiom Omega 8 Hybrid ( O8H )FH & Xiom Omega China (O8C) on the BH.
I played tonight whilst coaching in our regular Friday night session. I also let one of my team mates have a quick knock with the Z03, and I mean a quick knock!! His comment was that it felt very stable in deed, he plays with D05 on his FH.
Stable was my initial thought when knocking with the lead Coach, FH Topspin was good, he commented that there was a good arc on the ball. I found that I could control the arc well, better than with the O8H, the feel was good, I felt like I Was looping the ball well, the BTY feeling has been replaced by, for me a better feeling!!
Having only tried D09C out of the Dignics range, it’s possible that D05 etc maybe similar feel wise?? But for me the D09C had the same / similar feel as Tenergy.
Z03 doesn’t feel hard, but not soft either, contact felt precise.
During the coaching session, we did some routines for opening up v backspin, so the student was serving 1/2 long underspin and I would push long or 1/2 long. Push control for depth and spin was very nice, I don’t think Z03 is as spin sensitive / high throw as some of the semi tacky rubbers like O8H, Tau2, Rakza Z etc so pushing seemed a little easier as the ball wasn’t pulled down as much.
It wouldn’t be a coaching session without any blocking!! Blocks were ok, similar to O8H. Pretty precise (when I get in position!!!) I could slow the ball down, and punch some faster blocks.
So I think Z03 felt better for me than O8H on the FH wing.
On the BH is where I noticed a big difference to O8C, faster to a certain extent, but ball flight was long, I would Block and Topspin long off the end of the table. I only gave it maybe 10 - 15 Bh rallies (short rallies!!) because the ball was flying about 300mm longer than it flew when using O8C. So I put back on the FH wing. With more time it would be able to adjust, but time was short.
So for a first trial with Z03, it was basically a straight swap with little or no adjustment required on the FH wing compared to O8H, in fact I felt that my 1st impression was that Z03 may be replacing the O8H. More time required though.
On the BH wing, a lot of adjustment is likely compared the O8C. I really like O8C on my BH so unlikely to change this this season.
My main take from this session is that the ‘feel’ is way more to my liking, this could change as time goes by, but at last that BTY Tenergy feeling is gone.
Now please remember that everyone is different, everyone ‘feels’ the ball differently and has different blades etc you guys and gals may think it feels like T05 !!!!
