Calderano Signs with Joola (#139)

[vvk1]

I passed on your notice about the ARY-c also

Thank you so much!

 

[TTWiz]

Just checked the official numbers on Joola’s and Xiom’s websites, and my assumption was confirmed:

Hugo HAL: 157 mm x 150 mm
Joola ARY-x: 157 mm x 152 mm

The blades weigh the same, but the larger head size means the HAL is heavier overall and is more head heavy.

I’ve played a few hours with the robot, and even though the blades weigh the same and both are lacquered and both have Stiga Helix Platinum XH/H, there are still several aspects that make a direct comparison difficult:
1: The rubbers are the same, but the ones on my HAL have been used for 1–2 months.
2: Even though the HAL is also lacquered, I think sweat, moisture, touch, minor damage, and general use over the past year will affect how it feels.
3: The different head size and overall weight

I’ve only played briefly with a robot so far, so I’ll wait to write a full review until I’ve spent more time with it.

For now, though, I’m really happy with the same feel and control as HAL but with a little more speed thanks to the larger head size.

My only concern is that I play quite close to the table with a lot of quick exchange rallies, and a heavier, head heavy blade might cause some challenges. I once tried the Xiom Hugo ALX Pro (160mm x 152mm), and it disrupted my game with a lot of edge hits and mis-hits.

The handle on the ARY-x is slightly wider than the one on the HAL. The HAL feels smoother, but that could just as well be because it’s been used for over a year.

 

[golden_son]

The handle on the ARY-x is slightly wider than the one on the HAL. The HAL feels smoother, but that could just as well be because it’s been used for over a year.

Ohh, that's tempting. My biggest (only, really) complaint about the HAL was the handle... I do worry about the head-heaviness, though, as I also tend to play close to the table.

 

[Matt Hetherington]

Ohh, that's tempting. My biggest (only, really) complaint about the HAL was the handle... I do worry about the head-heaviness, though, as I also tend to play close to the table.

The handle is the same shape/dims as JOOLA's other premium blades like the Trinity etc. It's a little wider in the center of the grip.

 

[golden_son]

The handle is the same shape/dims as JOOLA's other premium blades like the Trinity etc. It's a little wider in the center of the grip.

By my measurements, the handle on the HAL is 26.2mm at its narrowest (horizontally), and about 22.5mm back-to-front thickness. I've found I prefer closer to 27mm at the narrow point, and 22.5-23mm thick. From JOOLA I've only ever played with the Rossi Emotion, which I needed to add a grip to (heat-shrink type, so a little thinner than a wrap) to fit comfortably.

Do you happen to know the dimensions of the ARY-x (and Trinity, etc.) handles at the narrowest point? Frustratingly, most manufacturers only list the overall handle length and the width at the widest point (the end), if they give the handle dimensions at all; numbers that are practically useless at telling you how it will sit in the hand since nobody is holding the racket by its butt end.

 

[Matt Hetherington]

By my measurements, the handle on the HAL is 26.2mm at its narrowest (horizontally), and about 22.5mm back-to-front thickness. I've found I prefer closer to 27mm at the narrow point, and 22.5-23mm thick. From JOOLA I've only ever played with the Rossi Emotion, which I needed to add a grip to (heat-shrink type, so a little thinner than a wrap) to fit comfortably.

Do you happen to know the dimensions of the ARY-x (and Trinity, etc.) handles at the narrowest point? Frustratingly, most manufacturers only list the overall handle length and the width at the widest point (the end), if they give the handle dimensions at all; numbers that are practically useless at telling you how it will sit in the hand since nobody is holding the racket by its butt end.

I think it's also 26mm but the shape of the taper is different to Xiom as far as I'm aware, unless they changed something. I think JOOLA's handle has a more steady taper to the flare, whereas Xiom's handle has a more obvious flare so it feels thinner for the top half of the handle.

Rossi emotion is different handle shape for sure.

 

[ThePongCommenter]

but the shoes! think of the JOOLA shoes!!! (that I see many club level players wearing)

This was one of many jokes directed my way on this thread but here we are 7 months later and Hugo is still wearing Mizuno in his home country tournament, one where Joola was trying to make a good showing.

well … I did shoot Star Contender in Ljubljana, and did some sniffing around the blades …

Dima, that blade isn’t inner, its normal ALC, at least it looks like that.
Hugo, still uses HAL. from a very reliable source I learned that the rubbers he is using are still Xiom C57.5/C52.5, but sponge is purple to make them look like Joola. if that’s true or not, I don’t know …

How funny if this proves to be true... as I said earlier in this thread, a player of Hugo's stature can (and likely does) communicate directly with ESN and have them make whatever he wanted but just "make it look like Joola".

 

[zeio]

Just throwing it out there.

https://www.tabletennisdaily.com/fo...rs-with-spin-sight-with-dan.39515/post-578777

ESN has stated that the success of its customers is the success of ESN.

 

[Matt Hetherington]

This was one of many jokes directed my way on this thread but here we are 7 months later and Hugo is still wearing Mizuno in his home country tournament, one where Joola was trying to make a good showing.

How funny if this proves to be true... as I said earlier in this thread, a player of Hugo's stature can (and likely does) communicate directly with ESN and have them make whatever he wanted but just "make it look like Joola".

Yea sorry that's false, the rubbers are not the same, if it was that easy there wouldn't have been any adjustment period and we could've just made everything identical to how it was before from the beginning and the transition would have been totally seamless. We spent a huge amount of time with Hugo developing both blades and rubbers so he could find something he liked even more than his previous setup.

Regarding the shoes you may have seen some players wearing our new shoe during Europe Smash qualifications, we have been developing a new shoe for a long time now (we were determined not to go the route of the typical OEM strategy moving forward and to do something different), the early iterations were not what we wanted and so in the end we hired a couple of people who worked in shoe development at Nike for over 25 years. Of course this is not a quick process, and we are almost near launch time for those soon

 

[Matt Hetherington]

This was one of many jokes directed my way on this thread but here we are 7 months later and Hugo is still wearing Mizuno in his home country tournament, one where Joola was trying to make a good showing.

Good things take time

 

[Grahf]

Its like...

having the same blade? (joola handle feels slightly better, like FZD)

 

[ThePongCommenter]

Its like...

having the same blade? (joola handle feels slightly better, like FZD)

They're coming from the same Korean factory so... do we act surprised lol

 

[biaxialerzug]

Surprise

 

[zeio]

Its like...

having the same blade? (joola handle feels slightly better, like FZD)

Give or take?

What you picked up the most there are the frequencies of the membrane mode, where the blade head vibrates like a speaker and doesn't involve the handle, so you just effectively did a blind test and the results further reinforce the root cause of conspiracy theory and confirmation bias...

 

[zeio]

Here is Han Ying's husband Lei Yang's take back in 5/2026 on Calderano dumping Xiom for Joola.

https://weibo.com/1750871477/R1ni3o5DO
胖头莎昱_
自主创作
26-5-27 20:06
发布于 北京
来自 微博视频号
[#乒乓球[超话]#] 乒乓球超话#一分钟精选视频扶持计划##微博二创视频创作季#
雷洋：雨果以前签约的是骄猛，后来换成尤拉，因为拿过世界杯男单冠军，在利益面前什么都是浮云，万远爸妈都是中国人，妈妈是北京人老万是湖南人，老万很小就去八一队了 [http://t.cn/AX6Tqh6G] 胖头莎昱_的微博视频
(Lei Yang: Folks still don't get it? Why do you think Hugo jumped ship from Xiom to Joola? In the face of immense profit, nothing else matters...)

 

[Yurifi]

Yea sorry that's false, the rubbers are not the same, if it was that easy there wouldn't have been any adjustment period and we could've just made everything identical to how it was before from the beginning and the transition would have been totally seamless. We spent a huge amount of time with Hugo developing both blades and rubbers so he could find something he liked even more than his previous setup.

Regarding the shoes you may have seen some players wearing our new shoe during Europe Smash qualifications, we have been developing a new shoe for a long time now (we were determined not to go the route of the typical OEM strategy moving forward and to do something different), the early iterations were not what we wanted and so in the end we hired a couple of people who worked in shoe development at Nike for over 25 years. Of course this is not a quick process, and we are almost near launch time for those soon

I took that about rubbers with a pinch of salt, but the blade is 100% still HAL (I even claim it’s SAL) … or, even because it is made in Korea, it’s just a rebranded HAL/SAL (which I don’t blame you, half of the blades on the market are like that) … but I know, as a former pro table tennis player - once you have the wood that suits you, you have it until it falls apart. and Hugo looks like a chill, smart guy who doesn’t break blades often. 😉 rubbers, ok, you go and change them, but blade … very very rarely.

 

[K.K]

@Matt Hetherington if joola produces the blades for hugo at the same factory (korea) as the blades from his former sponsor xiom, why is that the blade from joola cost so much more? 189 for xiom HAL vs 229 for the joola AryX. where does the big 40€ price difference comes from?

 

[biaxialerzug]

I bet it's sponsoring.

 

[ThePongCommenter]

if joola produces the blades for hugo at the same factory (korea) as the blades from his former sponsor xiom, why is that the blade from joola cost so much more? 189 for xiom HAL vs 229 for the joola AryX. where does the big 40€ price difference comes from?

Because Hugo costs JOOLA a lot of money lol

 

[Matt Hetherington]

I took that about rubbers with a pinch of salt, but the blade is 100% still HAL (I even claim it’s SAL) … or, even because it is made in Korea, it’s just a rebranded HAL/SAL (which I don’t blame you, half of the blades on the market are like that) … but I know, as a former pro table tennis player - once you have the wood that suits you, you have it until it falls apart. and Hugo looks like a chill, smart guy who doesn’t break blades often. 😉 rubbers, ok, you go and change them, but blade … very very rarely.

There's plenty of logic in that, however when he joined JOOLA he specifically asked to begin testing ARY-c innerlayer blades, so that throws that out the window in part. I'm not sure why he suddenly became interested in changing at this stage of his career - maybe he thought it could give him a tiny additional improvement.