New ESN rubbers closed the gap on Tenergy ?

asifgunz wrote: How old is that pic^ . He has a moth shirt on 0_0

It's obviously very recent. The logo on his shirt is the newest butterfly logo.

kolevtt wrote: GeneralSpecific wrote: asifgunz wrote: How old is that pic^ . He has a moth shirt on 0_0 It's obviously very recent. The logo on his shirt is the newest butterfly logo. No matter the t-shirt. Did you see the pic I posted with his paddle from the final in Baku ? I'll be glad if you take a look there and take your comment what you see.

I looked at your picture and what I saw was a fuzzy photo with no image of the topsheet or logo. I even went to youtube and saw the video that you grabbed the photo of. He's wearing the exact same shirt from the exact same tournament as the photo that AMonteiro provided which clearly shows he is using Evolution. Now I ask you, did you look at the photo that AMonteiro provided? Did you look at his black forehand rubber topsheet in that photo? The photo which was taken at the exact same tournament as your photo in which you incorrectly identify the rubber as Tenergy.

I think an even better request is for you to provide a picture of Samsonov, holding his racket, with the tenergy logo visible, similar to how AMonteiro provided a picture of him with the Evolution logo. Can you do that?

AMonteiro wrote: It's from Baku European Games a month ago.. but ok, I give up.. no top player use ESN, it's all Photoshop for marketing purposes..

Forgive the trolls. I have personally seen Tokic using Stratus Powerwood with MX-P both sides. Samsonov has always used Tibhar rubbers, even when Tenergy would have been better for him.

Like I said, big difference between being usable and playing like Tenergy.

Photo taken in this year's German Open in March. It is Tibhar of some kind (MXP I believe) but pretty sure he is not using Butterfly.

Without having read the thread my guess is the thread took that direction because people made the argument that if ESN rubbers were closing the gap on Tenergy, more pros whose livelihoods depend on their equipment would be using ESN rubbers.  I will now go back and read if my guess is correct.

Edit added.  Yes.  It starts with this:  "Paul Drinkhall has been using MX-P at least since December. Samsonov for a while now. That proves their viability. Whether the rubber puts them at a disadvantage would be almost impossible to prove and I doubt it.", followed by another post from AMonteiro listing several more players using ESN rubbers.

I personally think it is a reasonable argument -- that is, that the most discerning people are finding ESN rubbers that they can live with.  The counterargument is that they may be limited by their sponsorship agreements.

I personally think the gap has definitely narrowed.  I still like Tenergy best -- all in all it is pretty distinctive -- but if you took it away, there are rubbers out there I could use with not too much adjustment (MX-P, EL-P).*  And there are ton of ESN rubbers out there I haven't tried that maybe I would like better than the Evolution rubbers.

* This was not true back in the days when the best ESN rubbers were thinks like Donic JO Gold or F1 Desto.

If the argument is about Samsonov who as some members here  have argued,

smackman wrote: If the argument is about <span style=": rgb251, 251, 253;">Samsonov who as some members here  have argued,</span> <span style=": rgb251, 251, 253;"> has always used Thibhar rubbers </span><span style="line-height: 1.4;">now and before the 40+ balls, </span>   so what's changed?   <span style=": rgb251, 251, 253;"> </span>

First of all, Baal is right. Tibhar is one of the stronger enforcers of sponsorship agreements and it can be argued that Samsonov has been loyal to them to the detriment of his career. I strongly suspect that the recent defections of Freitas and Appolonia from Tibhar to Butterfly were driven by their desire to use Tenergy 05.

That said, Drinkhall is fairly adamant about his seeking out Tibhar because he liked MX-P. Tokic has been using it for a while as well. If MX-P is ruining their games, it is not doing so to the extent that these guys are no longer competitive.

Edited by NextLevel - 07/20/2015 at 7:55am