Prince racquets used to have a lot of users on tour, but now hardly anyone uses it.

Agassi, Chang, A. Medvedev, Enqvist, Rafter, A. Costa, Ferrero, Davydenko, Ferrer, Coria, Isner, Monfils, Sharapova, Capriati, Zvonareva and Sabatini.

What happened?

30 years happened

 

Was it because of the lack of a top player to compete with the Big 3 in the last 20 years?

 

No, it had to do with wrong business decisions.

 

The late Peter Doohan aka 'The Becker Wrecker' probably produced the biggest upset in a slam with THAT racquet.

 

They still do strings

And pickleball paddles

 

They do also rackets still. I believe Tennis Warehouse is the exclusive online distributor, at least for their rackets. I've seen e.g. some padel gear in other online stores.

Their recent models have tended to receive mostly positive reviews. I also have one fairly recent model, the Prince Textreme Tour 100 310 g, from 2019. But very few pros these days play with one. I believe Isner has been with Prince pretty much throughout his entire pro career. Swiatek used to also be with Prince not too long ago (used the same racket, Prince Textreme Tour 100, but the 290 g version; won his 1st GS with this), before switching to Tecnifibre in 2021.

Imagine what a miss... Swiatek would've without a doubt launched them to a period of new glory. The #1 player after all.

Tecnifibre instead has been making headway with solid signings.

 

I still play with Prince racquets. Always have, always will 😊

 

They can't compete with the big boys(head,wison,babolat),last great player using prince Sharapova.
She got huge deal from Head ,thats it.

 

IMHO, Prince downfall became evident when it went stingy with Sharapova in 2010 and lost her to Head.

 

They make some great racquets. Prince 93p is a modern classic.

 

 

Do you know from which year these are? Quite a bit heavier than rackets these days (I believe mostly around 315 - 325 g strung in stock form). Interesting head sizes as well (90, 110 or 125).

 

This 2012 article provides info on what lead to their bankruptcy.

It could be that the company changed ownership too often and that every owner just wanted to make a quick buck instead of investing into new products.

Prince Sports to be Sold to Authentic Brands Group in Bankruptcy Proceedings | SGB Media Online

 

This 2012 article provides info on what lead to their bankruptcy.

It could be that the company changed ownership too often and that every owner just wanted to make a quick buck instead of investing into new products.

Prince Sports to be Sold to Authentic Brands Group in Bankruptcy Proceedings | SGB Media Online

That makes sense which has led to the decline.

Thanks.

 

Isner and Granollers still use Prince.

 

Granollers

Maybe he switched?

 

They should sign up the younger Americans instead of a declining Isner

 

Its popularity also declined a lot nowadays in the squash community.
Personally I just purchased some non-pressurized price tennis training ball a few months ago because it's cheaper than Wilson's, but the balls look quite dead to me as it's even less bouncier than the worn-out normal balls

 

That is true with squash.

They used to have Peter Nicol, John White and Rodney Eyles using Prince racquets.

 

Prince has always made excellent tennis racquets. I still have a Prince frame from the late 90s that I use from time to time. Very well-made. They used to be such a prominent brand.

I think they have made some attempts to come back into the market. They recently partnered with the clothing brand Hydrogen, making some funky looking new racquets with the Hydrogen logo.

What they really need, though, is some high profile players on their payroll. It's inexplicable that they didn't try to snag Iga Swiatek after she won Roland Garros with an off-the-shelf Prince racquet.

 

Prince has always made excellent tennis racquets. I still have a Prince frame from the late 90s that I use from time to time. Very well-made. They used to be such a prominent brand.

I think they have made some attempts to come back into the market. They recently partnered with the clothing brand Hydrogen, making some funky looking new racquets with the Hydrogen logo.

extremely hideous with that skull logo

 

Refreshing and interesting thread, OP. Makes a change from all the what ifs? 🤣

 

Prince was indeed really popular in the past

 

Gene Mayer, first oversize racquet and .. 2 hands forehand.

https://vault.si.com/vault/1981/04/...no-4-in-the-tennis-rankings-no-player-in-the-game-has-a-better-variety-of-shots

 

Gene Mayer, first oversize racquet and .. 2 hands forehand.

https://vault.si.com/vault/1981/04/...no-4-in-the-tennis-rankings-no-player-in-the-game-has-a-better-variety-of-shots

Gene Mayer had such an underrated career with such a creative game.

World No. 4, 14 singles title and 15 doubles titles (which includes 2 grand slams in doubles).

 

 

My first serious racquet that I used to play for quite a while was Rafter's Prince Warrior TT, loved that one so much ❤

Tennis Warehouse - Triple Threat Warrior Racquet Review

www.tennis-warehouse.com

My next Prince racquet was Prince O3 Speedport Tour. I'm still playing with it, amazing racquet 😍

Prince O3 Speedport Tour

All the technical characteristics of Prince O3 Speedport Tour, tennis racket with head size 97in² and string pattern 16x18. The declared weight is 320g and balance 310mm.

www.racketpedia.com

As a backup racquets I bought recently Prince Tour 100T

Tennis Warehouse - Prince Tour 100T Racquet Review

www.tennis-warehouse.com

 

prince lightning was my first "premium" racket. sophomore year switched to graphite II.. everybody on my HS team played with it.. they brought back the POG but never the graphite II. as for their down fall. i dunno, but their top tier rackets started to be too gimmicky .

 

Another take by a long time tennis shop owner (I tend to watch this guy's videos in 2x speed; not the only one based on some of the comments I've seen ). According to him Prince rackets were comparatively difficult to string. Plus, around the time new competitors like Babolat had begun to garner success, Prince came up with their EXO3 concept that according to this guy wasn't very well received/liked.

How they present it here, it does sound interesting. That there would be a point to it (e.g. the increased sweet spot). Would like to try one. I do vaguely recall reading (as I was researching the Prince Textreme Tour I went and bought) that EXO3 rackets would also be slightly more cumbersome to string. You'd think the fact that other companies have not implemented similar solutions also says sth.

--

Edit. Apparently the larger holes are called 'O ports'.

Prince's o3 ports pushed the racquet technology to a whole new level

Hans informs us about the Prince O3 technology and how it helps this tennis racquet deliver its full fury.

www.doittennis.com

When Prince came out with the o3 racquets a few years ago, many people were very skeptical because to have such big holes in a racquet just does not look right. However, this technology made playing tennis that much more fun.

The O ports were one of the few technologies that actually worked. Many of the technologies that racquet companies come out with are generally not very revolutionary. The Prince o3 technology was not one of those.

The O ports actually increased the sweet spot on the racquet. Generally, you need to hit the ball right in the middle to make it feel great. However, with the O port technology, the sweetspot increased as much as 30%. This was huge and a lot of tennis players really liked the feel of these racquets. The other thing that was so great about the O ports was that the professional tennis players were using these racquets.

I have always said that I do not think that most of the top players change their racquets. They might change the paint job on the racquet but not the actual racquet. However, with O port racquets, you could actually tell a customer, yes this racquet is the same racquet that Maria Sharapova was using. This added great credibility to the Prince brand and the O port technology.

Tennis Equipment & Gear | Tennis Express

Shop at Tennis Express, the best online tennis store with a wide selection of tennis equipment & gear and 2-Day Free Shipping on orders over $50. With gear for players of all skill levels, we have the latest in racquets, shoes, apparel, and more.

www.tennisexpress.com

 

Another take by a long time tennis shop owner (I tend to watch this guy's videos in 2x speed; not the only one based on some of the comments I've seen ). According to him Prince rackets were comparatively difficult to string. Plus, around the time new competitors like Babolat had begun to garner success, Prince came up with their EXO3 concept that according to this guy wasn't very well received/liked.

How they present it here, it does sound interesting. That there would be a point to it (e.g. the increased sweet spot). Would like to try one. I do vaguely recall reading (as I was researching the Prince Textreme Tour I went and bought) that EXO3 rackets would also be slightly more cumbersome to string. You'd think the fact that other companies have not implemented similar solutions also says sth.

--

Edit. Apparently the larger holes are called 'O ports'.

Prince's o3 ports pushed the racquet technology to a whole new level

Hans informs us about the Prince O3 technology and how it helps this tennis racquet deliver its full fury.

www.doittennis.com

Tennis Equipment & Gear | Tennis Express

Shop at Tennis Express, the best online tennis store with a wide selection of tennis equipment & gear and 2-Day Free Shipping on orders over $50. With gear for players of all skill levels, we have the latest in racquets, shoes, apparel, and more.

www.tennisexpress.com

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I never had any complaints about difficult stringing from the guys who string my Prince O3 racquets. Yes it's a bit different than stringing ordinary racquets, but after stringing it once everyone learns how to easily string them.

 

Martin Jaite playing with a Prince Woodie in Roland Garros 1985. That was an extremely soft frame, being wood and oversized (but reinforced with carbon).

Here's Jaite playing Wilander in Rome 1987. That's a match between the two most flexible racquet frames on the market at the time. And it shows in the playing style

 

Nice pick up on Jaite.

 

So many legends but.. no Sampras...

I think he is the key. He killed Prince!

 

I remember them being more of a thing on the women's tour.

Back in the day the Prince original graphite was a very popular racquet, but then guys like Roddick started switching to Babolat. So Babolat maybe pushed them out of the market.

 

Pat Cash - 1987 Wimbledon.