The Tecnifibre Carboflex 125 S is a legendary squash racket that came out in 2015 and took the squash market by storm. It is a well-designed racket backed by an extremely successful marketing campaign. You can still purchase this classic racket today in 2022.

Some Background on the Tecnifibre Carboflex 125 S

The red and black Tecnifibre Carboflex 125 S came out in 2015. It was Tecnifibre’s much-anticipated follow-up to the yellow and black Tecnifibre Carboflex 125, which was a highly successful racket in its own right. That prior racket was used by Mohamed Elshorbagy, Miguel Rodriguez, Nour El Sherbini, and many more top players that were rising to the top of the sport.

There must have been a lot of pressure inside Tecnifibre to deliver with the next racket. Well, Tecnifibre absolutely nailed the assignment. The red-and-black cosmetics were gorgeous. It had a distinctive bumper guard that is actually removable if you restring the racket.

The introduction of this racket coincided with a long run where Mohamed Elshorbagy and Nour El Sherbini rose to the top of the world rankings and stayed there for an extended period. But tons of other pro players also used the 125 S. I reckon it was more ubiquitous than the prior 125 model, which is saying a lot, because that racket was everywhere.

Meanwhile, Tecnifibre absolutely crushed it with the marketing campaign for this racket. The posters featured the same red, black, and white color scheme that the racket did. And they picked a great photo of a pumped-up Shorbagy.

This racket exploded onto the scene and soon enough it was seen everywhere, both on the pro tour and in squash clubs around the country. I would love to know how many of these rackets Tecnifibre has sold over the years. And it’s STILL selling well, I bet.

The Carboflex 125 S was replaced by the Tecnifibre Carboflex X-Speed 125 in 2018.

Reviews of the Tecnifibre Carboflex 125 S

I finally did a full review of this racket almost two years after it came out. There’s a transcript of this video below, if you prefer to read the text.

Here’s a review from Paul at PDH Sports:

Larry at Squash Unlimited comments:

Cosmetics are amazing and the custom bumper system should be an interesting feature to playtest. We will be be taking them on the court shortly.

Michel comments:

get my first hits tonight and as expected i felt immediately confortable with the racket as i was playing with the yellow one before.
I did not notice any big big changes but subtle things mainly, i think, due to the brand new string:
– the ball was popping out the racket with a very nice sound like a real “pop”
– the sweet spot was easier to find
– control was better especially on the back hand side : high, deep and glued to the side wall.
– very good feeling on the drop shot while cutting the ball.
These are my feelings BUT it could be that i was in a good day, or very pleased to play a brand new racket, or just a psychological type of things, or all that together !!!
Anyway this is a fantastic racket that i warmly recommend. lovin’ it !

CorpPilot comments:

Its the same stick as before with some pretty matte black and red cosmetics. The primary and only truly noticeable difference would be the graphics and the two piece frame/gromet strip.

Here’s my original “quick-look” video. I took to it immediately. The balance felt head-light / even and the racket had tons of control.

More Photos of the Tecnifibre Carboflex 125 S

From PDH Sports:

Photo via instagram.com/pdhsports ∞

Gregoire Marche was using this in the first round of the 2015 Grasshopper Cup in Zurich:

Photo by Irena Vanisova ∞

Here’s Miguel Angel Rodriguez in the 2015 Bundesliga finals:

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A post shared by 𝙈𝙄𝙂𝙐𝙀𝙇 𝘼𝙉𝙂𝙀𝙇 𝙍𝙊𝘿𝙍𝙄𝙂𝙐𝙀𝙕 (@miguelsquash)

Mohamed El Shorbagy just got his shipment in:

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A post shared by Mohamed Elshorbagy (@moelshorbagy)

This is Victoria Lust using the Tecnifibre Carboflex 125 S at the 2015 US Open:

Image via Steve Cubbins ∞

Chris Gordon was also using this at the US Open:

Photo by Steve Cubbins ∞

Nour El Sherbini, too:

Photo by Steve Cubbins ∞

Here’s Max Lee at the 2015 World Championships:

Photo via Steve Cubbins →

Alfredo Avila too:

Photo via Steve Cubbins →

Farhan Zaman uses this too!

Photo via Steve Cubbins →

Also saw a few players using this at the 2016 British Nationals.

Here’s Alison Thomson:

Photo via Steve Cubbins →

And here’s Joel Makin:

Photo via Steve Cubbins →

Also Ben Coleman:

Photo via Steve Cubbins →

Here’s Nicolette Fernandes at the 2016 British Open:

Photo via Steve Cubbins →

Also Olivia Blatchford:

Photo via Steve Cubbins →

Ali Anwar Reda at the 2016 Pyramids:

Photo via SquashSite →

Marina Stefanoni at the 2019 Women’s World Champs:

Have you tried this racket? Please leave a review in the comments!

Transcript

Here’s my video review again, with the transcript below:

Hey it’s Pierre. I got a review today of the famous, the unforgettable classic racket, the Carboflex 125 S. I played with this very briefly when it first came out, which I think was two years ago and I liked it when I hit with it but I only got to kind of play with it in one game very briefly. Thanks to Derek from dlsports.de in Germany for sending me this racket. That’s one of my affiliates, DL Sports, and thanks to Derek for sending me this racquet to review — finally!

This is probably the most popular racket — certainly since I’ve started Squash Source it feels like this is the the racket that’s been the most popular over the years I’ve been doing this and why is that? Well I’m gonna tell you how it played but I think a lot of the reason for that was this racket, it looks great.

They did a fantastic job with the design. Red, black and white. It’s based on the prior Carboflex model, which also was a  top seller, I think. The original Carboflex 125, that one was the black and yellow one, and that was very popular as well. And this one kind of followed in the footsteps and they had great advertising.

They had this poster you’ve probably seen if you’ve been watching squash racket advertisements for any length of time of Mohamed El Shorbagy like punching his fist in the air with this racket in an awesome Carboflex — I mean Technifibre — shirt to match.

This is used by Shorbagy, it’s used by Nour El Sherbini, it’s used by just about every everyone it seems. It’s tons of top pros. Not everyone but it’s used a lot of top pros and it’s used all over the juniors and all over club players as well.

So I’ll tell you about the racket now huh I played with it today at length and my … the thing about this racket is it’s pretty light okay it’s a 153.8 grams on my scale and it’s pretty head light: thirty-six centimeters. I’ve seen some places say less than that even.

It’s always hard for me to judge the stiffness of a racket but it feels kind of like a medium stiffness not super stiff and I’ve been hitting with a racket recently, it’s a bit stiffer I think and it’s a bit head-heavier and a bit heavie.

I kind of go back and forth and I’ve been wanting to get back to a racket that that kind of just feels like it’s solid all the way through. I want to get away from being kind of whippy with my racket so the one I’m using now is kind of like a battleship, it just feels like you know once you start that momentum it’s doing the work for you. You had to — it’s harder work to get your racket back, but once you do, you just swing through and it’s a nice crisp shot. It’s almost like you you can’t just dink it because you have to swing through.

The Carboflex is I think on the other side of the coin. You really need to have — I think you have to have pretty good racket ability to use this racket. It took me a little while to adjust to it. I’ve only been using it this one just today. I hit with it maybe briefly another day but really this is the first time. I played with it for like ten games today so I finally got the hang of it and I really think this is the best type of racket for someone who likes to honestly just likes to put a lot of spin on the ball, likes to move their racket while they’re swinging, has good racket control. Because you can really, because it’s light and pretty head-light, ball’s coming, you don’t have to take a huge backswing, you can get it back quickly, you can use your wrist to go through it on both sides, and or you can come around the ball and apply a lot of spin both on you know on drives and on short shots in a way that you can’t with a kind of heavier racket.

If you have a heavy racket yeah you of course you can put spin on it but … it’s just a bit more difficult to maneuver in the heat of the moment. That has its downsides though which is that you have to get your racket ready you have to have good preparation you have to have good racket skills in order to make the most of it.

I think if you’re a young junior and you know you want just a lighter racket that looks cool, I think — I don’t want to say anyone shouldn’t use it if they’re feeling good on it, but I do think this racket, although it’s used by everyone and their cousin, in my opinion takes takes a fair amount of it takes a fair amount of racket ability to really use it to its full effectiveness.

So let me show you a little more of the cosmetics while I got it. So first of all one of the big changes. Here’s the Tecnifibre Absolute Squash. Absolute Squash grip from Technifibre. Again just great design. They really killed it on this. They’ve been doing a good job for years Tecnifibre has. Now one of the big changes from the previous Carboflex was this bumper guard. It’s got this channel and the strings are kind of tucked in there. It’s a little hard to see because it’s black strings on black but it’s got this channel so they’re tucked in there for extra protection of your strings. And the other neat feature — I don’t know if it’s a little bit of a gimmick or what but — you can actually take off the bumper guar, just to make it even head-lighter. I think Shorbagy does that? You have to restring it in order to do that but you can take off this plastic piece here just leaving the bare frame and maybe that’ll make it a little less durable if you’re gonna if you’re smacking into the wall but if not, you are able to make it even a little head-lighter.

And what else can I show you? Tecnifibre there. Gosh that’s a good-looking racket. Anyway so I enjoyed my hit with it today. It took me like I said a little bit to adjust to it coming from a heavier head-heavier racket. I really had to get myself prepared properly when using this racket but in the end it is enjoyable one to hit with. This is the Tecnifibre Carboflex 125 S.

Thanks

Thanks to Michel Goulche for the tip.