The Prince Team Black Original 800.
Peep the new version coming out in 2016:
Image via princesquash.com
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Search:Spotted
Evan Williams at the 2016 World Championships:
Photo via SquashSite →
Here’s the previous version, which came out in 2014:
Images via holabirdsports.com
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Squash Source receives a commission when you buy through these links. Thanks!
Buy (France): amazon.fr
Buy (Germany): amazon.de
Buy (UK): amazon.co.uk | sweatband.com
Buy (US): amazon.com | holabirdsports.com | squashgear.com
Search:Racket Info
I believe this is the 2014 version of the Prince O3 Black (which wasn’t black; mercifully, this one is). The difference between this and the Prince Pro Black SP 850 has to do with the shape of the “O” ports on the racket. You can see from the picture above, these are oval. On the Pro Black SP they’re more rectangular.
Spotted
I think Mazen Hesham was using the Prince Team Black Original 800 at the 2015 British Open, though I’m not 100% sure it’s this racket. (Update: maybe not. See this comment from Topias.)
Photo by Steve Cubbins ∞
Have you tried this racket? Please leave a review in the comments!
Topias says
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I think Mazen Hesham has been custom painting older Prince rackets for some reason. In previous tournaments he used a similarily shaped racquet that was all blue – there is no such Prince racquet on the market. My estimate is that this is the Prince O3 Speedport Black because watching the match, I saw the holes on the racket looked rectangular and because the bumper is clear in opposition to the EXO3 Rebel’s (which Hesham played with before the new Prince line was out) black bumper.
In the new Prince line the head heavy rackets have a slightly stiffer and heavier feel as their previous models. Maybe because the previous models clearly had problems with too early breakages. I think Hesham and some other players haven’t been happy with the heavier feel so they use the older models. I think the Team Black 800 is the most horrible example of this: in reality it’s almost 10g heavier than the O3 Black and the balance point is even more towards the head so the O3 Black is so much more maneuverable. The SP Black 850 is somewhat better but they’ve moved the balance point too much towards the head in my opinion. You don’t see any pros using these two rackets – the Pro Beast 750 and the Team Red 700 are the new good Prince rackets. The Pro Rebel 950 has somewhat the same problem, but if you like a radically head heavy racket, you’ll choose this one.
Pierre Bastien says
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Thanks, I think you are right!