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I had previously tried it on a friend's blade and liked it, and for some reason decided to get a sheet for myself. I use SP on BH, so play close to the table and thought this might be good for the way I play. I have been using regular T05 on my forehand for the last several years and I don't do much EJing. My T25FX is red, 2.1 mm and I play with a Btfly Viscaria. I got it from Megaspin, who as usual got it to me within a day or two of my placing the order. These days I play around 2100. I try to loop and counter early off the bounce on my FH side, do a lot of flat countering and quick blocking with my BH.
Recall that T25 is the same ultra grippy rubber as other Tenergy rubbers but the pips on the inside are very much larger, so the top sheet has a much harder feel. The pip structure seems to give the thing a shorter throw (really the opposite of, say, Calibra LT). The FX spring sponge balances this out a bit, so it feels hard, or at least not soft, in short game and when playing soft balls (like return of serve, which I like). However, it plays soft when the ball comes at you hard or when you are generating a lot of power. By the way, the topsheet on this one seems grippier and a deeper red color than the last sheet of T05 (regular) that I used. I'm not sure what's up with that.
First impression is great sound and in the first five balls i played I had a wonderful sense that I was really going to like this. The sound is from the softer sponge. Second impression is that it throws a bit lower than T05 (as with nearly everything else on the market today) but it is not a low throw rubber. This is similar to regular t25. I immediately notice that you want to hit forehands with a little more open racket angle than with T05 or regular T25; also it throws medium to medium high, but it throws SHORTER. This is just what I was hoping for. Looping from close, you can open the racket angle a bit, hit hard, and it goes in powerfully, a shot that with T05 would sail long. It works ok at middle distance but further back than that, it is anemic, much more so than regular T25 as I remember. There is a real tendency to bottom out if you are ripping from too far back. I am ok with this, because when I am playing well, I am never doing that. From middle distance and close in, I have a feeling of great dwell time even with a relatively open racket, and it has that really nice "bite" to the ball that all Tenergy rubbers share. Serving is pretty much the same as T05. Feel is maybe a little different, but shouldn't be hard to adjust to. I am not quite feeling my long serves the same way.
This stuff is great for flicking short balls. I'm not sure why, but my flicks tonight were moving very very fast where I wanted them to go, and were not getting returned. This is good for the way I play, I was always able to do that with my SP backhand, but with T05 I could be a bit erratic doing that on the FH side (and my flicks on the FH side were "mushier" with T05).
The main feeling I have with T25FX is this amazing sense of control. I actually always thought T05 is a pretty high control rubber and never quite understood why people thought it was hard to deal with. But T25FX feels much more so -- at least from short and middle distance. I feel like if the timing is right, I am not going to miss. Ever. Counters, loops, counterloops, blocks, pushes, I just felt like the ball was going to do exactly what I willed it to do. (Of course not always, but I kind of was surprised when I missed, at least if I was not off balance). I will have to be careful to make sure that this feel is reflecting reality, that will become clear when I use it more. Longer distance fro the table, though, is not so comfortable, at least for me at the moment. I feel like I need to swing harder, leading to more mistimes, and it sometimes can bottom out, and from distance I haven't figured out the throw angle. Some people are not going to like that, and my guess that is not going to get much better with more playing time, it is a feature not a bug. I am ok with it, because I really need to avoid putting myself in that position since it renders my BH side useless. One other thing, when I flat hit with T25FX, I am vaporizing the ball. It is pretty fun. It's not a feeling I had with T05.
Today I tried to explore a bit more the capabilities of very spinny slow looping. It can be done because the topsheet is so grippy. The guy I was playing today is pretty high level and he was keeping me a bit off balance but when I got the opportunity to slow loop it worked and was effective, but I will need to play a bit more and adjust the stroke a little. In general you don't get those really high arc balls you get with T05 and in general maybe the total amount of topspin is a little less or it seems that way, maybe because of the trajectory and lower throw. The ball tends to land shorter on the table. I am not sure that is ideal, but it is better than missing and I am still learning what I can get away with. Today reinforced that this rubber is great for counterlooping right off the bounce, blocking and third ball attacks from close in, and was really nice returning serve. It also reinforced some tendency to bottom out in counterloop rallies if I am at distance 2 or distance 3, but it also offers increased capabilities take the initiative earlier in the point.
Bottom line: This is my FH rubber now.
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Butterfly Viscaria Black tag
2.2 mm Nexy Karis M on FH and BH
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