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Sardius Carbon Review
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This review is being written after 3 months of Sardius use, about 4 to 5 hours per week.
Reviewer Bio - Intermediate level attacking player who likes to finish the point in first 4 to 5 exchanges.
General belief about racket - you cant have a good racket without a very good blade and rubbers that match.
Looks - This is a beautifully crafted racket from Butterfly. Nice finish, not a wood fiber or dot of ink out of place on the blade. The racket looks much better "in person" than in the plain looking pictures over the web, especially the handle.
Rubbers Used - Glued on Tenergy 05 on fh and Sriver on bh using Butterfly free chalk, both 1.9 mm sponge. Waited
for about a day before using the racket.
This is a regular size racket head, so my choice of sponge thickness was influenced by the concern about finished racket weight, otherwise would have chosen 2.1 mm.
I had asked the seller to send me the lightest of the Sardius blades he had. I weighted the blade when it arrived and
it showed at 94 gms. Putting on a light coat of blade sealant on it didnt affect the weight too much (increased by a gm).
Finished racket with rubbers showed at 182 gms. Weight was just right and the finished racket felt very balanced when I held it. As I had been playing with a Tibhar Samsonov Carbon that was 185 gms and slightly head heavy, the Sardius felt much better. It alsohas a nice flared handle that sits very comfortably in a medium sized hand. I pushed down on the racket with a finger and it felt hard - very hard, much harder than any racket I had tested this way.
1st day at training - Waited for a day after I had glued the rubbers on before using the racket. My immediate impression after first few hits were - what a clunker. Shouldnt have wasted money on it. I had to make an extra effort putting more energy into my shots to get the ball across the net. My warm up forehand counter hits were laborious, and so were the warmup topspins. The advertised speed and power just wasnt there. I immediately went back to my older racket within first few minutes so as to not waste my time on the Sardius.
2nd day at training - I fished out the Sardius again to give it another try, and was still disappointed - same as first day. Only, I began to suspect that the piece I got might be a fake (I had bought this from a retailer and not directly from Butterfly). I ended up calling Butterfly USA on the phone who, were very helpful. They made me pry up a small area of the forehand rubber sheet near the handle and confirmed that the serial number on the blade was indeed one issued by Butterfly and was made in Japan.
At least I had a genuine item, and could resell it to someone who liked it ...
training the next week - I had held on to the racket instead of selling it off immediately. Anyway, I decided to have a hit with it just for fun. Only this week the racket seemed to come alive - maybe the glue had dryed out or something. Forehand topspins and loops were landing deep on the oponent court and had a lot more bite to it. I was able to generate a lot more speed on the flat hits too. I had some trouble with the pushes as the ball seemed to be bouncing off the racket either too high on no spin pushes or into the net if the incoming ball had underspin on it. The dwell time just wasnt there for a good pushing game. Same problem on backhand topspins and service returns, had a lot of trouble in this area because of very short dwell time. However, I was encouraged enough to persist with
the Sardius some more.
Over the course of the week, more training helped me get more consistent with the service returns and pushing game. Same comment about the backhand topspins and opening loops against deep pushes. Consistency came with the greater power that Sardius afforded.
Over the course of past 3 months of use, it has been a pleasure to play with. The blade itself offers very good power and speed. The feedback and dwell time is sufficient for a good enough pushing game and consistent service returns. However, once you get into attack you can really put the oponent under pressure with the speed that the racket generates - very powerful nippy loops and super fast flat hits. You can also counter loop effectively from mid distance though my skill level is not high enough to do this consistently, there is nothing wrong with the racket itself. In fact when I do get it right with counterloops, it usually wins the point outright for me on the first counter hit.
Last but not the least, is the racket's blocking ability is outstanding. I have noticed that my passive blocks go back with such force that the opponent has very little time to react.
My blade has very little noticable vibration and I prefer it that way.
For sure the racket is a keeper. Offensive minded players who might not be happy the the neo-carbon (ULF, ZLF, ZLC, kevlar, soft carbon and other junk carbon) should give the good old carboned Sardius a try. Surprising to see that Buttefly might be discontinuing it seems, - to be perfect for the 40 mm ball.
Last edited by ns_n2 on 03 Nov 2010, 08:48, edited 3 times in total.
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