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Was about to thread necro a post about this rubber, when I realized it was probably long enough to make into its own post. I played with these long pips for a couple months and tested them on two different blades, the Donic Defplay Senso and briefly on the new version of the Donic Defplay Classic (single balsa ply core, with fiberglass). I definitely preferred it on the Defplay Senso, but I had also been playing with then Senso for a lot longer & its entirely possible I liked it more simply because of that.
Physically,
The rubber has very soft, grippy pips with an incredibly soft sponge. I've not played with them, but I'd expect the Vertical 20 is similar to Feint Long III (with a little more flexible pips), TSP Curl P4, or Donic Spike P2. All are slow topsheets on super soft sponges, though there's probably differences between each.
While I didn't test the horizontal version, I personally wouldn't put much stock in the difference. Assuming the same rubber mix and pip density, the same number pips are contacting the ball regardless of how the pips are oriented. Pips are cylindrical, so there's no inherent difference in what direction they contact the ball. I've only played with Friendship 755 and TSP CurlP1-R (both in 0.5mm) which are both horizontally aligned, and the biggest difference to me amongst the rubbers was in spin sensitivity & ball speed when hitting. I haven't extensively tried pips of varying orientations so I fully admit I may be wrong here, but I'd still posit that even if there is a difference, sponge thickness/hardness or topsheet grip (combination of friction and pip density) would be far more impactful.
In terms of playing characteristics,
It was WAY more spin spensitive than the 755 and noticeably more spin sensitive than P1-R. If I were to guess, the secret would be in the super soft sponge which really increases the dwell time.
Basically no passive reversal out of these pips... If I blocked a topspin ball, a no spin ball came out. That being said, blocking was easier than you'd think & this thing SOAKED up speed like nothing else. Made it super easy to drop the ball short with these pips.
Pushing against backspin could still produce decent backspin, as could chopping against no spin. They were better than the Curl P1-R in this regard, and supposedly that rubber is good at pushing backspin.
Hitting seemed slow, but I fully admit that I am pretty terrible at hitting with pips & my word should be taken with a very, very large grain of salt.
There's no deception when chopping with these pips. If you chop a topspin ball with fast racket speed its heavy spin, with low racket speed its less spin; what you do is what you get. HOWEVER, chopping is still much easier than chopping with inverted or short pips. I started out chopping on inverted and have recently tried short pips, and you definitely don't need to adjust the racket angle as much with the Vertical 20. Again, it also soaks up speed like crazy so you can perform a heavy chopping stroke and still have good control over placement.
In conclusion,
It's a slow long pip with a soft sponge that excels at chopping and pushing. Blocking is controlled but in no way dangerous, and hitting is... probably not great, but you'd need someone else to properly review its hitting capabilities.
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