Yonex R-1

 
My first tennis racquets were Yonex, which were very popular with club players in the late seventies and early eighties. My first was the Carbonex 8, which in the Seventies must have been one of the very early graphite racquets, followed by the R-3, an aluminium racquet which was the successor to the very popular  OPS series of alloy racquets, the R3 differing from the OPS series by its rectangular shape which became a Yonex signature theme.

Now this is where it got confusing, because the R-1, R-2 and R-3 model names existed as both an aluminium series and a graphite series, with only the rectangular shape in common.

The R-1 is a solid even-balanced racquet that plays very nicely, being stiffer and therefore a bit more powerful than similar racquets of the era like the PK Silver Ace. Id' consider it to be the forerunner of my RDX500, with a similar boxy frame that usually carries a nice blend of power and control. 

OK, I've got number 1;  now for the other twenty-odd R-series Yonex graphites!