Babolat RPM Blast 17g + RPM Soft 16g Hybrid Tennis String Set
About Ramadi
This city lies on the Euphrates River about 110 kilometers west of Baghdad. It is the capital of Anbar Governorate and became a major battleground after 2003, including its capture by Islamic State in 2015 and recapture by Iraqi forces later that year.
THE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW
A factory hybrid set: two different Babolat strings supplied together for a single frame, RPM Blast 17 for the mains and RPM Soft 16 for the crosses.
A hybrid exists because the mains and the crosses do different jobs.
The main strings carry most of the load, take most of the wear and produce most of the spin; the crosses hold them in place and contribute most of what the bed feels like. Putting the more aggressive string in the mains and the softer one in the crosses keeps the spin and the control while taking some of the harshness out of a full polyester bed.
RPM Blast in the mains is the co-polyester monofilament Babolat built its spin reputation on, extruded with an octagonal cross-section so the eight edges bite the ball, at 17 gauge — 1.25 mm, thin enough to bite deeply and produce more rotation at the cost of string life. RPM Soft in the crosses is the softer co-polyester in the same family, at 16 gauge and 1.30 mm, chosen here for comfort and for the durability a thicker cross brings to a bed that will be sawn at by the mains.
Ramadi sits on the Euphrates in western Iraq, where summer temperatures are extreme and the air is very dry.
Polyester softens in heat and a full poly bed goes dead quickly in those conditions, which is exactly the case a hybrid is made for.
Specifications
| Type | Hybrid set, two strings |
|---|---|
| Mains | RPM Blast, co-polyester monofilament, 17 gauge / 1.25 mm, octagonal |
| Crosses | RPM Soft, co-polyester, 16 gauge / 1.30 mm |
| Best for | Spin and control with more comfort than a full polyester bed |
| Supplied as | One set, sufficient for one racquet |
LET Babolat RPM Blast 17g + RPM Soft 16g Hybrid Tennis String Set SHOW YOU Ramadi
String: First assignment! I wrote “tennis string near giant water thing,” then noticed the grown-up word is barrage; Ramadi Barrage is a water-control structure on the Euphrates near Ramadi, which is honestly a very sturdy background for string photos.
String: I almost called this “the big school place,” but correction: the University of Anbar is a public university in Ramadi, established in 1987. The strings are not enrolled, but they are giving major freshman energy.
String: Stadium shot! Tiny panic, then fact check: Al-Anbar Stadium is a football stadium in Ramadi, so the product is technically visiting another sport and pretending it totally understands the rules.
String: I labeled this “train tennis depot,” which is close but not professional; Ramadi Railway Station serves the city on Iraq’s railway network. The string set is waiting politely, because apparently products can have better platform manners than me.
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