Yonex Percept 100L Tennis Racquet

Kavala, Greece  ·  Tennis Racquets > Adult Racquets > Yonex

Yonex Percept 100L Tennis Racquet

280 g, 100 in², an 18×19 bed at 40 to 55 lb — the quick one, and quickness costs no precision at all. Two colours only, midnight navy and olive green; our walk through Kavala starts under the aqueduct, which you may look at and may not touch.

↓   Tour Kavala, Greece

Four stops before the checkout

Kavala, Greece
01
Fort Lauderdale intermediate cardio tennis classes — Yonex Percept 100L leaning against the arches of the sixteenth-century Kamares aqueduct in Kavala
Stop one

the Kamares aqueduct of the sixteenth century, arches stacked across the town

Yonex Percept 100L: Now, if you will direct your attention to the Kamares aqueduct, completed under Suleiman the Magnificent in the sixteenth century to carry water from Mount Symbolon into the city — a marvel of Ottoman hydraulic engineering, yes, quite. But honestly? I mostly just stand here and count the arches. Fifty. There are fifty arches. I've counted them eleven times and I will count them again.

02
Fort Lauderdale intermediate cardio tennis classes — Yonex Percept 100L resting on a cobblestone lane in the Panagia quarter of Kavala
Stop two

the Panagia quarter, cobbled lanes climbing the peninsula

Yonex Percept 100L: The Panagia quarter occupies the entirety of the walled peninsula — the oldest continuously inhabited part of Kavala — where the poet Kostas Varnalis was born in 1884, a fact I will mention calmly and move on from. I am moving on. I have moved on. Anyway, the cobblestones are Byzantine and I have memorized every uneven one of them, which is not strange at all.

03
Fort Lauderdale intermediate cardio tennis classes — Yonex Percept 100L placed before the lead domes of the Imaret Ottoman almshouse in Kavala
Stop three

the Imaret, rows of small lead domes over an Ottoman almshouse

Yonex Percept 100L: The Imaret was built in 1817 by Mehmet Ali — himself born in Kavala — as a charitable complex of mosque, school, and almshouse, and its eighteen lead domes make it one of the largest Islamic monuments surviving in Europe. Eighteen. Eighteen domes. I have a photograph of each one individually on my phone and I will show you all of them whether or not you ask, because some things in this world simply deserve to be documented properly.

04
Fort Lauderdale intermediate cardio tennis classes — Yonex Percept 100L at the castle of Kavala atop the headland with the Aegean Sea visible on three sides
Stop four

the castle at the top of the headland, the sea on three sides

Yonex Percept 100L: The castle crowning this headland was substantially rebuilt by the Byzantines and then again under Ottoman rule, commanding views of the Aegean on three sides — a militarily superb position, as I note on every single tour in exactly those words. But between us, I come up here on my lunch break. Alone. Just to watch the sea. The script doesn't mention that part.

The Kavala, Greece track

Yonex Percept 100L Tennis Racquet

Written for this world alone.

Good afternoon, and welcome. If you will gather round the frame, I will take you through it in order, as I do.

The Percept 100L is the light member of the Percept family.

Two hundred and eighty grams unstrung, which is 9.9 ounces; a hundred square inch head; balance at 335 millimetres, further forward than its heavier siblings so that the frame retains presence at the ball despite the reduced mass; a dense 18 by 19 string pattern, recommended at 40 to 55 pounds; grip sizes G0 through G3; and the finish is midnight navy or olive green.

Construction is high-modulus graphite with 2G-Namd Flex Force, the Servo Filter and the Flexcom system, in Yonex's squared Isometric head shape.

And here — if you will permit me a moment off the script — is the exhibit I actually love. That dense 18 by 19 pattern on a light frame is an unusual and rather clever combination.

Light frames normally chase power, and normally arrive with an open pattern to help them; this one goes the other way, keeping the tight, predictable, controlled string bed of a control racquet and simply making it easier to move. So it is for the player who wants precision and cannot or will not carry 320 grams to get it.

Junior players stepping up, players with a shoulder history, doubles players who live at the net and need the racquet there before the ball is. I could talk about it all day and my colleagues will confirm that I have.

Wonderful piece of design thinking.

Kavala, similarly, rewards the person who looks past the obvious. Everyone photographs the aqueduct — sixteenth century, arches stacked right across the town, and quite right too.

But the building I bring people back to is the Imaret: rows and rows of small lead domes over what was an Ottoman charitable complex, an almshouse and school endowed by Mehmet Ali, who was born in this town and went on to rule Egypt. A poor boy from this harbour built that, for the poor of this harbour, from the other end of a career nobody could have predicted.

Off-script, briefly: a boy from this harbour ended up ruling Egypt, and what he sent home was a school.

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