Trying to match a fake Wilson Pro Staff R97 to Roger Federer’s specs

About the video…

A brief disclaimer. In no way would I condone buying (or selling) a fake Wilson racket, or any other make. This was gifted to me and is quite possibly not even going to hit a tennis ball. What I did find it useful for though was that it was an excellent opportunity to see if I could get the racket to the spec of the version Roger Federer used, but using mainly budget materials - this was an experiment after all and I certainly didn’t want to throw Too much money at it!

The racket, as you will see on the video, was WAY OUT of scope when I received it. About the only thing which was correct was the grip size (being thin) at just under 4 3/8.

Spec of racket as it came:

Weight - 301 grams total (frame approx 250)
Balance - 8 pts Head heavy
Strings - awful, spongy and all over the place!

Target weight - 364 grams total
Target balance - 9 pts head light
Strings - mains 26KG / crosses (24.5KG)
Target Swing weight - 357.5

Materials used

Cheap Natural Gut for mains (experiment)
Alu Power Rough for crosses
Kimony Power Pads
String savers (budget brand)
Silicon, to add significant weight in handle
Lead balancing tape, to fine tune weight
Blu Tac to test weight distribution

Equipment used

Wilson Baiardo L Stringing Machine
Dunlop Swing Weight Machine
Dunlop Balance Board