Wilson Pro Staff 85 and variants

Since the early 80s, the Wilson Pro Staff 85 (sometimes called the Wilson Pro Staff 6.0 Original) has been winning tournaments in one form or another. Notable wielders of this racket included Chris Evert, Jim Courier (before he went to the Wilson PS 6.6 Stars and Stripes model), Stefan Edberg (after a brief dalliance with the Wilson PS 6.1 95), and of course Pete Sampras, who pretty much used this same racket albeit the much touted St. Vincent model his entire career. Much less known is the fact that the Fed Express aka Roger Federer used this racket at the start of his career beating Sampras in the process in that infamous round of 16 match at Wimbledon in 2001. Since then, Federer has gone on singlehandedly to champion the pro series 90 sq in variant of the original Wilson Pro Staff 85.

I have been using the PS 85 (how I like to  call this stick) for almost 19 years. Efforts to replace it have failed and believe me I have tried. Over the years I have tried nearly all the variants of "Federer's rackets" bar the first few models - the Ncode Six-One Tour, KSix-One Tour, the BLX Six.One Tour and the BLX Prostaff Ninety. I also got the "one off" KProStaff 88, which is honestly a really ridiculous racket - extremely powerful and extremely unwieldy at the same time. Which one did I like? Well I go back to the PS 85 nearly everytime but if I had a choice I think the newest incarnation - the BLX Prostaff Ninety comes the closest. Without lead tape it feels like a slightly head heavy version of of the PS 85 with more power but less controllable and not so nimble at the net. 

Will I be getting another PS 85 variant? I seriously don't think so. There are only so many rackets a man can have! Better to spend the time learning to master these great rackets and getting to know each of their strengths and weaknesses..