Donic Original №1 Senso

Donic Ovtcharov No. 1 Senso with a new name. According to the story, Dima was involved in the design before moving to Butterfly, but I’ve never seen him play with this in tournaments. There is a 15-minute video on YouTube where Ovtcharov practices with this and talks about the blade’s features. Inner carbon (acryl). Weight varies from 82 to 90 grams. I asked for the lightest one available and got 84g. 159.5×150 mm & 5.9 mm. Frequency 1378 Hz, so this is OFF-/OFF. The handle is thinner than usual, so don’t buy this if you have big hands. Never tried DHS Hurricane Long 5, so I can’t tell if this is a clone or if the top ply really is limba instead of ayous. I’m an intermediate player, so I put 47.5 degree Andro Hexer Powergrip 2.1 mm on both sides. The combination feels perfect for my level. The blade is intended for semi-pros/pros, and I believe the flexibility suits them even better with hard rubbers. Donic ranks this as stiff, but it is not. It is more flexible than, for example, Koki Niwa Wood. The control is incredible, and the sweet spot is huge. Not a particularly fast blade, but the spin properties and especially good control compensate for that lack. I can’t imagine a better inner carbon blade for an intermediate player, though Tibhar Shang Kun Hybrid AC is pretty close. This hollow “senso” handle is just so great. It makes the racket light enough to use heavier rubbers, but the best part is that it is so head-heavy that when I switch from backhand to forehand, the racket is always at just the right angle for a counterattack.

This product is amazing.

It is not a fast blade when playing at low speeds. For serve, receive, and touch play it feels identical to any wooden 5-ply racket with the soft feeling that limba gives.

However, when playing at medium to long distance an extra gear kicks in that gives you some support for the speed.

It has a comfortable handle (although I have small to medium hands for a man) and realized that its FH to BH transition is pretty easy to do since it has great balance and a reduced weight with the senso handle. However, if you have bigger hands I would not recommend this handle unless you are used to the thinner handles that come in blades nowadays. As a comparison, I had an EU Primorac before and that feels like a tennis handle to me now (a bit clumsy). Also, the senso handle makes the blade feel more agile and literally feels hollow in your hand, which is a feeling I have liked.

I sincerely think this blade is a HL5 produced by DHS with a different handle design and given to Donic for sale. The handle dimensions, blade size, and blade composition are identical to HL5. Also, the most telling thing is the lens shape. It is the only blade in Donic’s catalog with a shorter, rounder lens like the DHS ones instead of the longer, thinner ones that are normal with Donic. The quality of the blade is quite good, no rough edges, but some sanding of the wings is required since they are quite sharp.

Overall, very pleased with the blade. The flexibility makes it great to combine with Chinese rubbers and makes open-ups very easy. If you like to play a spin and forehand oriented game, you can’t go wrong with this blade. The soft limba and the inner carbon make it great.

Very good touch and feel to this blade. Different kinds of weight distribution due to the hollow handle. Easy to play with and has plenty of speed when required.