Donic Original №1 Senso

The Donic Ovtcharov No. 1 Senso, now with a new name, supposedly had Dima Ovtcharov involved in its design before he moved to Butterfly. However, I’ve never seen him use this blade in tournaments. There is a 15-minute YouTube video of Ovtcharov practicing with it and discussing its features.

This blade features an inner carbon (acryl) construction and weighs between 82 to 90 grams. I requested the lightest one available and received an 84g blade. It measures 159.5 x 150 mm and is 5.9 mm thick, with a frequency of 1378 Hz, classifying it as Off-/Off. The handle is thinner than usual, making it unsuitable for those with large hands.

Having never tried the DHS Hurricane Long 5, I cannot confirm whether this is a clone or if the top ply is indeed limba instead of ayous. As an intermediate player, I paired the blade with 47.5-degree Andro Hexer Powergrip 2.1 mm rubbers on both sides. This combination feels perfect for my skill level. While the blade is intended for semi-pros and pros, I believe its flexibility would better suit them with harder rubbers.

Donic classifies this blade as stiff, but it is not. It is more flexible than blades like the Koki Niwa Wood. The control is incredible, and the sweet spot is huge. While not particularly fast, the spin properties and excellent control compensate for the lack of speed. I can’t imagine a better inner carbon blade for an intermediate player, although the Tibhar Shang Kun Hybrid AC comes close. The hollow “senso” handle is excellent, making the racket light enough to use heavier rubbers. Best of all, its head-heavy balance ensures the racket is always at the right angle for a counterattack when switching from backhand to forehand.

Very good touch and feel with this blade.

The weight distribution is unique due to the hollow handle.

It’s easy to play with and has plenty of speed when needed.

A little soft, with plenty of feeling in the shot, but still fast enough to finish a point. Good for use with long pips.

Excellent blade! It offers good control and speed, and the weight is also ideal.

Most top-level players are currently using a wood-wood-carbon-core-carbon-wood-wood setup, which this blade embodies. Dima used this setup until recently switching to a Butterfly blade specially made for him and unavailable to the public. I would guess that his custom blade has a similar construction to this one, which is fantastic.

This blade is especially appealing because of its Senso handle. For me, the Senso handle is all about lightness. While it does provide great feedback, many other handles do so as well.

This blade excels at counter-attacking from close and mid-distance on both the forehand and backhand sides. Basically, this blade is great at playing the same style as Dima plays, which is counter from both sides from close and mid-distance. You feel lots of control with this blade, especially when swinging all-out. However, be prepared to swing with all you’ve got on every possible shot, as that’s what this blade was made for.

For that reason, I’d say that this blade is meant for highly competitive players who are able to swing with 100% power every chance they get. When you’re able to give that effort, you get great dwell and control for an attacking blade. Because of that, you can generate a ton of spin on the ball without losing power. Just like Dima, you can loop/counter-loop with heavy spin from mid-distance on the forehand, while still being able to counter-loop or hit pretty flat with power from close to the table on the backhand.

Serve and receive performance are as great as your skill level allows, plus are highly dependent on which rubbers you pair with this blade. The flared (FL) handle is quite thin, which I absolutely love because I do not have huge hands, and this allows me to generate extra spin (if you understand the FL handle Chinese technique, you’ll understand what I mean).

Very good blade. It improved my son’s game.

Improved my game tremendously.

I think this blade is the version that made the DHS Hurricane Long 5 feel more natural. The grip is quite thin.

However, the blade’s performance is still good, and the average weight isn’t heavy.

Senso technology is applied to the handle, providing a very immediate sense of ball feedback. Note that attention should be paid to the durability of the hole at the bottom of the grip.

Very good blade!

I think the grip is better suited for smaller hands.

Balance, feeling, and weight – all are the best combination.

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 provides.

However, when playing at medium to long distances, an extra gear kicks in, providing support for speed.

It has a comfortable handle (although I have small to medium-sized hands for a man). I realized that its forehand to backhand transition is pretty easy to execute 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, with no rough edges, but some sanding of the wings is required since they are quite sharp.

Overall, I’m 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.

This is the second time I’ve bought this blade, and I’m very happy with it.

The handle is too thin.

Excellent.