Victas VS > 402 Double Extra

I was very curious when I saw the designation subtitle of this rubber, “for the flexible allrounder.” This description makes sense when considering its playing characteristics. Victas has managed to produce something rather unique among many ESN-produced rubbers.

The base recipe features a hefty, but only medium-firm rubber topsheet combined with a hard 50-degree sponge. Additionally, there is a twist: the horizontal pimple geometry of the topsheet enhances the coupling with the sponge, creating a more direct feel—something I haven’t encountered in ESN-manufactured rubbers so far. This combination results in a hard enough feeling during powerful strokes, yet also provides good deformation ability and longer ball contact time on less powerful shots. It acts as a dampening buffer zone, making it easy to execute good-quality underspin/sidespin shots and precise power adjustments in short games, blocking, and drop shots.

This dampening effect is most noticeable when the rubber is new, but it remains evident even as it ages. The sponge underneath is lively enough, which means that while this rubber is not designed to win points through speed, it is still effective in mid-distance play. It can be used effectively on both sides for spin-dominant strategies; larger than usual swings are rewarded with greater pressure potential.

The throw angle appears to be medium to medium-high, ensuring safe arcs during play. However, hitting counter-spin on low backspin balls feels a bit more challenging due to the lacking initial bounce and longer contact time. This characteristic does, however, improve blocking security, allowing for easier rallying in most situations.

It is worth mentioning that while Victas creates silver wrappings for their (at least slightly) tacky rubbers, this particular rubber is not tacky at all. For those who find ESN rubbers too bouncy, this rubber is a great candidate to try. It plays reliably enough to support the player truly as an allrounder, making it my favorite choice for this purpose, even at higher levels.

The table tennis rubber performs adequately.

Overall, it meets my expectations and provides a reasonable level of play.

This rubber is fast and has a high throw, making it excellent for smashing and lifting backspin. However, due to its high throw, the rubber performs decently when it comes to blocking and chopping.

The spin generated is high, but slightly less than that of Tenergy. Overall, this rubber is more suited for offensive strokes rather than defensive ones. I personally prefer the VS 401.

This rubber features a very grippy surface, which allows for excellent spin and loop shots. However, I have noticed that brush loops can sometimes slip off, producing a squeaky noise. To achieve optimal spin, it is important to hit the ball hard so that it sinks into the sponge, resulting in amazing spin and good speed. The rubber provides a medium to high arc, and shots tend to land deep, with the ball rarely going out, as it is not extremely fast.

Blocking is effective with this rubber; however, for the best blocking performance, I would recommend Rakza 7 Soft or Gold Arc-8. In terms of spin, it is slightly less than Baracuda, but one advantage is that the sponge does not bottom out even on hard hits. The catapult effect is quite impressive—amazing, in fact.

It is worth noting that if your footwork is not on point, the ball can slip off the rubber. If you can’t get into position to hit the ball hard, this rubber may not perform well. Therefore, it can be challenging to get the ball on the table unless you are quick and have good footwork, allowing you to swing hard and activate the sponge. This contrasts with other soft rubbers that can handle shots even at awkward angles.

This rubber is quite spinny, though not as much as the 401, which I estimate to be around 10% less in terms of spin. However, it is faster than the 401 and better suited for an all-round game.

Attacking is easy with this rubber; I use the 1.8 thickness and find that it provides ample speed for an offensive game while still offering good control for blocking. Additionally, it is lighter than the 401, which is a plus.

The main issue I’ve encountered with this rubber is its high throw angle. Contrary to the “medium” ratings I have seen, my training sessions reveal that I struggle to chop with a low, straight ball like I can with the 401. More often than not, after generating good spin, if I attempt to chop, the ball tends to go up. This can be problematic if you want to chop from a distance away from the table.

Perhaps this rubber excels more for blocking near the table or as a backhand option.

After trying many different forehand rubbers to fit my defensive tactics, I landed on the 402 Double Extra. This rubber provides defenders with opportunities for surprise attacking and allows for easy control of speed when chopping.

No matter how your opponent loops, you can always make strong backspin chops while maintaining control with this rubber. However, if you are a defender who does not chop with the forehand, I would recommend considering a regular, more offensive rubber for attacking.

Before I tried the Victas 402 DE 2.0, I played with the Victas VS 401 and Tenergy 05 for my forehand. I’m a forehand-oriented player with a very strong, fast, and spinny forehand topspin, utilizing a Chinese technique with a long arm. My German TTR score is between 1700 and 1750.

Topsheet and Sponge: The topsheet of the VS 402 DE is the same as that of the VS 401: completely non-tacky but very grippy. It is highly elastic and has short pips. While the Tenergy 05 has longer pips (0.9 to 0.8 mm), the topsheet of the VS 402 DE is thicker than that of the Tenergy 05 (also 0.9 to 0.8 mm). The sponge hardness is 50° shore, which is slightly harder than the Tenergy 05 sponge but noticeably softer than the VS 401.

Weight: The weight of the VS 402 DE is heavy, but not as excessively heavy as the 401. The weight with packaging is between 107 and 112 grams for the 2.0 mm thickness. I chose one that weighs 107 grams. Without the packaging, the weight is 73.3 grams, and on my Nittaku KVU blade (166x158 mm), it weighs 55.5 grams (Tenergy 05 weighs 51 grams, and VS 401 weighs 59 grams).

Spin: The spin capability of the VS 402 DE is impressive and is on par with the VS 401, perhaps even offering a bit more than the Tenergy 05.

Speed: Regarding speed, the standard topspin with the VS 402 DE is a bit faster compared to the 401 due to the softer sponge, which provides more speed glue effect. However, in comparison to the Tenergy 05, the 402 DE is slightly slower. On very fast topspins using the long-arm technique, the 402 DE exhibits a slightly slower response than the VS 401 because of the softer sponge. I believe the VS 401 and Tenergy 05 are on the same level in this regard, with Tenergy 05 being faster when the impact level is between 50% and 95% on topspin shots.

Control: One of the most significant advantages of the VS 402 DE compared to the Tenergy 05 is control. The Tenergy 05 can be tricky to use; you must position yourself very well to hit the ball, and your footwork has to be excellent. If not, the Tenergy is not very forgiving when your technique is imperfect. The window for the blade angle is much smaller with Tenergy 05 compared to the VS 402 DE. If the blade angle or racket angle during topspin shots is not correct, the ball will either go out or into the net with Tenergy 05. The margin for error regarding the correct blade angle during topspin is significantly larger with the VS 402 DE, resulting in a much smaller error ratio.