What makes the HEAD Prestige so special, and where does it fit in today’s game?

I am joined by Max Defregger, HEAD’s Global Business Unit Manager for Tennis Rackets, Bags and Accessories, to celebrate 25 years of the iPrestige and explore the two rackets marking the occasion: the iPrestige MP 2.0 and the Prestige Limited.

Max takes us behind the scenes of bringing a classic back, explaining what HEAD wanted to preserve from the original and how the more forgiving Prestige Limited offers a modern interpretation of that familiar feel.

We discuss:

• The iPrestige’s memorable 2001 season, including Goran Ivanišević’s Wimbledon triumph.
• The differences between the two new rackets and who each is designed for.
• Racket development, molds and professional player customisation.
• Why Prestige still has a place in an era of power and topspin.
• A hint of what HEAD has planned for the Prestige’s 40th anniversary in 2027.

Whether you grew up playing with a Prestige or are curious about its loyal following, this episode explores the appeal of one of tennis’s most recognisable racket lines.

Welcome to the Functional Tennis Podcast.

I'm your host, Fabio Molle and I bring you insights and lessons from players, coaches, parents and experts who are ingrained in the world of high level tennis.

This week I'm joined by Max De Fraga from Head, who is their global senior business manager and was the project manager for this new I Prestige that we're celebrating today.

It's 25 years of the I Prestige and we're going to be discussing two new rackets marking this occasion.

The I Prestige MP 2.0 and the Prestige Limited.

We chat about what makes the Prestige so special, the differences between these two versions and who they're suited to.

Max also gives a little hint of what's coming next.

With a Racket of the Year coming up in a few weeks.

I thought this would be a good episode to learn a bit about wonder rackets.

Hope you enjoyed this episode.

Here's Max.

Hi Max.

Welcome to the Functional Tennis Podcast.

How are you?

Hello.

Thanks for having me.

All good.

How are you?

Good, good.

Are you in Kennelbach?

I am in Kennelbach, exactly.

Just back from the US Open.

And now back to beautiful Kennelbach.

Nice.

I have a direct line into the Head main office.

This is great.

Today we're going to be talking about the new I Prestige that has just launchers launching.

But before we do that, maybe tell me a little bit about you.

I know nothing about you, so fire away.

Sure.

So yeah, I'm Max.

I'm the global business unit manager for tennis rackets, bags and accessories.

What that means basically is that I oversee the team of all the respective product managers.

So for each of those categories we have specific product managers.

And yeah, I'm basically responsible for kind of the portfolio strategy, also for all the financials behind it, the budgets and that kind of stuff, but very much involved in the product development process as well for all those kind of products.

And yeah, my background is also engineering.

So I actually initially started in the R and D department a couple of years ago and then I had a pretty close link to consumer perception research and that's why I then moved into the marketing department.

And the last four years I've actually been the product manager for tennis rackets.

So that was my previous role.

And when we came up with this whole high prestige story with the new ones, I was actually the product manager behind Dead Still.

Oh, well, so just quickly, Product manager, do you come up with the idea or is it and then you own the idea?

Is that what happens?

Yeah, pretty much.

I mean we have a team of nerds here in Kendelbach.

So we have lots of people who are incredibly passionate and knowledgeable about tennis rackets.

So it's not only necessarily the product managers coming up with the ideas, but ultimately product managers would be the ones who then, yeah, kind of bring it to life and manage the whole project and are kind of the link between R D design, pro players, communications, and that kind of stuff.

So do you like UK designers?

This racket, the pro, the R and D team, what new tech can we add or can we complement what we have already?

Okay, get them made pro players.

What do you think it is?

Give me feedback.

Let's refine.

And then marketing, build a plan around this.

Is that.

And you're just in control of all those elements?

Correct.

That's pretty much the process with this one.

I mean, this is a special project, so I wouldn't necessarily relate it to our usual processes, but here really the idea was to celebrate some past successes, do some storytelling around past successes, and at the same time, at some level of innovation, and also bring a completely new Prestige with new playability, which is pretty much kind of also celebrating the past and being a modern interpretation of what we had back in the days.

And when was day one, this concept was born.

Like, maybe tell our audience how long this process took from day one to today.

So that's usually when we start thinking, okay, so let's talk about 26.

What can we do there?

What are our big general launches according to our life cycle.

But then at the same time, we always look at what kind of additional opportunities are out there.

And so, yeah, we actually had this idea of looking into the past.

And then we sometimes look at what kind of anniversaries we can celebrate.

And in this case, we figured out that there is quite a nice 25th anniversary happening.

And before we talk about the I Prestige, what year was the first Prestige racket launched and what was its model name?

Well, actually, there's sometimes some debates about it, I think.

Some.

I mean, the prestige is so funny because there are some people out there who more knowledgeable and compared to us internally.

When the first one launched.

Well, okay, so something may be coming out.

What.

What color was that one?

Was it just called the Prestige, the first one?

Well, I would have to look up the exact product name, but I only know the design.

And it was like this black.

It was a pretty black Prestige and it had like those lines on it.

The blue, the champagne and the red line, which was I think pretty iconic back then.

Oh, wow.

Okay.

Yeah, that's.

That's the one.

I remember I used to.

When I was a kid, I used to play tennis and I. I still really can't.

I haven't played with these prestigious yet that were sent to me and I could never play with them.

The head size a bit small.

Yeah.

And I had some friends who played with them.

They had one hand, the backhands.

They were great foliars.

That was not me.

So I think when somebody says they use a Prestige, you can sort of imagine their game style already.

Especially because I know back then they either use Prestige or some players used to use the Fisher.

One of the Fisher rackets.

I can't remember the of it, but there were sort of similar games and similar rackets.

And Michael.

Yeah, with Michael stick.

But.

And what was that?

I was showing you this earlier, but this is.

This was the Iradical, which I thought was.

Was.

Is my best favorite ever.

Radical.

I found this one in the garage.

I have two of them.

Nice.

That was missing when I last broke a string, but I think I used them for numerous years.

I still remember what string is in here, but it was just unbelievable racket.

And those who had that prestige as well, they used to love that one as well.

Is that prestige, does it stand out among other prestigious.

For any particular reason?

Yeah, I think there is two main things why it stands out.

And I have it here with me.

So that's the one we are bringing to market again, like it's basically the almost the same one, like back in the days, as close as possible.

Because one interesting thing like this one was initially still produced in our Austrian factory.

Actually was more or less at the time when we moved our factories.

And I think it really stands out for two different reasons.

The one reason was obviously the kind of visibility it had back in the days.

And this was the reason why we wanted to celebrate it.

So Arnaux Zemo lost with it the Australian Open final, but then we won French Open.

Guga Kuarten won the French Open with it, and then Ivanovich had this insane run in Wimbledon as a wildcard and also won with it.

So this is, I think, something special.

Lots of incredible memories and crazy stories with this racket on the forefront.

But I think also the technology was quite an iconic one with the intellifibers kind of actively reacting to the ball impact and then adapting the racket's structure and the adapting to the game of the player.

So I think this was one of our coolest tech stories we've ever had.

And yeah, for those two reasons we thought it's worthwhile bringing its back.

And yeah, seeing how the Prestige enthusiasts out there react to it.

Did Goran won Wimbledon that year?

Did he.

Was his.

Did he use this colorway or was he have the wine one?

Was it this way?

Yeah, okay.

It was exactly this record.

I mean, I, I had to figure find lots of photos because we didn't like our internal photo structure and all the servers, I couldn't find anything anymore.

So you have to mostly rely on Google.

But yeah, he was indeed using this design for his Wimbledon win.

In my head I've imprinted that the Gorn and the wine racket, I don't know why that's the one I have imprinted in my head.

The funny thing, right, like you wouldn't necessarily relate silver to the Prestige, but in this case I think it was, yeah, quite an iconic one.

So today we are launching.

Well, head is launching two rackets.

Exactly.

And then you're launching a modern interpretation of it that is obviously.

And you're going to explain more this.

It's more friendly, easier to use, more inviting.

So yeah, maybe tell us first of all, one's called The I prestige MP 2.0 and the other one's called the Prestige Limited.

Correct.

So which is which?

So The I Prestige MP 2.0 is basically the, the one from back in the days, which also comes with the iconic 57 mold.

Like it's not the PT57, that's like the Pro Player mode, but it's the TGK57.

So this is a really special old school mold.

Maybe one of the, if not the one prestige mode, I would say it comes with 320 grams.

So it's really like celebrating that past record from the racket back in the days.

As close as possible to that.

I guess the only difference that really is There is the 2.0 next to the I Prestige.

Maybe just quickly you mentioned mold there.

How did my notes talk about it later on.

But what this 57 mold, that's the original mold that was used in Austria to make this racket.

And when you went to make that racket, was it.

Did you actually use the same mold?

Did you still have them in your.

In.

No, not, not.

Well, we, we, we had this mulch also.

Then when we back in the days transferred everything to the new factory, it was not exactly the molds we had in the 90s from that mold.

So we obviously used some new molds so that we can offer the usual quality that we want to offer with that records.

But yeah, in terms of the shape and the construction of the record, it's exactly the same.

And also the, the layup is basically identical.

Lucky you didn't use the layup files.

And you'd be like, where did we put that bit of carbon or this or that.

Yeah.

And so you talk about these other molds.

I'm lucky to have some prestigious here that were pro.

They must have been pro players and had this TGK on them or I never knew the difference from them, to be honest.

So would it pro player mold would be a lot of a.

A lighter racket, would it that allowed them to customize it a little bit more?

Yeah, pretty much.

You can say that.

I guess like we always get the raw frames for the pro players which are.

Which not include anything.

It's like a stripped down racket and then just allows us to customize it.

But it's still, I mean, super similar to, to what we actually sell them.

Because also the rackets that I saw when obviously when you put the grips in it, the chromats and everything.

So the layup is not too different in the end.

But the difference is that yeah, we received the pro player frames completely kind of naked and then we can have kind of the flexibility to customize them to the needs of our players.

Nice.

Nice.

Max, maybe tell us a bit of specs of the 2.0.

Is it 95 square inch head?

95 Exactly.

Yeah, it's 95 square inch head.

What's that in centimeters squared?

It's 600, 615.

It is.

Well, 650.

It's pretty small.

I think that's what people love about the Prestige as well, the smaller height, sizes.

I think this is kind of the best kind of head size which fits to the general style of what the Prestige is all about.

Yeah.

It's famous for its whistle and noise.

Absolutely.

I'm currently injured right now.

I haven't played tennis in four and a half, nearly five months.

And the one thing I wanted to hit with this yesterday morning, I was taking photos, the rackets.

I tell Max, I don't have them this morning because I put my wife's car.

She went to work this morning, I forgot to take them out.

So I have no rackets.

But Max has them here on screen.

But I wanted to hear the whistle knives.

So remember it.

It's such a beautiful noise the racket makes.

It is super cool.

I mean, it's something also we kind of own as a brand, I think, because it's ultimately those cap designs which generate this whistling sound.

Like when you look here at the frame, for example, it's really that one groove up there where you put the strings inside, inside the cap.

And this kind of groove generates that whistling sound.

And it's something that we also introduced in the new gravities.

So it's something which is kind of funny because there is even a story from back in the days when we initially developed the Prestige and when we did those first learnings, then we identified that whistling sound.

And the product managers, back in the days, they actually said, oh, no, this racket is whistling broken.

Yeah, exactly.

So it was initially identified as an error.

And then the product manager told rd, well, fix this whistling sound.

This is nothing we can introduce to the market.

But then Thomas Muster actually came back with feedback and said that he loves this whistle.

And then they made it to a marketing story and actually made it a positive feature about the racket.

And I think still today, lots of.

I mean, especially people who are used to the Prestige, they just love it.

So, yeah, I think nowadays it's kind of a great feature that the racket comes with.

And another characteristics of it, it was always the.

The wraparound bumper guard.

I always thought that was amazing as a kid with these rackets.

Do you know the reason why that ever came about?

Initially, the protection, that was the main reason.

So it was really to protect the carbon fiber frame as much as possible.

So there was a very technical reason behind it.

But then ultimately, I mean, back in the days, it was purely for Protection.

But nowadays we also know that cap chromats are a particular reason why the racket sounds as it sounds.

So chromats always have a big impact on the impact feel.

So, yeah, it has this kind of psychological reasoning behind it, also the ways the strings interact with the frame.

So there's lots of technology behind it.

But the initial idea was protection of the frame.

Nice.

And is there any old school players who'd still give the head office a call and say, oh, can you get me a few new Prestigious from the DI Prestiges?

Does that happen?

Of course.

I mean, I think Tommy Haas is still very much in love with this record.

Mara Safin is still very keen on using it.

So yeah, there is, even on the highest level, a lot of excitement and enthusiasm about this special record.

And it's Safin.

He was not.

He was, he was nigh Prestige user.

Okay.

I don't know why, you just have red stuck in my head.

Like.

I mean, he was, to be fair, he celebrated the big successes with, with Bordeaux Red.

Okay, yeah, Claptic Prestigious, let's say.

And so is this amp 2.0, is this a limited release or is it something you're just going to carry for a while?

Yeah, we're going to carry it.

I mean, the other one is called Limited.

It's limited in terms of time, so it's not necessarily limited in terms of quantities because we saw quite a big demand for it and we didn't necessarily want to completely limited and then drive the price to something crazy.

But is that to the Prestige Limited?

Not the two points there?

Yeah, no, that's to both of them.

And who do you think is going to be knocking on at a tennis warehouse, all these tennis stores to buy the MP 2.0.

What sort of player?

Well, the MP 2.0, the I Prestige one, that's really for enthusiasts, someone who is nostalgic about the previous one.

It's almost like a collector's item and it's kind of celebrating this past feel of prestige, but also for Everyone who is curious to see what this hype about this record is all about.

So yeah, it's playing a lot in the past.

But then as you already indicated, the Prestige MP Limited, that's really kind of us trying to show what the modern Prestige should feel like.

Okay, so maybe you want to show people the Prestige Limited.

It's in a different color.

Exactly.

So it comes in the same color.

But the design is obviously updated to our kind of new asymmetry concept, to our new design language.

And it then comes with some special features.

So when you pay close attention.

Bit tricky with the camera, but you can see that we still use this graphical element where the intellifibers used to be.

And we just added a nice little graphical detail to it where we also put the head logo and then the 25 years of high prestige in there.

So the design is also an homage to the old one.

And in terms of impact feel, we try to celebrate what the Prestige is all about, but at the same time making it a bit more accessible, easy to play, more forgiving, and kind of updated to the modern needs of tennis.

Yeah, so it's 99 square inch, head, 16, 19, 300 grams, 320 balance point.

And you mention in your notes like it's a 3, 3, 4 mold.

I have no idea what that means.

Well, that's the current Prestige Emuls.

So that's really the 640 square centimeters or 99 square inches.

So that's one of the more modern Prestige molds.

Kind of the most modern Prestige mold, I would say.

But then at the same time, we updated the specifications a little bit on this one.

It comes in the same mode, but it comes with a little lighter, bit more headlight and yeah, just kind of trying to maximize the sweet spot a little bit.

So it still comes with a small sweet spot compared to normal rackets, let's say.

But for a Prestige, this is surprisingly user friendly.

And it's not burgundy.

Yeah, exactly.

So what sort of player would you expect to play with this Prestige Limited?

I think in general it would be still players with quite a kind of a flat play style, so not necessarily a massive spin.

So someone who is actively seeking their way to the net, someone who is playing lots of volleys.

It's a great record for serving.

So in general, yeah, it's kind of for hardcore tennis, pretty flat shot, but still attacking a lot, Taking the ball pretty early.

Maybe quite friendly for one handed backhands as well.

That's something that like one specific shot that has always been working pretty well with any kind of prestige.

So yeah, this is how I would describe it.

But between the two, the limited one is for sure.

The one that is less harsh on an off center impact.

I know we all know the game's changed.

Not many one handers been hit at a professional level.

But the recreational level is different unfortunately.

And you know, the games got quicker.

People want more power from the rackets.

It's going to be a bit of a challenge with, you see, selling this procedure is going to be a bit of a challenge.

Trying to compete with normal rackets.

Or do you see this as not compete with normal rackets?

This is totally different.

Like what is your merc, your marketing message for this racket to try and bring in a new audience or new players to this racket?

Yeah, well, the official claim is the past perfected.

So you can see already from there that we are not trying to compete with the normal rackets nowadays and with super modern rackets.

So we don't try to win a massive audience back to prestige with it, but we rather want to celebrate what the prestige is all about.

So we don't want to really dilute the story of the prestige.

We still want to celebrate its iconic impact feel and also just purely the special look of the prestige and everything what's special about it.

So we don't really want to challenge anything in the market to attract a huge audience, but rather want to make those people happy that appreciate what the prestige is all about.

Is Cilic still a prestige player?

Absolutely.

And he went through a similar journey as well.

So Cilic obviously always played with very small head sizes, so even smaller than the I prestige MP 2.0.

So he went down all the way, I think to 600 square centimeters.

I think that's like 93.

93, That's the original one, isn't it?

Like.

Yeah, exactly.

But then he also at some point demanded a bit more power and a bit more forgiveness because he's also pushed back nowadays from the younger players.

So he needed to be a bit more maneuverable in the defense and at the same time have some more power when switching to the offense.

So yeah, he also made this switch to a bigger head size.

So yeah, it's something we can observe.

But nevertheless, I think both of them are in a nice area.

And is there any other players using it?

Kratsav, is he a prestige player?

Yeah.

And then you would also, I mean Serundolo is another popular example nowadays.

Nice.

Lots of Bubbles players still use it, so you see it still quite frequently on the Tour.

But, yeah, unfortunately not many junior players have it.

Basal Varady from the US is probably the youngest top hundred player.

I'm not sure what's his current ranking, but yeah, he's also using the Prestige.

So you see it still.

Still there.

Still there.

So ultimately, if some, if a listener hits with a Prestige tomorrow, what do you want them to feel using the Prestige?

I think it's the ultimate stability.

I think everyone will have a hard time hitting consistently at the sweet spot.

But I mean, honestly, it's almost like playing golf.

Like, I don't hit the sweet spot in golf very often, but when I do, it's incredibly satisfying.

And this pure satisfaction of hitting the sweet spot with a Prestige, this is just something else, in my opinion.

So it's this very solid kind of plush sound to it.

It feels super uniform.

So everything feels like very connected, like one unit.

So, yeah, it's really this kind of sweet spot.

And if you get lucky, you can even hear the whistle before you have that sweet spot sound of the racke it.

I do two things.

One is you were talking about serving.

I do remember as a kid when I said my friends had it, I'd serve with the odd time.

It was beautiful to serve with.

Yeah.

But as you were saying just before you said I taught the word plush.

When you do hit the boat, there is a plush and comfort feeling from it.

Like it's actually really nice.

And that's what.

That's one of the things I remember about it.

Part as the whistle as well, but like plush, the volley serve.

And.

Yeah, it's amazing.

Then you see somebody like Tommy Hass smacking backhands.

You're like, it's just really compact and nice, so.

Exactly.

Compact, I think, is a great, great virtual.

Yeah.

I'm excited to give it a go when I get back to court in a few weeks.

I hope it's going to be exciting, but I hope the racket does well.

And can you share any other news with us?

Any ahead release and anything new coming that you can talk about in the future?

Yeah.

So this is 40 years of prestige.

So that's definitely opportunity that we want to take and we have something super special.

Prepared for that, so stay tuned for this one.

Is the Radical getting an update at any stage?

I think so, yeah.

Okay.

That was my racket of choice, but it still plays.

It hold a deep place in my heart, the Radicals.

And use something for like, I don't know, how old am I now?

Not.

Not 30 years yet, but close to it.

You're like, you know, the name is ingrained in my head and the feel is in my head and it's always, it's all.

It's always exciting to see a new Radical.

I mean, Radical is the second oldest franchise that we.

We still have active and it's another iconic head record.

And yeah, definitely also something that.

That might come soon again.

But, yeah, I think that's.

Yes.

Sorry, audience, I couldn't get a bit more information out of Max here, but no, thank you very much, Max, for explaining the two new prestigious.

Hope they all go well for you and hopefully one day I get over the kennel back.

I know I was meant to go there before, but I couldn't get over.

So one day I'll get over to see how the operation runs.

For sure.

You're always welcome.

And then we can see how the Prestige is made downstairs and we can try some prototypes out and see what you think.

That would be great.

You're always welco.

Thank you.

Thank you.