Ai Fukuhara PRO · ZLF [Discontinued]

Everyone's rating [Hardness] Little soft
[Performance] Spin and Speed are excellent.
Ai Fukuhara PRO · ZLF
Ai Fukuhara PRO · ZLF Ai Fukuhara PRO · ZLF

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Averages reviews points

  • Evaluation: 8.74 / 10
  • Number of review: 19
    • Speed: 8.26
    • Spin: 8.32
    • Control: 8.11
    Players aiming to speedy play in front of team

    Supervision model of Ai Fukuhara player. ZL fiber lightweight, to the excellent performance of high resilience, by providing the "grab the ball" sense of inner fiber design, it is a racket that enables speedy play in the front-end.

    • FL
    • ST
    • AN

    Specifications

    Price
    20,000 Yen(Include tax 22,000 Yen)
    Producer
    Butterfly
    Product code
    36671,36672,36674
    Speed
    Mid-Fast
    Touch
    soft
    Weight
    85g
    Material
    Five, ZL fiber (Wood, ZL carbon, 7 ply wood)
    Thickness
    5.8mm

    Players use Ai Fukuhara PRO · ZLF

    Customer Reviews SummaryAI Summary
    Highly appreciated as a hybrid racket that combines the feel of a wooden racket with the advantages of special materials. With its design specialized for aggressive play in the front court, it has gained support from a wide range of players, from beginners to advanced users.
    ■ Frequently Mentioned Points
    • Natural ball contact feel close to wood with minimal discomfort
    • Optimized performance for front-court fast attacks and flat hits
    • Lightweight with good swing speed and easy switching
    • Anatomic narrow grip design for comfortable handling
    • Balanced capability in both loop drive and attacking play
    ■ Representative Voices
    ▲ PositiveIt handles everything competently with great reassurance, has proper weight, and doesn't lose to the opponent's power. Among the many rackets I've used, the quality is consistent and top-notch.
    ▽ CriticalIt may feel somewhat lacking in flight distance beyond mid-court, and beginners might find it too bouncy and difficult to control.

    User reviews

    • visitor

      MK 5 (Experience: More than 20 years) Is it really this good?

      Player reviews

      I can't believe a blade this good existed ^ ^ It handles everything competently. The weight is just right too, and I never get overpowered by my opponent's shots. I've tried a lot of blades so far, and Butterfly blades are priced high, but I think the quality is consistently top-notch with no variation.

      See original review

      2017/10/05
      Overall
      10/10
      Speed
      9
      Spin
      10
      Control
      10
      Touch
      10
      Hardness Little soft

      Recommended rubber (Forehand) TENERGY 05

      Recommended rubber (Backhand) TeruRyu

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    • visitor

      Mi-chan (Experience: 11〜20 years) Matches close-to-table quick attack

      Player reviews

      I switched from the Acoustic to the Ai Fukuhara.
      The Acoustic is easier to put spin on with a topspin drive, but I mostly use meeting shots, so switching was absolutely the right call.
      Compared to other special-material blades, I'd still say it's pretty easy to put spin on with a drive too.
      It's tough to play from further back, but if your style is fast-paced rallying close to the table, it should suit you well.
      Also, with G1 thick on one side and Spinpips medium on the other, the blade itself stays light, so switching between sides is really easy.

      See original review

      2021/04/22
      Overall
      9/10
      Speed
      8
      Spin
      8
      Control
      9
      Touch
      7
      Hardness little hard

      Recommended rubber (Forehand) Fastarc G-1

      Recommended rubber (Backhand) SuperSpinpips

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    • visitor

      University table tennis player (Experience: 2〜3 years) Stability plus high offense

      Player reviews

      [Blade history]
      Acoustic (5-ply wood)
      → Ai Fukuhara Pro ZLF

      [Rubbers used]
      Forehand: Super Ventus (2.0), black
      Backhand: Rozena (1.9), red

      [Impressions]

      - Feel
      Almost the same as wood. If you put a bit more force into a forehand hit you can feel the fiber coming through, but it doesn't feel that off.

      - Bounce
      The ball leaves the blade a little quickly, but it's still plenty controllable. Ball-holding is a step down from 5-ply wood, but since the rubber grips the ball fairly well, the overall balance actually feels good.

      - Spin
      It takes more spin than I expected. I thought wood would out-spin an inner ZLF, but either it's down to my technique or there's barely any difference — if anything the ZLF feels like it grips more. This could just be my technique, but personally I get a lot of spin when I really smack the ball.

      - Overall
      I'd recommend this to someone moving on from a wood blade who wants a bit more speed, or to someone who finds wood blades too heavy and wants to go lighter. The FL handle has quite a thin grip so it'll come down to preference — if you're considering this blade, it's worth also looking at the ST or AN handles. (I went with AN since that grip fit me best.)

      See original review

      2020/04/01
      Overall
      10/10
      Speed
      7
      Spin
      9
      Control
      9
      Touch
      8
      Hardness Little soft

      Recommended rubber (Forehand) SUPER VENTUS

      Recommended rubber (Backhand) ROZENA

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    • Wing zero

      Wing zero (Experience: 11〜20 years) Feels just as good as wood

      Player reviews

      The reason I picked up this blade was the anatomic grip.
      Back when I was playing actively, I used the Mitamura Pro Model AN (discontinued), and when I emailed Butterfly asking for something with a grip shape as thin as the Mitamura Pro Model AN, they told me this Ai Fukuhara ZLF was the thinnest grip in their current lineup (as of 2018).

      I was hesitant about using a special-material blade, but I bought it for the grip anyway.
      As for how it feels to use:
      - Not all that different from wood
      - Countering close to the table is extremely stable
      - It seems to bounce more than the catalog numbers suggest
      - The ball-holding feel doesn't match wood, but it's overwhelmingly better than other special-material blades
      - Hitting flat is easy, but so is putting spin on the ball

      Overall I think it suits an all-round, offensive playing style.
      I feel it's a blade I can recommend if you're moving over from wood.

      See original review

      2020/02/08
      Overall
      9/10
      Speed
      9
      Spin
      8
      Control
      7
      Touch
      10
      Hardness Soft

      Recommended rubber (Forehand) ROZENA

      Recommended rubber (Backhand) ROZENA

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    • Fuji

      Fuji (Experience: 6〜10 years) No complaints

      Player reviews

      Switched over from the Clipper CR WRB; using Attack 8 with 43° L pips, medium thickness.
      On soft hits there's no synthetic feel at all — it feels like a 5-ply wood blade, great stability, and decent bounce.
      When you hit a topspin drive, it grips the ball nicely, is very easy to hit, and has a good sense of speed. It doesn't fly off wildly though — the power comes out just enough without hurting stability. Also, thanks to that grip on the ball, counters land way better than with my previous blade.
      It's also a bit on the light side, so the swing feels good and it's easy to hit in quick succession. The sound when you smash with a meeting shot is really satisfying too, with just the right amount of feedback in your hand — it's a fun blade to play with.

      It doesn't seem well suited to playing back from the table, so I'd really recommend it to players like Ai Fukuhara who mainly stay close to the table and swing fast.

      The one thing that bothers me is that since it's quite light, you can feel pushed around by your opponent's power.
      If you use short pips on the backhand like I do, you might end up swinging too freely unless you think carefully about thickness and type.

      See original review

      2020/01/19
      Overall
      10/10
      Speed
      8
      Spin
      10
      Control
      9
      Touch
      10
      Hardness Little soft

      Recommended rubber (Forehand) SUPER VENTUS

      Recommended rubber (Backhand) Attack 8

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    • visitor

      Sughi (Experience: More than 20 years) A racket that's a great match for ABS plastic balls

      Player reviews

      I'd had bad experiences with inner ZLF blades before, so I avoided them, but I traded with a friend to get one and tried it just for fun — and it blew me away.
      It was so easy to use that I wondered why I hadn't tried it sooner.
      It's a blade that can do everything and gives you a real sense of security.
      When you move to mid or far from the table it feels a bit short on distance, but for playing close to mid-table it's no problem at all.

      See original review

      2018/06/22
      Overall
      10/10
      Speed
      9
      Spin
      10
      Control
      10
      Touch
      10
      Hardness Soft

      Recommended rubber (Forehand) Evolution MX-P

      Recommended rubber (Backhand) Evolution EL-P

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    • Mitos Yggdrasil

      Mitos Yggdrasil (Experience: 4〜5 years)

      Player reviews

      This suits players who like to attack fast and close to the table. Nothing beats it for meeting the ball and smashing — both ease of use and power.

      See original review

      2018/02/19
      Overall
      8/10
      Speed
      9
      Spin
      8
      Control
      6
      Touch
      6
      Hardness little hard
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