News

Bordentown, NJ, October 30, 2007 -– The last weekend in October proved to be an extremely successful one for Prince players, as they captured three tour titles, further increased the number of total wins attributed to the revolutionary O3 racquet technology and secured additional positions at the year end championships in Shanghai and Madrid.

In less than twenty-four hours, the world’s #1 doubles team Mike and Bob Bryan captured their tenth title of the season, #9 ranked Daniela Hantuchova took home her second WTA Tour title and Liezel Huber, one half of the world’s #1 women’s doubles team captured her eighth title of the year. The weekend further validated the increasing relevance, popularity and success of Prince’s surging O3 racquet technology, marking the first time that three different O3 platforms, Original O3, O3 Speedport and Ozone, all captured titles in the same weekend.

In Linz, second-seeded Daniela Hantuchova defeated Patty Schnyder 6-4, 6-2 Sunday to win the Generali Ladies, her second WTA Tour title of the season and third overall. The 24-year-old Slovak is enjoying what is arguably the best season of her career. With two titles, two finals and five semi-finals appearances, Hantuchova has also earned herself a spot at the WTA Championships in Madrid with the win in Linz. All of this coming after switching to O3 technology just prior to the Pacific Life Open – her first tournament with the Ozone Seven and her first title this year.

“I can’t believe right now that I’ve won,” said Hantuchova. “I am very happy with how the ball feels coming off my racquet and feel as though I have taken steps to bring my game to a higher level. It is a great feeling to know I have qualified for Madrid – I still can’t believe I actually did it.”

While Hantuchova was enjoying her title and news of her Madrid qualification, American superstars Mike and Bob Bryan were busy collecting their tenth title of the season with a win at the Davidoff Swiss Indoors in Basel. The 29 year-old twins, who have already clinched a spot at the ATP’s year-end Championships in Shanghai and the #1 ranking for the year, made quick work of James Blake and Mark Knowles needing just 43 minutes to become the first team in over a decade to win at least ten titles in a single season.

The Bryan brothers made big news earlier this year when they decided to leave their previous racquet company after twenty-five years in order to “take their game to the next level” and play Prince’s O3 racquet technology. The boys picked up the O3 Speedport Black prior to the Country Wide Classic in Los Angeles, a tournament they went on to win. Overall, Mike and Bob have compiled a 72-9 record this season, which includes titles at the Australian Open, Las Vegas, Houston, Los Angeles, Washington and ATP Masters Series events in Miami, Monte-Carlo, Hamburg and Madrid.

“I thought we played one of our best matches of the year. We had total control of the ball with everything dropping in for us,” said Mike Bryan. “It is a great feeling going into Shanghai, as I think we are playing our best tennis of the year.”

“We feel great. That match was pretty unbelievable from our side of the court,” added Bob. “We were on fire; reflexes, Mike was returning up a storm, I was serving great. It is one of those matches that we will remember for a long time.”

Not to be outdone, two-time Grand Slam winner, and current #2 ranked women’s doubles player in the world, Liezel Huber, who plays the O3 Tour, took home her eighth title of 2007 with a victory at Linz as well. Aside from earning a spot at the Championships in Madrid, Huber will end the year as part of the #1 women’s team.

“This has been an incredible year for me and winning in Linz was a great way to head into Madrid,” said Huber. “My game has certainly improved this year, and it would be nice to cap the year with a win at the Championships.”

In a just over two years, O3 technology, and the players playing it, have racked up nearly 300 tour titles. On the men’s side, O3 has captured 153 – twelve of which have come from the more recently introduced O3 Speedport technology. On the women side, there have been 142 titles – nine of which have come from O3 Speedport racquets. Further, the world’s #1 men’s doubles team, half of the world’s number #1 women’s double team, four of the top ten women’s singles players and the #4 ranked men’s singles player are all playing O3 racquets.

Both year-end championships will see an impressive number of Prince players with five women already qualified for Madrid (Jankovic, Sharapova, Hantuchova, Huber, Sugiyama) and five men qualified for Shanghai (Davydenko, Ferrer, M. Bryan, B. Bryan, Vizner)