Globe 889-2 review

I tried this Globe 889-2 1.8mm 38deg sponge black on a Stiga Energy wood blade:

This is one of the latest rubbers from Globe, supposedly a spinnier version of the Globe 889. Because it's quite new and no top players use it (as far as I know) I could find no information on it.

I speed glued this rubber since I wanted to see how well and fast it would for looping. I used the glass plate method and used 2 layers of Dawei speed glue. Well I was a little surprised when I got a huge dome out of it. When I put in on my blade it had stretched almost 10mm! In hindsight one layer would probably have been enough.

This rubber reminded me very much like Friendship's 802-40, also with wide conical and grippy pimples, with a soft sponge. The sponge is orange and I'm not sure if it's Chinese or Japanese. From feedback from users of the Globe 889 rubber, we found that 1.8mm 38deg sponge was the best combination, so that why the 889-2 was also ordered with the same specs.

I set up the machine for topspin. Blocking was real easy, but I certainly had to adjust the bat angle for the amount of spin...just like inverted.
Driving through the ball was great, coming off fast and I felt I had good control. It made a loud cracking sound too! Taking a step back and trying to counterloop I struggled for consistency a little, not quite sure why. The bat seemed a little sensitive to the angle I was looping it with. Especially when I let the ball drop right down I had some trouble looping it back consistantly. Now this may be my technique since I'm not used to these types of rubber.

Hitting with this rubber was beautiful, coming off fast and with a loud cracking sound...very impressive.

Then I setup the ball machine for deep heavy chop serves to my forehand. Well I could loop it fast with lots of spin, just like an inverted rubber. Since I'm more used to brush looping with a tacky rubber I had to make a slight adjustment and let the ball dig into the sponge a little more, but I was surprised how much this played like an inverted rubber.

Then I tried to hit through the ball instead of loop it, well this was surprisingly REAL easy and consistant, much easier than with inverted. It made a loud cracking sound and came off quite fast.

Pushing the ball back was also very easy, the ball did not grip the rubber much but I could keep the ball very low and I felt I could put it wherever I wanted.

I actually found this rubber a lot easier to use on my backhand, possible because I'm used to playing and attacking with a long pimple rubber, which offer some slight similarities.

I have yet to try it unglued...I should have tried this first but I was just too keen to glue it up!

In conclusion this rubber was a dream to use close to the table, offering good control and speed in all the things I tried. Serves and pushes are very spinny for a short pimple rubber, but not as spinny as the normal tacky rubbers that I use. Away from the table I found this rubber not as good, especially against topspin when you let the ball drop a little. Since I believe these rubber are meant to be used for close to the table play, this is not really an issue. A good choice for players that play close to the table, and have some trouble controlling incoming spin, and like to hit block and counter-hit.