ArcSaber 11
Model ARC-11 · Taufik Hidayat, Viktor Axelsen
Price history
Chart: monthly median of verified pre-owned sales · USD · methodology
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ArcSaber 11: Taufik’s farewell racquet, and the frame behind two All England titles
Launched around a farewell
Yonex Japan opened the ArcSaber 11’s launch site with Taufik Hidayat. It recalled the All England final he reached at 17 and called the racquet the culmination of 16 years between him and the company. Taufik played it only briefly. Yonex said he had chosen it for his remaining matches before retiring in June 2013, and a Dove Gray limited edition with his signature was launched at the Sudirman Cup that May. His last match was a first-round loss to India’s B. Sai Praneeth at the Indonesia Open on June 12. The frame’s titles came later and went to other players: Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen’s 2015 All England, Viktor Axelsen’s 2016 European and year-end Superseries titles, and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo’s 2017 All England. Yonex Japan kept it in the catalog until early 2022.
Smash Back
The ArcSaber 11 went on sale in mid-February 2013 as the ArcSaber 10’s successor, alongside an ultra-light sibling, the ArcSaber FB; it has its own page. Yonex’s launch theme was “Smash Back”: turning an opponent’s smash into your own attack. Yonex Japan called the target style a “receive-type all-rounder.” The frame pairs Neo CS Carbon Nanotube, an evolved form of the cup-stacked nanotube in earlier ArcSabers that Yonex says grips the shuttle, with Sonic Metal, a titanium alloy at the top of the head that springs it back out. T-Anchor, a new composite in the built-in T-joint, is there to curb twisting, and the shaft adds Ultra PE Fiber. It was made in Japan, in red, in 3U and 2U (averages of 88 g and 93 g), at ¥24,000 before tax. Coach Paul Stewart’s 2013 review found “not much in it” against the ArcSaber 10. He saw the main changes as the Sonic Metal and a noticeably thinner but still stiff shaft.
Who won with it
Yonex’s match reports name the ArcSaber 11 on a run of titles after Taufik retired. Boe and Mogensen used it to win the French Open in October 2014 and the All England in March 2015, beating Fu Haifeng and Zhang Nan 21–17, 22–20 for their second title there. By that October’s Denmark Open they were on the Duora 10. Axelsen signed with Yonex in June 2014 with the ArcSaber 11 as his racquet. He won the 2016 European Championships on it, then that December’s Superseries Finals in Dubai, 21–14, 6–21, 21–17 over Tian Houwei, the first European man to win the Superseries Finals singles title. No Yonex report names his racquet for his Rio bronze in between. His 2017 world title is sometimes credited to the ArcSaber 11, but Yonex lists the new Duora Z-Strike for that final. Kevin Sanjaya joined Yonex weeks before the 2017 All England and won it on the ArcSaber 11 with Marcus Fernaldi Gideon, who played a Voltric.
Red, Dove Gray and the 2022 Pro
Yonex made the original ArcSaber 11 in one regular colorway, red, listed as Metallic Red by 2021. The only Yonex-documented variant is Taufik’s Dove Gray limited edition of May 2013, with his signature and his motto, “Winning Is An Attitude,” in gold. Japanese specialist shops also sold limited colors of their association under the code ARC11BP, black and yellow in 2016 and navy blue in 2020; no Yonex page lists them. Yonex’s page for it, under item code ARC11TH, lists the same frame and shaft materials and the same 3U and 2U weights; the edition has its own page. No Yonex listing of the original includes a 4U. In January 2022 Yonex announced a new ArcSaber 11 in Pro, Tour and Play versions for global release on February 25, 2022, and the Pro reached Japanese shops in early March. It is a new frame in Grayish Pearl, with a Pocketing Booster and a Control-Assist Bumper, and Yonex benchmarked it against “the previous ARCSABER 11.” Each of the three has its own page.
A long-seller, not a rarity
The verified sales in the price panel above are pre-owned 2013 originals from the Asian resale market; the 2022 ArcSaber 11 Pro is valued on its own page. They should be read against a long production run. In January 2022 Yonex Japan described the model as a long-seller, used by many players in the nine years since its 2013 release, and its catalog still listed it new, in Metallic Red and at the same pre-tax price, in December 2021. Played examples are the normal form, and a racquet sold as new may come from late in the run. The Taufik edition is the version with a limited run, though Yonex gave no quantity. Listings that say only “ArcSaber 11” can mean the 2022 Pro, Tour or Play, so check the colorway and markings first.
A documented fake
A Japanese-made frame with this much tour exposure is worth copying, and counterfeit ArcSaber 11s are on record. In October 2017 a BadmintonCentral member asked about an ArcSaber 11 bought online in the Philippines. Other members called it fake. The production code on its cone read as a 2011 date with a month value above 12, two years before the model existed. Its shaft serials were glaringly visible, apparently painted in white, where genuine ones are etched and only faintly visible. They also flagged the hologram, the grommets and the serial font, and the seller had explained the low price by calling the stock smuggled goods. Since 2022 the name has carried a second risk: the Pro, Tour and Play share it.
Between the ArcSaber 10 and the Pro
The ArcSaber 11 sits between two better-known control frames. It replaced the ArcSaber 10, which left Yonex Japan’s catalog in 2012, and gave way to the ArcSaber 11 Pro in 2022, when Yonex credited the ArcSaber line’s nearly 15 years with performances from players such as Taufik. Stewart gave it four stars and called it a really good all-rounder with a high degree of power. Its record differs from its launch story. A racquet presented around a retiring singles star won its biggest titles in men’s doubles and in Axelsen’s first seasons with Yonex, before he became world champion on another frame.
Check the marking first: Yonex documents every original ArcSaber 11 as made in Japan. Regular frames are red (Metallic Red); the Taufik limited edition is Dove Gray with his signature and “Winning Is An Attitude” in gold. The 2022 ArcSaber 11 Pro, Tour and Play are a different frame in Grayish Pearl. Yonex listed 3U (85–89.9 g, average 88 g) and 2U (90–94.9 g, average 93 g), and no 4U original is documented. Production codes on the cone should be laser-engraved, and any date in them cannot predate 2013. Shaft serials should be etched and faint, not painted. Yonex’s own test: a genuine hologram sticker resists lifting with a fingernail.
For a player, the ArcSaber 11 is a well-documented control frame from a nine-year production run, so condition, weight and grip are the real choices. For a collector, the Taufik Dove Gray edition is the version with a clear identity; ask for photographs of the signature, the motto and the cone code. Confirm that any “ArcSaber 11” listing is the 2013 original rather than a 2022 Pro, Tour or Play, and treat a 4U or non-Japan-made original as a question for the seller.
Verified prices last updated Sep 2026. All data based on tracked secondary market transactions.