Astrox 99 Sapphire Navy (1st Gen)
Model AX-99SN · Kento Momota
Price history
Chart: monthly median of verified pre-owned sales · USD · methodology
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Astrox 99 Sapphire Navy: the Momota-influenced finish released during his 2020 layoff
A new finish during the layoff
The Sapphire Navy is the one first-generation Astrox 99 finish that Yonex says Kento Momota helped design. Yonex announced it on April 16, 2020, three months after the car crash in Kuala Lumpur that injured him, while the international tour was shut down by the pandemic. Yonex Japan said the navy base and gold accents took in the views of Momota, who had been using the racquet, and that the gold stood for a player who keeps running at the top. Yonex’s global release called it a collaboration with the world No. 1. It went on sale worldwide in May 2020. Nothing changed mechanically. Yonex’s specification for the Sapphire Navy matches the 2018 Sunshine Orange line for line, so this is the same racquet in a new finish, not a new model.
The same frame, line for line
Yonex’s April 2020 press release gives the Sapphire Navy the materials of the original: a high-modulus graphite frame with Namd, Nanometric and tungsten, a high-modulus graphite shaft with Namd, and the new built-in T-joint. The sizes are unchanged, 3U at an average of 88 g and 4U at 83 g, as are the ¥26,000 pre-tax Japanese price and Japan as the country of origin. The Astrox 99’s defining feature was Namd in the frame as well as the shaft, which Yonex credited with longer shuttle contact and steeper smashes. In 2021 Yonex summed up the first generation as a head-heavy power racquet with the heaviest swing weight in the Astrox series, often too heavy to recover quickly, a trait its redesigned successor was meant to address. The same release that launched the Sapphire Navy gave the Astrox 88 S and 88 D an Off White/Red finish.
Momota’s comeback, color unrecorded
Momota returned at the All Japan Championships in December 2020, his first event in 11 months, and won the final against Kanta Tsuneyama 18–21, 21–12, 21–17. Yonex’s report lists his racquet as the Astrox 99, as does its list for the March 2021 All England, where he lost in the quarterfinals. Neither names a color, and Yonex’s reports do not say which finish he played in any match, so the Sapphire Navy’s link to him rests on the design credit rather than documented match use. By the Denmark Open in October 2021 Yonex listed him on the new Astrox 99 Pro. His 2018 and 2019 world titles were won with the orange frame, before this finish existed, and no other professional is documented with the Sapphire Navy.
Three finishes, one frame
The first-generation Astrox 99 came in three finishes on one Japan-made frame, all under the code AX99: the launch Sunshine Orange in September 2018, the Lee Chong Wei edition in August 2019 and the Sapphire Navy in May 2020. Only the LCW was sold as a limited edition. Yonex presented the Sapphire Navy as a new design for a current model and gave no quantity limit, and Yonex Japan sold it alongside the orange as a single product. Both colors were still on Yonex Japan’s page in January 2022, about four months after the second generation arrived, and the first-generation 99 had left its Astrox list by May 2022. The Astrox 99 name has since been reused for the 2021 line developed with Momota and for a 2025 line. Those are different racquets.
A standard color, a narrower case
The verified sales shown above are pre-owned Sapphire Navy frames from the Asian resale market; none is a new, unused racquet, and the Sunshine Orange is valued on its own page. As a standard-production color sold for about two years, it has neither the limited-edition status of the LCW nor the orange frame’s direct link to Momota’s world titles and record 2019. Its case for collectors is narrower: it is the finish Yonex says Momota shaped, released during the hardest stretch of his career, on the frame he used until the second generation arrived in late September 2021.
Navy lookalikes and a reused name
A famous world-title frame attracts counterfeiters, and a finish associated with Momota is an easy thing to paint. Mislisting is the other risk. Two months before the Sapphire Navy, Yonex launched the Astrox 100 ZZ and 100 ZX in Dark Navy, so a dark-blue Astrox in a photograph is not necessarily a 99. The Astrox 99 name also returned in 2021 and 2025, and listings can attach first-generation history to later racquets or the reverse. The Sapphire Navy is navy with gold accents, and like every first-generation 99 it has Namd through the frame and no Power-Assist Bumper or Volume Cut Resin, both introduced with the 2021 line.
The bridge to the second generation
The Sapphire Navy was the last finish Yonex added to the first-generation Astrox 99. In August 2021 Yonex announced a redesigned Astrox 99, developed with Momota to add control of the game’s pace to the original’s raw power, and released it in late September. Momota moved to the 99 Pro, and the first generation left Yonex Japan’s catalog in the first half of 2022 with no announced end date. The Sapphire Navy sits between the two: the frame of Momota’s title years, finished to a design he influenced, and sold through his injury and comeback.
Start with the marking: Yonex gives Japan as the only country of origin for the first-generation Astrox 99, so a Sapphire Navy marked Taiwan or China is a later model or a fake. The finish is navy with gold accents, and the code is AX99, shared with the Sunshine Orange. Yonex’s specification is stiff flex, a frame 10 mm longer than standard, an average of 88 g for 3U or 83 g for 4U, and recommended tension of 21–29 lbs for 3U and 20–28 lbs for 4U. Check that the frame reads Astrox 99 and not Astrox 100 ZZ or ZX, which launched in Dark Navy in 2020. Yonex’s own authenticity test is the hologram sticker, which should resist lifting with a fingernail. Retailer guides add that genuine serial numbers are laser-engraved as well as printed.
The Sapphire Navy is the same racquet as the Sunshine Orange, so for players the choice is color. For collectors, its interest is the design credit Yonex gave Momota and its timing during his 2020 layoff and comeback, rather than any documented match use or scarcity. Its verified sales so far are pre-owned examples from Asia resale. Check any listing for a Made in Japan marking and first-generation technology, and make sure a navy Astrox is a 99 and not a 100 ZZ or ZX.
Verified prices last updated Aug 2026. All data based on tracked secondary market transactions.