Nanospeed 9000S
Model NS-9000S · Xie Xingfang, Zhang Ning
Price history
Chart: monthly median of verified pre-owned sales · USD · methodology
Saw a sale? Report it →Where to find it
Search live eBay listings →Places to search for this racquet. We don't track stock, and listings and asking prices change fast, so check at the source.
Nanospeed 9000 Type S: the gold racquet of China’s women’s stars in 2007
A world final on one racquet
When Yang Wei and Zhang Jiewen beat Gao Ling and Huang Sui in the all-Chinese women’s doubles final of the 2007 World Championships in Kuala Lumpur, Yonex’s report listed all four players on the same racquet, the Nanospeed 9000 Type S. That was typical of the season. Of the tournament reports Yonex posted from January 2007 to mid-2008, the Type S appears in 17, and no racquet is named more often, Lin Dan’s Armortec 700 included. Yonex lists Xie Xingfang on it for her 2007 All England title, and Zhang Ning for the Swiss and Singapore Opens. The S was the softer of the Nanospeed 9000’s two flexes and, in Yonex’s records, by far the more widely played.
Two flexes for the top
Yonex Japan launched the Nanospeed 9000 on April 2, 2006, under the line “for the TOP,” as one racquet in two flexes, Type X for power hitters and Type S for all-round players, both at ¥25,000 before tax. They shared the construction described on the NS-9000X page: rubber metal, a titanium alloy from Toyota Central R&D Labs, in the frame sides for face stability, and fullerene through the whole shaft, which moved weight toward the grip for a head-light balance. A Solid Feel Core inside the frame was meant to damp vibration faster. Yonex rated the S Stiff and the X Extra Stiff, and no other specification separated them. The S is sometimes credited with Yonex’s LSC shock-reduction system, but Yonex’s 2007 chart lists LSC only on the Nanospeed 7700 and 6000, not on either 9000; the 7700 and 6000 have their own pages.
China’s women, and a Korean champion
Zhang Ning was the first player Yonex named on a 9000. At the Yonex Open Japan in October 2006 she said it was far lighter than the Armortec 700 she had used before, and that she wanted a racquet that could both attack and defend. Through 2007 Yonex’s reports and staff pages put most of China’s leading women on the Type S, among them Xie Xingfang, Zhang Ning, Lu Lan, Zhao Tingting and the pairs Yang Wei and Zhang Jiewen, Gao Ling and Huang Sui, and Wei Yili and Zhang Yawen. Xie, world champion in 2005 and 2006, is listed on it for six 2007 titles, from the Korea Open in January to the Hong Kong Open in December, and for the 2008 Swiss Open. The leading man on the S was Korea’s Park Sung-hwan, who won the 2008 Asia Championships on it, beating Chen Jin 21–18, 21–18.
The softer of a matched pair
Yonex sold the two types as item codes NS9000X and NS9000S, in one finish, Glorious Gold, with the same 3U and 2U weights and the same recommended tension, 19–24 lb for 3U and 20–25 lb for 2U. The S was the type most players chose: Yonex’s reports of 2007–08 name it 69 times and the X twice. The labels can still slip between the two, so one report is weak evidence of a player’s type. Zhang Jiewen, listed on the S almost everywhere, appears once on the X, and Cai Yun’s entries alternate between the S and the Armortec 900 Technique. Yonex never issued a third type, a color change or a player edition of the 9000. The NS-9000X page covers the stiffer type and the Lee Chong Wei story attached to it; no Yonex source puts him on either.
A two-year run
Verified sales of the Type S so far are a handful of pre-owned frames from Asia resale, and the price panel above lists them; each of those listings names the type. Yonex Japan ended production of both types in 2008, two years after launch, though Yonex’s export site listed the 9000 until 2010, so any unused frame is old stock from that short run. The S’s documented record is the richer of the two, with a world final and a run of titles, but no report ties a particular frame to a player. That record describes the model, not any individual racquet. Yonex published no production figures for either type, and nothing supports the idea that one is scarcer than the other.
Checking a frame from 2006
No counterfeit reports specific to the Type S have been found, although Nanospeed frames were copied early, as the NS-8000 page describes. A BadmintonCentral thread from September 2008 shows how buyers checked one at the time. Members read the cone code on a secondhand 9000 Type S as a production date of April 24, 2006, three weeks after launch, and judged its serial and date code legitimate. They warned in the same thread that codes prove little on their own and that the frame’s other physical features still had to be inspected.
Moving on in 2008
The S’s time at the top was short. Yonex’s reports show its players moving to newer frames: Wei Yili and Zhang Yawen to the ArcSaber 7 by late 2007, Zhang Ning to the ArcSaber 10 by the Swiss Open in March 2008, and Yang Wei to the Armortec 900 Technique by the Asia Championships in April. The last report found to name the S covers the Thomas and Uber Cup finals of May 2008, with Park Sung-hwan on it against China and Zhang Jiewen against Indonesia. Xie Xingfang and Zhang Ning met in the Beijing Olympic final that August, and Zhang won, but Yonex’s medal page names no racquets, so neither woman’s Olympic frame is documented. The Nanospeed 9900 took over the top of the line in February 2009.
Yonex documents one finish for both types, Glorious Gold (color 507), so confirm that the frame is the Type S (Stiff, item NS9000S) and not the Extra Stiff Type X. Both are made in Japan, in 3U (85–89.9 g) or 2U (90–94.9 g); Yonex made no 4U. Neither type has an LSC comfort system, so a listing that claims one is describing another model. Treat a cone or shaft code as one check among several. Yonex’s counterfeit guidance of the period adds four: a hologram sticker, if present, should resist peeling; the O in the YONEX logo should be narrow, not wide and round; the production code on the cap above the handle should be laser-engraved, not printed; and the butt cap should match Yonex’s green.
The Type S carries the Nanospeed 9000’s documented playing history: Xie Xingfang’s titles, Zhang Ning’s early adoption and an all-S world doubles final in 2007. Buy it as the racquet of China’s women’s team in that season, and treat any claim that a particular frame was a named player’s as unproven without documentation. Pair it with the Type X if you want the complete model. Unused frames are old stock from a Japanese run that ended in 2008, so inspect the head, grommets and joint closely.
Verified prices last updated Sep 2026. All data based on tracked secondary market transactions.