Ti-5
Model TI-5
Price history
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Ti-5 Titanium Mesh: Yonex’s 2U-only export racquet of 1999–2000
One of four, and the only one in 2U alone
The Ti-5 Titanium Mesh comes from the first generation of Yonex’s titanium-mesh racquets. Yonex’s 1999 export catalog introduced four Titanium Mesh models at once, the Ti-10, Ti-8, Ti-6 and Ti-5, all marked new, under the line “Up to the challenge of creating new materials for the 21st century play.” The Ti-5 stood apart in two ways. It was the only one of the four offered in a single weight class, 2U (90–94 g), and the only one whose frame the catalog lists as plain graphite with titanium mesh composite: the Ti-8 and Ti-6 frames are high-modulus graphite, the Ti-10’s ultra-high-modulus. Yonex Japan’s own lineups of 2000–2006 list no Ti 5, so the model is known only from the export side.
Graphite and titanium mesh
Titanium mesh reached Yonex’s racquets in Japan with the Ti8 of 1998, and the muscle-frame Ti10 followed in spring 1999; their stories are in the TI-8 and TI-10 articles. Yonex’s 2000 catalog explained the material for the whole range: “Engineered to exploit the strength and hardness of titanium to counter twisting forces and to balance the mass, Yonex Titanium Mesh Composite Racquets deliver greater repulsion power, higher face stability and low-torque performance.” For the Ti-5 both catalogs print the same short sheet: stiff flex, a graphite frame with titanium mesh composite, a graphite shaft, 2U (90–94 g) and grips G2 to G5. Yonex recommends 16–18 lb for the mains and 18–20 lb for the crosses. The catalog’s line about mesh set at 3 and 9 o’clock on the frame belongs to its description of the Ti-10; Yonex gives no placement for the Ti-5.
No player on record
No professional is documented using the Ti-5, and neither catalog names a player for it. Yonex pitched the titanium range at every level: “Whether you are a beginner or an advanced player, Yonex recommends that you gear up now for 21st century play.” The range’s documented players are attached to the Ti10 and the Ti-6.
Blue, then red, and a Light
Yonex’s catalogs show two finishes. The 1999 photo has a blue upper hoop over a white lower hoop and shaft. The 2000 catalog tags the Ti-5 new a second time and shows it in red with a white top to the hoop, on a page shared with the new Ti-3. A lighter version followed. Yonex China’s own model list names a “TI-5 LT” under Titanium Mesh in captures from December 2007 to May 2009, beside the TI-10 and TI-3 LT, and a BadmintonCentral member owned a “Ti-5 Light” in February 2002. A Chinese website listing Yonex models described it in 2007–2011 as a 3U, medium-flex frame made in Japan; Yonex itself published no specification for it. Yonex USA used the same suffix for its Ti-7 Light (see TI-7). Two more names have no Yonex source: a Singapore member wrote in 2002 that he owned a “ti5 SP,” and in 2011 a US retailer sold a “Ti-5 Titanium Mesh Limited Edition” as a return of the old Ti line, listed as 3U and made in Japan.
No recorded sales
No verified sales of the Ti-5 are recorded yet. Yonex’s last listing of the original is its 2000 export catalog, and when production ended is undocumented. The name outlived it: the Light was still on Yonex China’s list in May 2009, and the 2011 edition came later still, so a listing titled only Ti5 or Ti-5 can describe any of three racquets.
Telling the versions apart
No counterfeit report specific to the Ti-5 is documented. The practical risk is a mix-up between versions, and the weight class settles most cases: Yonex listed the original in 2U only, so a 3U frame is the Light or the 2011 edition. The 2U Ti-3 of 2000 is the closest sibling: Yonex gave it the same graphite frame with titanium mesh, the same weight class and the same feature marks, with a medium-stiff flex, so read the printed number rather than the profile. The Japan-only Ti 3 (TI-3L, 3U, 2005–2009) is a different model; it has its own page.
A short export run
The 2U Ti-5 has a short documented life: new in Yonex’s 1999 export catalog, new again in a fresh color in 2000, and no later Yonex listing. Titanium mesh lasted longer. Yonex Japan was still setting mesh into the frames of its Ti models in 2006, and the Ti-5 name carried on through the Light. The family’s headline racquet was the Ti10; the Ti-5 shows how Yonex carried the material down its export range, in a plain-graphite frame.
Yonex’s 1999 and 2000 export catalogs document the original Ti-5 as stiff, with a graphite frame and titanium mesh composite, a graphite shaft, 2U (90–94 g) only and grips G2 to G5. Yonex published no balance or country of manufacture for it, so treat those as details to record, not proof. The catalog photos show two finishes, blue over white (1999) and red with a white hoop top (2000), with “TITANIUM MESH” printed down the shaft below the model name. A 3U frame is not the original: it is the Ti-5 Light or the 2011 Limited Edition. The 2000 catalog marks the Ti-5 with titanium-mesh, isometric, built-in T-joint and aero icons, but not the Muscle Power Frame it gives the Ti-10 and Ti-7. On a frame more than 25 years old, check the joint, the grommets and the hoop for cracks.
The Ti-5 suits a collection of Yonex’s titanium years as the export range’s plain-graphite member, not as a model with a player story. Confirm which Ti-5 is on offer first: the original is 2U and stiff, the Light is 3U, and the 2011 edition has no Yonex record. A 1998 launch year sometimes attached to it has no source; Yonex first listed it in 1999. Judge the frame’s condition before the name.