Recently, there have been several reports and articles documenting fake tennis racquets flooding the market especially on the web. Most tennis racquets especially Head, Wilson and Babolat are manufactured under license and in accordance to strict patent and manufacturing guidelines from their respective makers. Manufacturers also maintain a high level of quality control in adhering to precise model specifications. There is also a possibility that some stock were leaked out or stolen finding its way into the black market. But since these are originals, there wouldn't be much of an issue to the buyer. What we would be actually more concerned about are the actual fake or counterfeit tennis racquets that are a replica or mimics the original tennis racquet. I had to see one for myself before I could actually make distinctions and comment on fake tennis racquets, build quality and how close are they to the original. I was fortunate enough to experience and see first hand how a fake Babolat Pure Drive looked like courtesy of Kenneth's dad who managed to acquire a fake Babolat Pure Drive from China for an amazing $10 Singapore dollars!

Before proceeding with this article, I would like to highlight a few things. I am in NO way encouraging the purchase of fake or counterfeit goods. Besides running the risk of prosecution in certain countries, many counterfeit products use inferior and shoddy materials as well as have differences in weight balance/distribution, stiffness and other specifications. All proprietary technologies unique to an original manufacturer's frame such as Babolat's Woofer/Aero Modular/Cortex technology, Wilson's NCode nanotechnology as well as Head's Liquid Metal, Flexpoint and its latest MicroGel technologies will be all missing. What you get is just something that looks almost identical but minus all these technologies that differentiates as well as give each frame, manufacturer and model its specific uniqueness and characteristics.


Type of fake or different grades of fakes.

As with many counterfeit and fake goods. There are various degrees and quality of a counterfeit product. This can be from the actual likeness of the product to the quality materials and workmanship used on the product. As with fake watches, wallets and clothing some fakes can be identified almost immediately but some require a second look. These can be classified by grades, for instance like in watches and wallets there are Grade s A fakes which seem extremely similar and mimics the likeness of the original in quality and appearance. As the class range goes lower, they become generally poor counterfeit products which anybody can easily spot. In terms of tennis racquets, from what I heard there are some really obvious fakes and from one look you could tell it's an outright counterfeit. There are however some really good Grade A fakes that look very similar to the real genuine tennis racquet. These in my opinion are the ones that you could get fooled with.


The subject on display here is a fake Babolat Pure Drive. I wouldn't say this is a class A fake, as if you've played and used a Babolat Pure Drive from the initial look you'll know that it's not a good fake. I must however say that if you're just glancing at the fake Babolat Pure Drive from a distance, and not look at it up close, you'll think that it's the real thing. I have taken a couple of photos comparing the genuine Babolat Pure Drive with the Fake. I think it will be a no brainer for those who are owners of the Babolat Pure Drive. But I must say for SGD$10 it's pretty cheap and looks really good in terms of color and paintwork.

Differences:

In terms of weight, racquet balance and grip size it's totally off the mark and this is where somebody could really get hurt. The strings which came with the racquet reminds me more of loosely strung nylon fishing line then tennis guts. I have not tried hitting with it as most likely you'll be launching the balls to the moon with the low tension and the super light weight of this racquet. It is also very head heavy compared to the near balance weight of the genuine Babolat Pure Drive. The head of the racquet just dropped when I tried to balance the racquet by the throat. The grip size felt something like an even SL0 equivalent to a L4 even smaller than a 4 1/8!


The shape of the head is also more oval and elongated compared to the original Babolat Pure Drive standard which is very obvious. The other most obvious difference is the thickness and width of the frame. It is very thin throughout the length of the entire frame as well as the neck of the racquet which gives it away almost immediately. Like I mentioned before, the paintwork is really very good and color is slightly only off from the blue neon paintwork. It looks more like the old paintwork of the first generation Babolat Pure Drive but like I said before the color is very good. The main impressive thing about this fake Babolat Pure Drive was the fact that at the part where the hologram of authenticity should be, there was the words warranty void if hologram is missing that's exactly what's printed on the original if the hologram was removed. Maybe there is no sticker there just to say "Hey look I’ve purchased a fake Babolat Pure Drive"! :)


For those who have other models of counterfeit or fake tennis racquets, please send me your pictures as well as a short brief of how you found the racquet. Once again I would highly recommend against purchasing such fake tennis racquets. It’s clearly not worth getting a long term injury due to this. If you're really on a shoestring budget go buy the racquet 2nd hand but never purchase a fake tennis racquet. Also try to purchase your racquets only from a reputable dealer on online store unless you already know how to tell the differences between a genuine and a fake racquet.

More Images of Fake Babolat Pure Drive Here.