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Matched Racquets

Q: I’m looking to buy four older racquets, but from what I understand, the racquet that interests me changed specifications during its lifespan, so I need to do more than find four of them — I need to find four that match. Do racquets have serial numbers or some kind of marking so you know what batch they came out of? This would be a big help in my search.

A: While some racquets do have serial numbers, even if you had the manufacturing information to translate between the serial number and manufacturing batch, it would be of only marginal utility. Each of the racquet manufacturers has certain amounts of “tolerance” for specifications in its products, so even two racquets from the same batch can vary. If that variance is more than you’re looking for, then it doesn’t matter that the racquets are from the same batch. We’ve had two racquets purchased years apart from different vendors that had virtually identical specifications, and we’ve had five racquets purchased at the same time from the same vendor that while similar in weight, balance, and swingweight, had flex measurements ranging from 63 to 67. What this means is that no matter how carefully you buy your racquets, you’ll still need to have them measured to see how they match up.

From the February 2005 issue
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