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How often to change racquets

Q: Do you have a recommendation as to how often a 4.0-5.0 player who plays three or four time a week should change racquets?

A: Our contacts at Babolat, Dunlop, Fischer, Gamma, Head, Prince, Tecnifibre, Volkl, Wilson, and Yonex recommend changing racquets each time a new model becomes available. If this approach is not feasible, your best bet is to change racquets only when you feel like it. For all intents and purposes, modern tennis racquets don’t wear out. (See Racquet Fatigue for more details.)

At tennis facilities everywhere, there are plenty of great players using well maintained 5-to-20 year-old racquets with no problem. Just make certain you have a good supply of bumperguards. If the bumperguards for your frame are no longer available through normal channels, USRSA members can contact the Grommets Network (grommets@racquettech.com) to enlist the aid of other USRSA members who might have them in stock.

Of course, if you are wearing out racquets, it’s a different matter. In this case, it depends on how hard you are on them. The more trips your racquets make to the fence, net posts, court surface, and other hard objects, the more often you’ll need to replace them.

See all articles by Greg Raven

From the November 2008 issue
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