@ Josh ~ appreciate your response and addressing this however just to clarify I was speaking more in general terms. Babolat, Head, Prince, Wilson, Yonex, are in the SPORTS industry including TENNIS. >>> Sport & Tennis is often about competition, winning, and beating "Industry Standards". >>> Shouldn't these top brands strive for the same?
Do most top pros, who practiced for hours every day since they're kids, touring all over the world, occasionally experiencing injuries, settle for mediocracy and "industry standards"? No ~ they strive for #1. Furthermore, do they settle for retail racquets? No ~ they get special customized equipment. Despite this, in the 2011 Australian Open, Radwanska's racquet broke apart on impact. Not certain but THINK this MIGHT have been a Babolat ~ an issue I thought they focused on correcting ~ more on this later.
Us regular Joe Blow Consumers who commit, dedicate, and support these big racquet makers, thereby allowing & enabling them to afford millions $$$ in endorsements to top pros, are forced to settle for mediocracy with variances of up to 1/4 ounce!! Perhaps Warning Labels should be put on racquets!! What kind of impression is Babolat, Head, Prince, Wilson, Yonex, etc, putting on tennis, recreational players, and sports at large, by NOT competing or striving to improve quality? Bosworth and Angel don't necessarily have the huge advertising, marketing, and endorsement budgets as the big players.
In the last several years, albeit this applies to only two brand new Babolat racquets, both my purchases were defective. I think it was 2014 when I bought an AeroPro Drive, several years after Radwanska's racquet flying apart so I thought this issue would have already been corrected, but on mine the handle was loose. I then played Wilson for a few years. In 2018, only after my most recent purchase of a new Pure Aero with a sketchy bumper did I feel compelled ~ for the first time ever ~ to start researching "Quality Control". Should we get a subscription to Consumer Reports? We trust that build & quality is implicit & inherent in racquets, and these companies, like athletes, should always strive to improve.
If big name tennis brands are analogous to Honda, Nissan, & Toyota, perhaps they should offer "premium" lines like Acura, Infiniti, & Lexus. Imagine this for a Marketing Campaign! Then again, a couple 100 lbs variance in weight of cars, or Gas Mileage, don't have anatomical impact, whereas variances in sports equipment which shield your body from impact (tennis racquets, baseball bats hockey sticks), certainly could have an effect on health, and most importantly > your game. Counterfeit racquets and Knock Offs IMO are extremely scary. We want to feel confident that we know exactly what we're getting.
Recreational players don't want to have to get out a scale, measure specifications, get defective items, go back to the store, haggle with clerks, ship back items, wait for a return, and deal with warranty issues especially more than a year after facts emerge. This is why I requested the Authorized Dealer send me a new hoop & grommet set as opposed to complete racquet replacement, however I NOW know better to be more careful about future purchases. A brand new $200+ racquet several times per year isn't an option for most of us, and IMO one big-name-brand racquet should last at least several years. It seems lke every middle man gets his cut, but the end consumers who pay the most miss out on expected quality.