PA frame durability issues

[prb3512]

Last night I was playing with a friend who has a PA team. He likes really lite rackets. He cracked the frame by hitting the sole of his shoe. He didn't even seem to hit it very hard.

I have been looking at new rackets. The PA and PAT are on my demo list. If this is normal for them, I'm a little scared of having to replace it too quickly.

Thoughts on build quality and durability...?

 

[Say Chi Sin Lo]

Last night I was playing with a friend who has a PA team. He likes really lite rackets. He cracked the frame by hitting the sole of his shoe. He didn't even seem to hit it very hard.

I have been looking at new rackets. The PA and PAT are on my demo list. If this is normal for them, I'm a little scared of having to replace it too quickly.

Thoughts on build quality and durability...?

How about telling your friend to not hit the sole of his shoes with the racquet unless you guys are on clay?

 

[prb3512]

How about telling your friend to not hit the sole of his shoes with the racquet unless you guys are on clay?

Ok yes, stupid and easy enough to say. However, what does that say about the build quality? I mean hitting a shoe... I'm thrown my Aero Storm Cortex Tour at the fence a number of times in frustration and nothing has happened. Not even a scratch. Just trying to figure out if there have been some noticeable build quality issues and if it's even worth demoing. If the issue he had with it cracking for something so easy then it isn't a stick I'd want to invest time into looking at.

 

[StringingIrvine]

a long long time ago i cracked a racket maybe 3 inches down from the bottom of the head, on the yoke side of the racket. I think it was a hypercarbon 5.3 hammer. I went for a drop shot and some how it ended up hitting my shin and the racket cracked. My shin didn't even hurt, i took to back to the store i got it at and they said it was a defect and replaced it promptly.

Looks like your friend just got a bad one. Sometimes the there are material flaws that can't be seen at the factory, not anyone's fault really.

but... I echo what Say Shi Sin Lo said, don't hit your shoes

 

[RVAtennisaddict]

Idk.
Normal play I cracked 4 prince blacks. Exact same spot. Two prince white. Stopped playing prince be of that. All just above 3/9:00 in the port site.

Before my prince experience.
My Wilson 6n1 near where the throat connects to the hoop.

 

[Daniel_K]

Sounds like a fluke, babolat frames are usually pretty sturdy.

 

[skfx]

My PAT has large chunks of paint chipped off from the same use I put all my other racquets including APD (never had any paint chipped off like that in all the years on a new frame)...Looks like Babolats QA is getting worse.

 

[jarko111]

The APD was known for this. I know players who actually continued to play with there's so long as the crack didn't go all the way through the frame. All strung with the Big Bangers Alu.

 

[Karma Tennis]

Tennis raquets, especially the hoops of tennis racquets are designed and engineered like Open Wheeler Race Car suspension systems. They can absorb incredible amounts of force applied to them from specific directions. But they are otherwise very fragile.

If you are going to whack your shoes with the racquet, much better to make contact with the string bed rather than the frame's hoop. An added benefit of doing it that way is it's less likely to injure your foot or ankle