The State of the Racket Report

Players want control. The industry sells power.

Asked what they most want from a new racket, players put control first — and power dead last.

Walk through any brand's marketing and count how many times you see "explosive," "effortless power," "plays bigger." The gap between what recreational players say they're shopping for and what the industry's language sells them is the single most striking finding in this data.

A third of racket shoppers can't name the racket they play

Think about what that means for how this industry reaches customers: review sites, comparison videos, "vs" content — all of it assumes a shopper who knows what they have and wants to compare. Nearly one in three shoppers has nothing to compare from. They don't need a review; they need a fitting. This is the invisible third of the market.

The arm-health iceberg

One in five players chooses the arm-health fitting path — and among them, 70% report active pain. Elbow leads (45% of pain reports), then shoulder, then wrist. The rate climbs with age:

But the young base is large: arm pain in tennis is not an old-player problem. Here's the equipment kicker: among players who could name their strings, stiff polyester — the harshest common string on the arm — was the most-owned type even among players in pain. The comfort-equipment knowledge gap is real, measurable, and almost nobody is talking to these players.

When players get fitted, famous names lose their grip

The big four — Babolat, Wilson, Yonex, HEAD — account for 89% of the rackets players currently own. But when fitting matches players to frames by their actual game instead of by marketing exposure, demand redistributes:

Challenger brands' aggregate share outside Babolat, Wilson, HEAD, Yonex — Q2 2026 fittings.

Brand loyalty, it turns out, is partly just brand familiarity — and it softens fast when a player sees numbers about their own game.

Strings are the sport's biggest blind spot

"What string do you play?" produced more blank and unsure answers than any other question in the quiz — yet string choice is the cheapest performance and comfort change in tennis, a fraction of the price of a new frame. The average tension our fittings recommend is 52 lbs; most players have no idea what theirs is strung at. If you're looking for the highest-leverage upgrade in recreational tennis, it isn't a racket.

The market's center of gravity is the improver — and they're younger than you think

Three-quarters of players shopping for a racket rate themselves NTRP 3.0–4.0 — the vast improving middle of tennis, not beginners and not tournament players. And 57% are under 36. The "tennis is aging" storyline doesn't survive contact with actual racket shoppers: the boom generation isn't just renting court time, they're investing in gear — and half of them play three or more times a week.