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Best Tennis Racket Brands

best tennis racquet brands

Undoubtedly, the most important piece of equipment needed to play tennis is the tennis racket. Tennis players have a wide variety of brands to choose from when selecting a racket, and most players are extremely partial to their brand of choice. Listed below are the best and most popular tennis racket brands currently on the market.

  1. Wilson
  2. Dunlop
  3. Head
  4. Prince
  5. Yonex
  6. Babolat
  7. Volkl
  8. Tecnifibre
  9. ProKennex
  10. Solinco

1. Wilson

Wilson is the greatest tennis manufacturer and is famous for its tennis balls and its signature tennis rackets. Founded in 1913 as the Ashland Manufacturing Company, tennis rackets were among the first products ever produced by the company, which was renamed the Thomas E. Wilson Company in 1915, after its then-president.

Over the years, Wilson has perfected its tennis rackets, making them among the most desirable in the sport, and the company has entered into partnerships with various high-profile tennis players over the years. Such athletes include Jack Kramer, who worked with Wilson to produce a line of signed tennis rackets in the late 1940s, which were sold for many decades. Today, the brand is used by dozens of star tennis players, many of whom are part of the company’s advisory staff. These athletes include tennis stars such as Roger Federer, Serena Williams, and Venus Williams.

2. Dunlop

Standing alongside Wilson as one of the oldest tennis brands, Dunlop has existed for over 130 years. Created in 1889 as a tire company, Dunlop began producing tennis equipment in 1923, patenting a new brand of tennis ball with greater quality and consistency. A decade later, in 1932, the company introduced the Maxply tennis racket, which quickly became the world’s leading tennis racket for 50 years, being used by tennis legends such as Rod Laver, Virginia Wade, and John McEnroe.

In 1962, Rod Laver, one of the sport’s great players, won all four Grand Slams in a single year while using Maxply rackets. In 1980, Dunlop launched the first-ever injection-molded carbon fiber racket, the 150G, which was followed by the 200G in 1982. In addition to tennis equipment, Dunlop sells squash, padel, and badminton equipment. Their tennis rackets are still popular today and are used by athletes such as Kevin Anderson and Jamie Murray.

3. Head

A newer entrant into the tennis manufacturing world, Head Tennis began producing tennis equipment in 1970, after being founded as a skiing company in 1950. Head was responsible for creating the first tennis racket with an aluminum frame, which was created for tennis pro Arthur Ashe, who used it to defeat opponent Jimmy Connors at Wimbledon in 1975.

This racket, known as “the Arthur Ashe Competition,” quickly became Head’s most famous racket, and the brand was used by many other tennis stars, including Guillermo Vilas and Thomas Muster. In 1998, Head patented and produced the first titanium tennis racket, a groundbreaking innovation in the sport.

Today, Head produces tennis rackets with Graphene technology and is still widely used. Famous tennis pros such as Novak Djokovic, Alexander Zverev, and Maria Sharapova have all been known to use Head rackets. 

4. Prince

One of the many popular companies that produced tennis rackets in the past, Prince has slowly faded in popularity in recent years, but it remains one of the many notable tennis companies in existence. The company was founded in 1970 by Robert H. McClure, who named the company after his hometown of Princeton, New Jersey. Initially a manufacturer of tennis ball machines, the company soon went on to produce rackets.

Prince’s first tennis racket was actually developed by Howard Head, the later founder of Head Tennis, who would go on to produce his own rackets. The aluminum Prince racket designed by Head was one of the first oversized tennis rackets to be produced, but though it was technically patented first, it was preceded in its development by the Bentley Fortissimo racket, and its patent was thus invalidated. Though Prince rackets have been used by a number of famous athletes over the years, among them Lucas Pouille and Iga Swiatek, in recent years, the brand has fallen out of style. However, some notable tennis athletes do still use Prince rackets, including John Isner of the United States, Nicolas Kicker of Argentina, and Pablo Andújar of Spain.

5. Yonex

Yonex is another notable tennis company that began in an entirely different industry. Founded in 1946 by Japanese businessman Minoru Yoneyama, the company originally produced wooden floats for fishing nets and then went on to develop badminton rackets after the business of wooden net floats was superseded by plastic.

The company’s first tennis racket was developed and produced in 1969, and over the years, the company developed numerous variations on their tennis rackets, including the first “isometric” tennis racket in 1980. Yonex tennis rackets have been used by a number of star tennis players, including Grand Slam Champions such as Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova, as well as other famous athletes like Monica Seles. Today, Yonex continues to produce high-quality tennis rackets that are used by many well-known athletes in the sport, including Grand Slam Champion Stanislas Wawrinka, who used a Yonex racket to win the Australian Open in 2014.

6. Babolat

The oldest company on this list, Babolat was founded in the year 1875 when both tennis and badminton were still developing as professional sports. The company’s founder, Pierre Babolat, invented the first natural gut strings used for tennis rackets only one year after Walter Clopton Wingfield created the first rules for lawn tennis. 

In 1925, the company again made groundbreaking changes to its products by developing the VS string, the first sustainable alternative for natural gut tennis strings. In the 1950s, Babolat was undoubtedly the most well-known tennis brand in the world and the first choice for players in numerous countries, from Argentina, to America, to Japan, and everywhere in-between. In 1955, the company invented its first nylon string, and in the 1960s, it patented a large number of racket accessories, from leather grips to a specialized coating to protect strings.

Accessorizing one’s racket in this way soon became known as “Babolising” a racket. The company gained further prominence in the 1980s when star player Björn Borg used Babolat rackets to help him secure hundreds of victories. Further innovations followed in the decades afterward, and today, Babolat rackets are still used by many star athletes in tennis, most notably Spanish phenom Rafael Nadal.

7. Volkl

Volkl is a German brand of tennis rackets that are popular with beginner and intermediate players. The company was originally founded as a ski brand, which they still produce, but they now also make snowboards, outerwear, and a variety of tennis gear, in addition to rackets.

Volkl has sponsored tennis legends such as Boris Becker, Petr Korda, and Jana Novotna, and they currently have endorsement deals with Laura Siegemund, Liezel Huber, and Stefanie Vögele. Some of their most popular racket models include the Tour 10 V-Engine, Quantum 10 Tour, DNX 10, and Team Speed. In addition to their reasonably priced rackets, Volkl also sells strings, grips, bags, tennis apparel, and accessories.

8. Tecnifibre

Founded in 1979 by tennis fan Thierry Maissant and F1 driver Hermano da Silva Ramos, Tecnifibre was formerly known as Major Sport, but ever since its inception, it has specialized in tennis strings. From the very beginning of the company, Tecnifibre has manufactured its racket strings in France, and still does to this day. They became known for being the first company to use polyurethane strings, and became the official stringing company of many ATP Tournaments in 1985, as well as the French Open in 1987.

While it manufactured strings for many years, Tecnifibre only began selling rackets of its own in 2004. Since then, it has become the official partner of the ATP World Tour since 2013. Tecnifibre’s rackets may be relatively new to the game, but with lines such as the TF40, T-Fight, TF-X1, Tempo, and T-Fit, Tecnifibre offers plenty of variety to the aspiring tennis player.

9. ProKennex

ProKennex is a Taiwanese tennis racket brand that was founded in 1978. In addition to their high performance tennis rackets, they are also known for making rackets for other sports. ProKennex was created with a focus on pickleball, which remains their primary area of innovation.

Today, ProKennex also makes rackets for squash and racquetball, making the brand an excellent choice across all racket sports. Some of their most popular tennis rackets are the Black Ace Pro and the Q+ Tour. ProKennex also sells bags, backpacks, strings, grip wrap, and accessories.

10. Solinco

Solinco is a California-based tennis equipment manufacturer that focuses on rackets and racket accessories, including strings, grips, and bags. With almost 40 years on the market, Solinco has been producing high-quality rackets for multiple generations of tennis players.

Solinco offers specialized tennis rackets for every type of player. Their three main tennis racket product lines are Blackout, Whiteout, and Junior. Both the Blackout and Whiteout lines feature five unique rackets, while the Junior product line features three unique rackets.

Honorable Mentions

  • Slazenger
  • Pacific
  • Lacoste
  • Donnay
  • Snauwaert
  • Angell
  • Toalson
  • Gamma

FAQ

What is the best tennis racket brand?

Wilson is the best tennis racket brand. They have been in business as a sporting goods company for over 100 years and have been making some of the world’s best tennis rackets for nearly as long. Wilson rackets have been used by some of tennis’s top stars, including Roger Federer, Pete Sampras, and Serena and Venus Williams.

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