Fake Tennis Racquets

We continually warn people about the threat of fakes on eBay but our customers continually get caught out. We decided to put together this page to show you the how good a fake racquet can look.

The below Flexpoint Radical Tour was purchased on eBay.

Looking at it from this photo, it's very hard to tell if it's a fake or genuine racquet. Furthermore, most of the eBay sellers use photos from other websites so you don't actually see a real photo of the racquet they are selling.

I can assure you that this racquet is a fake and we actually have it in store if you wish to visit us and see it for yourself. But to help you identify the differences between this racquet and a genuine one, we've taken some further photos.

We've started by taking a photo of the fake racquet next to a genuine one.

Can you spot any differences yet? Firstly you may have noticed the grip is a different colour. Not only is it a different colour, but it's a very poor quality grip too.

Other differences are a little bit more subtle. Lets have a look at some of them.

You can see from the photo above that there is a significant colour difference between these two racquets (the top one is genuine). You can also see that the fake is missing the word "flexpoint" on the side of the racquet.

You can also see from this photo that the head sizes are not the same. We believe the head size on the fake would be closer to a Radical Oversize than the Radical Tour which is meant to be 100 square inches.

You can see that the plastic centre of the flexpoint is not centred or flush with the frame, whereas the genuine racquet is right in the middle and flush.

A keen racquet enthusiast will also know that the Flexpoint Radical Tour has 16 mains offering a player more spin with its open string pattern. But you can see from the photo above that this counterfeit racquet has 18 mains.

Whilst our photo here is not extremely clear, you can see that the writing inside the throat of this racquet is not straight.

Unfortunately the biggest difference between this fake and a genuine racquet cannot be shown through a photo. Of course we are referring to how the racquet plays. It's embarrassing that even a fake racquet manufacturer could release a racquet that plays so badly. We measured the balance on this racquet and found it was 14 points head heavy.

We welcome you to visit our shop and pick up this counterfeit (you'll need to ask for it) and you will instantly feel that there is no weight in the handle and it feels like a big hammer.

We hope that this page goes further towards preventing customers from getting caught by the fraudulent activities occuring on eBay with tennis racquet sales. Please note that there are varying qualities of fakes, some are so good that we cannot even tell and others are so obvious any consumer would pick it.

To prevent being caught, we strongly recommend you only purchase your racquets from an Authorised Dealer. You can contact the racquet company to ask if the supplier is authorised. Feel free to contact us if you need the number.

Fakes are not just unique to racquets, these days string brands like Signum Pro and Luxilon are being continually copied due to their success.

If you wish to engage in a discussion about fake racquets on eBay, please visit this page.