Babolat Explained

Babolat
Location:	Lyons, France
Industry:	Sports equipment
Products:	Racquets, strings, accessories and shoes.
Revenue:	€141.2 million (2014)
Num Employees:	369

Babolat is a French tennis, badminton, and padel equipment company, headquartered in Lyon, best known for its strings and tennis racquets which are used by professional and recreational players worldwide. The company has made strings since 1875, when Pierre Babolat created the first strings made of natural gut. Babolat continued to focus on strings until 1994, when it became a "total tennis" company, producing also racquet frames and selling them in Europe. It then expanded sales to Japan, and later to the United States in 2000. Sales of Babolat racquets increased rapidly in North America and Europe. Babolat is also a pioneer in connected sport technology and launched a connected tennis racket in 2014^[1] and a connected wrist-worn tennis wearable with PIQ in 2015.^[2] The Babolat Pop is used worldwide, and one of the leaders in tennis sensors.

Notable Products

Strings

RPM Blast, one of the most popular polyester strings known for its spin potential.

VS Gut, a leading and original natural gut string

Racquets

Pure Aero (formerly AeroPro Drive) known for its spin potential and usage by Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz.

Pure Drive blue power-oriented racquet used by Andy Roddick.

Sponsorships

Men

Source:^[3]

• Federico Delbonis
• Thanasi Kokkinakis (to 2021)
• Jordan Thompson
• Dominic Thiem
• Thiago Monteiro
• Félix Auger-Aliassime
• Cristian Garín
• Carlos Alcaraz
• Rafael Nadal
• Albert Ramos Viñolas
• Stéphane Houdet
• Benoît Paire
• Cameron Norrie
• Fabio Fognini
• Taro Daniel
• Yūichi Sugita
• Evgeny Donskoy
• Mikael Ymer
• Ryan Harrison
  • Maxime Cressy Sam Querrey
• Jack Sock
• Luke Watson

Women

• Samantha Stosur (to 2018)
• Kirsten Flipkens
• Elise Mertens (to 2018)
• Yanina Wickmayer
• Eugenie Bouchard (to 2018)
• Leylah Fernandez
• Wang Xinyu
• Zheng Saisai
• Ana Konjuh
• Karolína Plíšková
• Kristýna Plíšková
• Garbiñe Muguruza
• Anett Kontaveit
• Alizé Cornet
• Heather Watson
• Sara Errani
• Camila Giorgi (to 2021)
• Yulia Putintseva
• Magda Linette (to 2022)
• Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (to 2014)
• Amanda Anisimova (to 2022)
• Jennifer Brady
• Danielle Collins
• Sofia Kenin

Retired players

• Mariano Puerta
• Samuel Groth
• Kim Clijsters
• Fernando González
• Li Na
• Peng Shuai
• Mirjana Lučić-Baroni
• Caroline Wozniacki
• Carlos Moyá
• Pauline Parmentier
• Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
• Johanna Konta
• Julia Görges
• Francesca Schiavone
• Agnieszka Radwańska
• Nadia Petrova
• Dinara Safina
• Elena Vesnina
• Viktor Troicki
• Timea Bacsinszky
• Dominika Cibulková
• Catherine "CiCi" Bellis
• Andy Roddick

Notes and References

1. Web site: Kiss. Jemima. 2015-05-04. Tennis just got smarter with the Babolat Play connected racket - review. live. 2021-05-11. the Guardian. en. https://web.archive.org/web/20150526190356/http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/may/04/babolat-play-smart-racket-tennis . 2015-05-26 .
2. Web site: Palermo. Philip. 2015-08-28. Babolat and PIQ team up for a pair of wrist-worn tennis wearables. live. 2021-05-11. Engadget. en-US. https://web.archive.org/web/20201108124440/https://www.engadget.com/2015-08-28-babolat-pop-piq-sensors.html . 2020-11-08 .
3. Web site: Babolat Players Sponsored . babolat.co.uk . Babolat . Jun 12, 2020.