I have been getting many emails and facebook requests asking to verify if a tennis racquet that had been purchase is either genuine or fake after I wrote my initial articles on the fake Babolat Pure Drive and fake Wilson K Blade 98. All these requests had one very similar thing in common and shared a common trait - They were all purchased from either online auctions sites or unknown China based websites not linked to any authorized tennis reseller or manufacturer.

I had the opportunity to get a first hand look of a fake Babolat Aero Pro Drive - APD (Cortex Version) courtesy of Lot Tan who is a moderator of Tennis Friendz Network a local tennis forum here in Singapore. He had acquired this racquet from eBay thinking it was a great buy and genuine tennis racquet. When he finally received the racquet, to much to his surprise, he discovered that there were some inconsistencies with it as I will highlight below in my review of the fake Babolat Aero Pro Drive (APD).


Before I start with my review, I would have to say that the counterfeiters manufacturing these fake racquets are getting even better at making these conterfeit racquets. I personally rate the Babolat Aero Pro here as a "Class A" fake. Unlike the fake Babolat Pure Drive, that I had previously reviewed, which had some glaring inconsistencies that you will be able to spot from a mile away, this fake Babolat Aero Pro Drive racquet bares an uncanny similarity to a genuine Babolat Aero Pro Drive in many aspects and it would take a fair bit of scrutiny comparing it with a genuine Aero Pro Drive to spot the differences. From a distance, I hardly could tell the difference! I hope my review and images below documenting the differences between a genuine and fake Babolat Aero Pro Drive would benefit the folks doing some research on the Aero Pro Drive before making a big mistake by purchasing a fake tennis racquet.


Differences between a Genuine Babolat Aero Pro Drive and a Fake Babolat Aero Pro Drive

1. Racquet Balance & Weight

This is almost a dead give away if you have the opportunity to physically see and examine the racquet. A weight balance test from the throat of the racquet reveals the "fake" Aero Pro Drive to be severely "head heavy". The entire racquet tips towards the head of the racquet. The genuine Babolat Aero Pro drive should be closer to an even balance.


2. Silver highlights versus Matte finish on wordings and logos

All the wordings and propriety Babolat Technology and brand logos on the genuine Babolat Aero Pro Drive contains a Silver finishing or gleam. The fake Aero Pro Drive only has a dull greyish finish.


3. Identical colored paintwork but different colored "Cortex" V shaped section

The "Yellow" coloring on the fake Babolat Aero Pro Drive are identical but the "White" has a more bright white coloring towards it. The genuine Aero Pro Drive has a more pearly yellowish white look. The most obvious give away here would be the more brightly yellow color on the plastic v shaped cortex section that is on the fake Aero Pro Drive compared to the more duller yellow found on the cortex section of the genuine Aero Pro Drive.


4. Totally different Grommets colors & Bumper guard design

Another dead give away here. The Grommets on the fake Babalat Aero Pro Drive are different in color. Its in black instead of grey and of low quality. The patterns on the grommets also are totally different compared to the orginal Aero Pro Drive. This comes as a surprise to me as as grommets are relatively cheap plastic and easy to manufacture. The counterfeiters went to such great lengths to fake the cosmetic look of the racquet, but didn't bother to invest any time on making a good imitation of cheap plastic grommets. The most logical reason would be perhaps they felt that the grommets would be the least looked at compared to the racquet cosmetics on the frame.


5 Different location of the Trade mark "TM" logo

The Trade Mark "TM" logo of the fake Babolat Aero Pro Drive is located inside the grommet section and the inner section of the racquet frame compared to the genuine Aero Pro Drive which has the "TM" logo visible on the outer side of the frame. Thing to also note here is the location of the spelling of "T" in the words Babolat. The fake Aero Pro Drive has the T spelling printed just stopping short of grooves where the grommets are housed. The authentic or genuine Aero Pro Drive has the "T" logo printed in the inner section of the grommet grooves.


6. Butt cap color and etched 3 letter character code.

The butt cap on the original authentic Babolat Aero Pro Drive is a deeper red in color and contains an additional product code. The genuine APD which I have had the 3 character codes "MAC" etched into it. There might be different codes etched into each genuine Aero Pro Drive but I guess the thing to generally look out for would be the deeper red color of the Babolat logo and a character code embedded at the bottom section of the butt cap.


7. Poor QC alignment in specification box.

The alignment on the specs section of the fake Babolat Aero Pro Drive is out of alignment. As you can see from the image below. The "XCEL" box and the words "COMFORT" is slightly crooked and misaligned for the fake APD. The counterfeit Babolat APD is the racquet at the bottom in the image below.


8. Paint overlay on the genuine Babolat Aero Pro Drive

A distinct paint over lay was noticed near the hologram section where the yellow paint intersects the white for the genuine Aero Pro Drive. You can literally feel the layer of yellow paint above the white paint causing an impression as you run your fingers through it and a bulge in the grip size sticker above it. In the case of the fake or counterfeit Aero Pro Drive, (APD) there is no pronounced yellow layer and it feels smooth to the touch. All these minor inconsistencies could be prevalent in other counterfeit Babolat racquets and might lead you to quickly determine if a future Babolat racquet you come across is either genuine or fake.


9 Racquet cover and zipper

The racquet cover on the fake Babolat Aero Pro Drive is noticeably much lighter than compared to an original Aero Pro Drive cover. The genuine APD racquet cover is much heavier and chunkier in feel. The color of the words "Aero Series" is different for both the genuine and fake racquets. The one on the genuine APD has the word "series" labeled in Green. The counterfeit APD had the entire words "Aero Series" all in Yellow.


The zipper on the genuine Aero Pro Drive has a greater quality finish, is much thicker in feel and has a matte finish look towards it. The zipper on the fake APD however has a more silvery look and feels much thinner to the touch. The logo on the zipper has a very crude look towards it indicating low quality control.


One possible way to check if your Babolat racquet is genuine.

Over the years and from experience using many Babolat tennis racquets. I realized that Babolat usually has two serial holograms on their racquets. One is located on the inner section of the racquet throat and the other is found on the handle of the racquet which is only accessible when you remove your original grip. The serial numbers of the two stickers should match. Refer to the image below of my genuine Babolat Aero Pro Drive.


Why you should never buy a fake tennis racquet racquet...

As I was doing this review of the fake Aero Pro Drive and examining the grommets I noticed that this fake APD was already damaged and the frame had been already cracked. Counterfeit racquets are known to use cheaper less stronger composites and materials that are bad for you arm. You can risk serious injuries playing with fake tennis racquets and I strongly urge you to never consider buying an imitation tennis racquet or fake tennis frame. In the case of this counterfeit APD, I believe the crack on the frame was its inability to handle the stresses put on the string. The fake APD had a hybrid synthetic string setup on it. I feel that its material was never built to handle the stresses put on this racquet due to its cheap composites. I have no reason to believe this racquet was abused in anyway as a crack on the inside of the racquet usually indicates more of structural fatigue. It could be the result that this racquet was strung at a higher tension or gave way during play. I was looking for further evidence of abuse but could not find any leading me to conclude that the crack was more of a structural failure due to bad composites than anything else as a fake racquet with its poor quality materials and composites could not simply handle the stringing tension and the racquet finally gave way.


Conclusion

If you have already purchase a fake tennis racquet, I'm sorry that this has happened, but its at least a good lesson learnt that you should never try to shave off a couple of bucks in costs and buy from a reputable tennis dealer or store instead of auction sites that you have no way of verifying if the tennis racquet you purchase is real or fake. My advice is to know as much as possible about a genuine racquet before you buy it. Try to physically see and touch the racquet assuming you're buying it off somebody and meeting the seller. It helps to know how the racquet feels - it's weight, balance and some aspects of its cosmetics. If you cannot physically see and touch the racquet as you're buying it online, I would highly recommend that you purchase your tennis racquets from either reputable online stores, sellers or dealers of authorized tennis racquets.

I am not saying that all sellers on online auction sites are selling fake racquets. Most sellers are selling genuine items and you can get them for a good deal as they might have purchased an original authentic racquet from an authorized store and might just want to sell it after sometime. This happens in most cases, but there are always some unscrupulous sellers who wants to sell fake tennis racquets to some unsuspecting buyers so the onus is on the buyer to always be aware and cautious when buying online. Many seller of fake products will posts images of the real product and sell you a fake product later. I sympathize with folks who don't really know much about tennis racquets and buy these imitation racquets thinking that they are genuine. Mind you these fake racquets are not exactly dirt cheap and still considerably cost some money. I sincerely hope my findings on the fake Babolat Aero Pro Drive would help some folks not get conned into buying a counterfeit product.

Incidentally the moderators on our local Singapore tennis forum does not condone in such illegal activities and will not hesitate to refer this matter to the local authorities. I hope similar tennis forums and online auction sites follow suit.