LONDON – Tennis racket brand Babolat, sponsor of Holger Rune, was not pleased with the Dane selling his smashed rackets online — the items have now been taken down.
“It is not our intention to promote broken rackets,” Marion Cornu, Tennis Business Leader at Babolat, told CLAY and RG Media.
The world No. 8 recently listed two destroyed rackets on his official online store, priced at US$7,231 each.
On Tuesday morning, the site was updated. None of the broken rackets were still for sale — only outfits worn by the player, accessories, and other merchandise from the five-time ATP champion.
“Holger Rune’s smashed rackets are ultra-rare collector’s items, used in official matches and only available in very limited numbers. Why? Because Holger rarely lets frustration take over. But when he does, the moment – and the racket – tells a story” read the Shop Holger Rune website.
“We are in talks with his agent. Obviously, it is not our intention to promote broken rackets. We must be consistent with our values, so we are working on this issue with his representatives,” Cornu said in London during the celebration of the French brand’s 150th anniversary, also the official sponsor of Wimbledon.
CLAY reached out to Holger Rune’s team. They said that no agent or member of the team had been contacted by Babolat, and that it was the Shop Holger Rune team who chose to take the rackets down due to the overwhelming media attention.
“Distracting Holger was never the intention”, they stated.
One of the rackets was sold before the listing was removed, and all proceeds will be donated to charitable causes.
Days earlier, Rune had said that part of the profits from the sales of his Babolat Pure Aero rackets would go to foundations he regularly supports.
“It’s important to show the work behind it”
Unlike other brands like Yonex, Babolat does not fine players when they break rackets. Instead, they prefer to raise players’ awareness of all the work that goes into making them.
“Obviously, a player breaking a racket can happen. You have to distinguish between breaking one racket once and doing it repeatedly. But in any case, we always talk with the player and their team so they become aware that it shouldn’t happen. Above all, for us it’s important to show them the work behind every racket,” Cornu told CLAY.
She illustrated this with the example of Benoît Paire, a specialist in racket destruction. The former world No. 18 was taken by the brand to its headquarters in Lyon, where he saw firsthand how a specialised team carefully crafts each racket.
“We even had Benoît prepare them himself, so he could understand the work behind it. That makes more sense to us than a fine: for players to realise that there are people behind their rackets contributing to their performance. So next time they want to break one, they’ll think about that,” the brand leader recounted.
Did Paire change his outbursts? “He still breaks rackets sometimes, but he says that experience changed his perception of the equipment. He had no idea what happened behind the scenes. It was a great experience for him.”
