Matching two racquets: why “the same model” is not enough
Updated: 1 hour ago
You break mid-game. You take out the second racquet — same model, bought the same day, same string, same tension. And something is off, without your being able to say what.
That something is measurable. Two frames from the same box can differ by several grams in mass and several points of swingweight. A manufacturer states a nominal value and a production tolerance, not the value of your particular unit.
What the gap costs
Timing. Swingweight decides what a stroke costs. A noticeable gap changes when the head arrives: you correct for it, without knowing, for two games.
Depth. A frame heavier in the head ploughs through more: same footwork, same stroke, different length.
Confidence. That is the real cost. You do not play the same point with a racquet you doubt.
How they are made identical
First the three quantities are measured on each frame — mass, balance, swingweight — then a target is chosen. The heavier frame sets the reference, because mass is added: it is never removed.
After that it is arithmetic and placement. Loading the head raises swingweight, compensating under the grip brings balance back without lowering it again, the buttcap adds mass with almost no effect on swingweight. The formulas and the zones are set out in the weight, balance and swingweight guide.
It ends with a check measurement. A pair announced as matched without a final reading is not matched: it is hoped for.
That dispersion belongs to the retail frame, not to ours. A Matcheur racquet is tuned to order, to the tenth of a gram: two units of the same reference leave the workshop already identical, with no matching to add. Matching exists for the frames you already own.
What matching cannot do
Frame stiffness (RA) and torsional stiffness cannot be adjusted by adding weight. Twistweight can be: it is the frame's inertia about its long axis — its resistance to twisting on an off-centre ball — and it is set by loading at 3 and 9 o'clock. Two frames far apart on those two points will stay two different frames, even at equal mass, balance and swingweight. That is the honest limit of the exercise, and it is better stated before starting than after. It is also why the whole adult range is fixed at 69 RA: two frames from the same range already start from the same point.
What breaks a pair up without anyone noticing
A matched pair does not stay matched on its own. Four things undo it, and none of them is visible.
A fresh overgrip on only one of them. An overgrip weighs something, and it goes on furthest from the hoop: it moves balance while doing almost nothing to swingweight. Change them together.
A lost dampener. Three grams around forty centimetres from the butt is not nothing: it is roughly two and a half swingweight points, and close to a millimetre of balance.
Strings of different ages. Two identical frames carrying two beds, one three months older than the other, do not play alike. Restring both on the same day, same number, same tension.
A repair. Rebuilding a zone adds material in one precise place. A repaired racquet is out of the pair until it has been measured again.
The case of three racquets
From three frames on, the question changes: it is no longer "make them identical" but "to what target".
The rule stays the same — you add mass, you do not remove it — so the target is set by the heaviest frame and by the one with the highest swingweight. Those are not always the same frame, and that is where the exercise becomes placement work rather than arithmetic.
In a tournament it is worth designating one as the reference and keeping it for matches. The other two follow it. A back-up racquet two points off is of no consequence; a match racquet two points off is paid for in the third set.
What the final record must contain
A matching job without a record cannot be verified, and what cannot be verified has no value.
The document should carry, for each frame: strung mass, balance and swingweight before the work, the same after, and where the added material went. With that, any workshop can pick the work up — including one that is not ours. That is the point.
When it is worth it
You alternate two racquets within a match, or change racquet at every ball change.
You play multi-day tournaments, where breaking a string is not a hypothesis but a schedule.
You have just had a frame repaired and you want it to find its twin again, to the gram.
In all three cases, matching is ordered online on the ProSetup tuning page: both frames are measured, brought to the same target, and you leave with the record of the values, before and after.
Both racquets are sent to our workshop, in Normandy; shipping details are given to you when you order. Allow two weeks.
Matching does not win matches. It removes one variable — the one that makes a racquet answer differently from another without anyone knowing why. You will only notice it the day you change racquet without thinking about it.
Matching is done on your own two frames, at the workshop in the Orne, and you leave with the recorded values of both racquets, before and after.
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