Fabio Fognini Tennis Racquet

Fabio Fognini is one of the most colorful players on the ATP Tour. You never know what to expect from him and when he might throw a fit, completely give up on a game or play amazing tennis and beat the top players in the world. He is the embodied version of tennis roulette.

He has recently switched from Adidas to Italian clothing brand Hydrogen which is a “skull-inspired”, funky brand from Italy. What he has stayed true to however is his Babolat Pure Drive. Fognini endorses the latest paint job of the Babolat Pure Drive, but is actually playing a Babolat Pure Drive Original with has a slightly more raw feel and lower stiffness rating (not much vibration dampening technology though). I’m not sure with how much lead tape he uses, since he has quite whippy technique, I wouldn’t think it’s a lot. My guess would be some silicone in the handle and lead at 12 o’ clock under the grommets.

He strings his Babolat Pure Drive with Babolat RPM Blast strings, which are excellent strings when fresh, but when they go dead…they go dead (I used to play with RPM Blast myself for years). He uses Asics Gel Resolution 7 tennis shoes (great shoes!).

Buy Fognini’s gear at Tennis Express.

My Babolat Pure Drive Originals are sold and they are very hard to find so if you want to play with a setup similar to Fognini I would probably get a new Babolat Pure Drive since they’ve gone back to a more open string pattern (so called FSI and similar to the original) in the latest version.

Here are Fabio Fognini’s racquet specs from the website prostocktennis.com (you can still buy his racquet from there)

Head size:100 sq. in. / 645 sq. cm.
Length:27 in. / 68.6 cm.
Strung weight:11.8 oz. / 335 gr.
Strung balance:335
Stiffness:64
Grip size: L3 ( 4 3/8)
Grip type: Babolat Syntec + Overgrip
String pattern:16 Mains / 19 Crosses
Paint: Babolat Pure Drive GT (Painted Cortex)
Silicone:Yes
Lead:Yes