September 2026

Two months ago, we announced that Zenniz has become Decathlon's Official Tennis Equipment Testing Partner. From first contact a year ago to building a custom test model engineered around Decathlon’s testing model, Zenniz is now in active use by Decathlon’s product engineering team.

To highlight the uniqueness of this partnership, we joined a racquet testing session to understand what objective testing actually looks like and how important it is for the world’s biggest sports equipment retailer. Decathlon’s Product Engineer Jean Philippe Richard has spent almost 20 years with Decathlon and knows the importance of having the best technology available, like Zenniz, to test products.

"Very few people know this, but Decathlon is not only a retail company. When I arrived almost 20 years ago, I was very surprised to discover how much we invest in product quality and performance. What other brands put in marketing, we spend on engineering and testing to provide the best for half the price.”

Decathlon’s dedication to quality

Decathlon's pitch to tennis players has always been the same: performance close to the big brands, at close to half the price. The problem is that "half the price" tends to read as "half the quality" — even when it isn't.

"In Decathlon, we have to demonstrate that our tennis products are as good as the competitors," JP told us, "because the prices don't give confidence. We are almost twice less expensive. In terms of performance — or the image of performance — people can have doubts. So we use objective measurements. And it's thanks to Zenniz that we can achieve this."

The protocol, enabled by Zenniz: one stroke, 16 balls, every data point captured

To analyze performance between racquets, every racquet is tested with the same string, the same tension, and the same ball. A single player hits a standardized groundstroke — a forehand from the baseline — 16 times per racquet, across multiple sessions. Zenniz's system captures the data on every single ball per racquet: ball speed, net clearance, depth, and starting angle.

Every racquets’ results get averaged, and these “averages of averages” get compared in between racquets. "The protocol has to be as simple as possible to be repeatable," JP explained. The custom test model built by Zenniz enables Decathlon to access shot-specific data and deeply analyze the differences between racquets. "We are amazed by Zenniz’s reactivity, and their notion of a win-win relationship when building this model for us," JP added. "They were open-minded, able to understand our problem, and able to build the system to answer our testing needs — in less than three months."

Testing in action: Seven unique racquets, one shared conclusion

In the session we joined, Decathlon tested seven racquets side by side, grouped by weight class (300g, 280g, and 265g frames): Decathlon's own Kuikma Power Pro 300 and Kuikma Control Pro 300, alongside category heavyweights, including the Babolat Pure Drive, Babolat Pure Aero, Yonex Ezone 100, Head Radical MP, and Wilson Blade.

The result from the session, in JP's own words: "To be honest with you, on all these racquets we've tested, in terms of pure performance — speed, net clearance, depth, stroke angle — they are very similar. All racquets, all over the world, use the same kind of materials and the same kind of process. The price you see in a shop — the catalog price — is a market price, not a technical price. Mechanically speaking, these racquets are more similar than you’d think.” 

What then makes a great racquet?

If price isn’t directly indicative to racquet performance, how should tennis players choose which racquets to use? This is what JP suggests:

"Forget the price, forget the brand, and test. If you like it, it's a racquet for you. If you don't, test another one. But trust yourself with the feeling."

Because underneath all the sensors and averages, JP is clear that tennis is still "a sport of feelings, timing, and compromise." Swing weight shapes timing. Vibration shapes feel. And what compromise a player needs — power versus control, speed versus strength — depends entirely on their skill level and ambitions. So to find your racquet, get out there and test what feels best for you! 

Zenniz - Decathlon’s Official Tennis Equipment Testing Partner