Sports Marketing Surveys has obtained an assignment from the All England Lawn Tennis Club to deliver the Wimbledon Equipment Census for at least another three years, until 2020. This program provides the count of equipment used by all competitors at the championships, in main draw singles, doubles, wheelchair, junior and veterans' competitions. SMS Inc.'s on-site tracking included 612 competitors throughout the tournament in 2017. The market research company has delivered the census for 32 years, enabling it to observe the growing dominance of a few major brands in the racquets market. In the 2017 census, Babolat, Head and Wilson jointly accounted for three quarters of all racquets at the Championships. This compares with a rate of 41 percent for the top three brands in 1987, 68 percent in 1997 and 69 percent in 2007. Wilson has topped the count at 21 of the 32 tournaments. Babolat is part of the top three even though it only entered the count in 1997. Another major trend is the growing diversity of the nations represented at the Championships, since the top five nationalities accounted for 38 percent of entrants last year, compared with 57 percent 30 years ago. The methodology for the census has remained consistent over the years but the contents have evolved in line with the game and the habits of the players. As an example, the study has been expanded to take into account the fact that more and more competitors carry both racquet bags and additional equipment bags onto court.

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