Taro Daniel defeated Novak Djokovic in Indian Wells and tennis nerds are likely wondering: what is Taro Daniel’s tennis racquet? This article will give you more insight to what tennis racquet Taro Daniel uses.
Taro Daniel’s tennis racquet is a Babolat Pure Drive (read my review here of the latest edition of the Babolat Pure Drive 2018
) and according to Babolat’s official website he is stringing it with Babolat RPM Team strings
. I find that hard to believe when looking at the string bed and considering that the RPM Team string is a softer, more powerful string than the flagship Babolat poly strings Babolat RPM Blast
(used by Rafael Nadal, read about Rafael Nadal’s tennis racquet in this post) and RPM Blast Rough
(as used by Dominic Thiem, read about Dominic Thiem’s tennis racquet in this post). It could work well as a hybrid with something firmer, but I doubt a pro player using it in a full string bed.
Taro Daniel’s tennis racquet – What generation of Pure Drive is it?
Studying pictures of Taro Daniel’s tennis racquet, you’ll see a yellowish string, which I would assume is the Babolat Pro Hurricane Tour
, possibly in a hybrid setup
with natural gut. It’s also difficult to know what version of the Babolat Pure Drive that Taro Daniel is using. There are many generations of the Pure Drive (I think seven off the top of my head), but they all play fairly similar. You see players like Fabio Fognini, for example, use early versions of the Babolat Pure Dirive under a so called paint job, likely because he’s used to that racquet and maybe also due to the lower stiffness compared to today’s tennis racquets. If you want to know about Fabio Fognini’s tennis racquet, click here.
Sadly, I don’t have more detailed information about Taro Daniel’s tennis racquet. He says in a video by Babolat: “I’ve always played with the Pure Drive and I don’t think I would be able to play with another racquet.” This is obviously partly marketing jargon, but it also shows how closely connected pro players can be to their racquets (read more about pro player racquets in this post).
What does this mean for Djokovic’s comeback and Taro Daniel’s future?
In terms of what happened in the match with Novak Djokovic (read about Novak Djokovic’s tennis racquet here), it looked like Djokovic dominated the match confidently in the first set, but somehow lost his concentration at 5-2 up and Daniel came back to take the set in a tie-break. Djokovic fought back hard to win the second set 6-4 but looked completely deflated in the third and lost it 1-6. It was quite evident that Djokovic was rusty from lack of match practice and potentially also suffered a bit from his previous elbow injury.
““It is what it is…You know, obviously I miss tennis. In one way, I miss competing. I miss being out there. It’s a big part of my life…But I was grateful to be out on court that quickly after surgery.” Djokovic said after the match.
I personally don’t think it’s a cause for alarm at this point in Djokovic’s career. He is just back from injury and met a talented player who was hungry for a win on the big stage. So you can’t read that much from the loss. Djokovic will likely play better already in Miami.
What awaits for Daniel is hard to say. He’s obviously a talented player who can perform on the big stage. The big question mark is the consistency. But it would be fun to see him do well this year and he is as comfortable on clay as on the hard court as he travelled a lot to Spain in his early years.
Facts about Taro Daniel
- Taro Daniel’s tennis racquet is a Babolat Pure Drive. Not sure which generation.
- He endorses RPM Team strings, but it could RPM Blast, Pro Hurricane or some hybrid setup with natural gut strings.
- Daniel is currently ranked 109 in the world, his career high is 85.
- He is 25 years old, was born in New York and speaks three languages fluently: Japanese, English and Spanish. He lives in Tokyo.
- His height is 1,91 (6’3″) and he weighs around 76 kg.
Do you know what generation of Pure Drive and strings Taro Daniel plays with? And what do you think of Djokovic’s performance in his first match after injury? Please comment below!
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3 comments
Hi, I was wondering if you had any informations on Yuichi Sugita racquet spec. It seems like he is also using the pure drive with Pro Hurricane Tour string ?
He does use an older Pure Drive in a new paint job, but not sure which year. It should be Pro Hurricane Tour string, yes. Will update if I find more!
He uses hurricane tour 125/vs 130 in the prepackaged set from babolat. I forgot his tension. As for generation, it’s the prior to the 2015 model. Customized by tennis house zest in Japan. Myself and my friend who have been handling the stringing at the hall of fame open do his racquets when he is there