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Rafael Nadal tennis racquet

Babolat Pure Aero La Decima Racquet

by TN February 27, 2018

written by TN

The Babolat Pure Aero La Decima Racquet is here. In 2017 Rafael Nadal won his tenth Roland Garros title, also known as “La Decima”. This is obviously a great marketing opportunity for Babolat to launch a “La Decima Pure Aero” racquet and bag.

So what is new with the Babolat Pure Aero La Decima Pure Aero racquet if you compared it with the traditional Babolat Pure Aero? Well, nothing really. It’s just a paint job. Similar to what Wilson did when they blacked-out the Wilson Pro Staff RF97 Autograph and increased the price. The Babolat Pure Aero La Decima racquet arguably looks cool but can a paint job justify a price tag? For a lot of buyers and fans of Rafael Nadal, I’m pretty sure it can.

Is Nadal really playing with the Babolat Pure Aero La Decima racquet?

As most tennis nerds and racquetholics know, Rafael Nadal is not playing with the Babolat Pure Aero, but with the first edition of the racquet line, the Babolat AeroPro Drive Original. He has also been increasing the amount of lead tape on the racquet to increase his power and to become more dangerous on faster courts. It would have been interesting if they had released a Babolat Pure Aero Rafael Nadal Autograph instead with an increased weight and swing weight instead of just a pure paint job.

I think the bag makes a little more sense as it incorporates all his RG titles into the design.

Custom paint jobs on tennis racquets

Different paint jobs and customizations for recreational players is all the rage with the racquet companies these days. Wilson has their “Custom” program where you can get your Wilson racquet painted in the color-way of your choice for an extra 50 USD. You can also add your name. Underdog racquet company Angell Tennis has now graphic wraps and colour wraps where you can change the design of your frame by applying a wrap, similar to what is done in the car industry. I haven’t tried them myself but sounds like a great idea as it also serves as a protection to the frame in a way.

So showing your identity and brand on court seems to be important for a lot of players and there’s definitely nothing wrong with that as long as you’re willing to pay the premium price for it. I’m no stranger to impulse buying myself when it comes to tennis gear, but in the case of limited tribute racquets, I try to take it easy.

What do you think of the La Decima release of the Babolat Pure Aero? Would you buy it?

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February 27, 2018 0 comment

Pro player racquets

Tennis Racquets of the ATP Professionals

by TN May 26, 2017

written by TN

Do you wonder what racquets tennis professionals use? It is rarely the racquets they advertise but something called pro stock racquets with a paint job of the latest commercial racquet model. This post will help you get insight into what racquets the tennis pros really use.

The tennis racquet industry needs to sell racquets to survive and the best way to sell a racquet is for a popular and successful player to endorse and market it. But since most tennis pros are meticulous about their gear, and the tennis racquet is so important, they would not want to change racquets willy nilly. Instead they use the racquet model they are used to. It is then usually customized to their specs and the company paints it as a new model and the player “endorses” this line of racquets. The racquet they really use under the so called paint job is usually referred to as a pro stock tennis racquet.

Tennis Racquets of the ATP Professionals – behind the scenes

Sometimes it is pretty close to what they are actually using. For example, Rafael Nadal plays the first edition of the Babolat Aero Pro Drive, but has always been endorsing the latest Aero Pro or Pure Aero line of tennis racquets from Babolat – right now being the Babolat Pure Aero. They are quite similar however, so it does not feel like a complete deception. It is similar with Nick Kyrgios who is using the Yonex Xi 98, but is endorsing the latest model Yonex Ezone 98.

Then we have a guy like Andy Murray who is playing with a very flexible 20-year-old tennis racquet (with a string pattern that was never available to the public – the 16×19 version of the HEAD Pro Tour 630 is called PT57A in pro stock lingo). It has a true racquet face of 95 sq inches while he has been endorsing the Head Radical line of tennis racquets in its countless different iterations.

Same goes for Novak Djokovic who has been endorsing a 100 sq inch racquet with the HEAD Speed line, but is using a 95 sq inch model based on an old racquet with the HEAD pro stock code PT113B. You can not buy Novak Djokovic’s real racquet in stores, but that does not mean the racquet he endorses, the Head Graphene XT Touch SpeedPro, is a bad racquet.

Tennis Racquets of the ATP Professionals – Do we all need a pro stock racquet?

So this is just the name of the game. Most recreational players will do fine with a good retail tennis racquet and need not worry about buying a pro stock racquet unless they really, really want to. And if you are not happy with your current racquet setup or have not found one with the specs you like, remember that you can always customise the racquet to your liking.

I have written a good number of posts on what the ATP professionals really use and here is the list so far. Please let me know if there is a player missing and I will try to find out what he uses. I have also reviewed a lot of retail racquets and you can find a decent overview on this page. Also, if you want to buy a new racquet – you will find a few decent guides here:

Racquet buying guides

ATP Professionals and their tennis racquets

Roger Federer
Rafael Nadal
Novak Djokovic
Andy Murray
Stan Wawrinka
John Isner
Tommy Haas
Kei Nishikori
Lucas Pouille
Dominic Thiem
Milos Raonic
Juan Martin Del Potro
Marin CIlic
Nick Kyrgios
Alexander Zverev
Borna Coric
Jack Sock
Richard Gasquet
David Ferrer
Grigor Dimitrov
Gael Monfils
David Goffin
Albert Montanes
Nicolas Almagro
Carlos Moya
Pete Sampras
Sam Querrey
Yoshihito Nishioka
Malek Jaziri
Vasek Pospisil
Noah Rubin
Taylor Fritz
Pablo Cuevas
Evgeny Donskoy
Robin Haase
Damir Dzumhur
Pablo Carrena Busta
Victor Estrella Burgos
Nicolas Mahut
Casper Ruud
Nikoloz Bashilashvili
Ryan Harrison
Pierre Hughes-Herbert
Jeremy Chardy
Dustin Brown
Thanasi Kokkinakis
Denis Shapalov
Stefanos Tsitsipas
Tomas Berdych
Mischa Zverev
Andreas Seppi
Roberto Bautista-Agut
Gilles Simon
Benoit Paire
Denis Istomin
Feliciano Lopez
Reilly Opelka
Marcos Baghdatis
Luca Vanni
Frances Tiafoe
Gilles Muller
Jack Sock
Dan Evans
Dominic Thiem
Jordan Thompson
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga
Fabio Fognini
Philipp Kohlschreiber
Daniil Medvedev
Fernando Verdasco
John Peers
Steve Johnson
Alexander Zverev
Hyeon Chung
Kyle Edmund
Albert Ramos
Bryan Bros
Viktor Troicki
Tommy Robredo
Andrei Rublev
Felix Auger-Aliassime

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May 26, 2017 7 comments

Pro player racquets

Rafael Nadal’s Tennis Racquet

by TN May 23, 2016

written by TN

What is Rafael Nadal’s tennis racquet? Nadal endorses the Babolat Pure Aero but plays with an AeroPro Drive Original painted to look like one.

Rafael Nadal’s tennis racquet is not what a lot of people will tell you it is. Rafa endorses the Babolat Pure Aero racquet but actually uses the Babolat AeroPro Drive Original that he strings with Babolat RPM Blast strings. Like I’ve written about so many times before, what you see on TV is not really what the tennis pros actually play with (except for in some rare cases, like with Roger Federer’s tennis racquet. The pro players are most often using pro stock racquets in various paint jobs. If you want to find out what racquets other ATP pros actually use…read this post.

So why is Rafael Nadal’s tennis racquet painted like the Babolat Pure Aero? Well, because Babolat want to sell more racquets and selling a more than ten-year-old model is not really feasible for them (or other brands in the tennis industry). So instead they do what most racquet companies do these days, keep producing the Aero Pro Drive Original for Rafa, but paint it like the latest model.

Check out the racquet Nadal endorses (the Babolat Pure Aero) at our affiliates Tennis Warehouse, Tennis Warehouse Europe and Tennis Only.

Rafa did try to play with the Pure Aero model (or at least the similar FSI string pattern) for a few tournaments while he was struggling, but he didn’t get the results he was looking for and didn’t completely trust his shots with the added power that the Pure Aero is offering. So he went back to the Aero Pro Drive Original.

Rafael Nadal’s Tennis Racquet – The Specs

If you ask the tennis gear lovers at forums like TTW, you’ll get detailed answers like this (from poster “Romain”, but it’s hard to know for sure. What I do know for sure is that Nadal over the years has kept adding more weight to his racquets to increase power and stability. Ways you can add weight and customize your racquets include adding lead tape to the frame, there is also so-called balancer tape from Babolat that includes tungsten and not lead (which can be poisonous so wash your hands when using it!).

– Babolat Aero Pro drive 2005 (4 1/4) in Pure Aero 2019 paint
-17g lead: 12g at 12 and 5g in the handle
– Babolat Syntec Pro Black + Babolat Vs Original White
– Babolat Custom Damp
– Balance Strung: around 335 mm
– String: Babolat RPM blast 1.35
– Racquet weight strung: 340 grams (including dampener and overgrip).

Rafael Nadal normally wear Nike shoes, a market leader in sports shoes for basketball and volleyball and other sports.

How do you feel about this? Do you feel cheated because the racquet companies aren’t upfront with what their top players are playing with? Or is this just marketing and we should let it go? Let me know in the comments.

Rafael Nadal’s list of tennis gear

Babolat Pure Aero Play edition
Babolat RPM Blast
Nike Lunar Ballistic Tennis Shoes
Nike Men’s Challenger Rafa tennis shirt
Nike Men’s Summer tennis shorts
Babolat Pure Aero tennis bag

Some general info about Rafael Nadal:

AGE 33(1986.06.03)	TURNED PRO 2001	WEIGHT 188LBS(85KG)	HEIGHT 6’1″(185CM)
BIRTHPLACE MANACOR, MALLORCA, SPAIN	RESIDENCE MANACOR, MALLORCA, SPAIN	PLAYS LEFT-HANDED, TWO-HANDED BACKHAND	COACH CARLOS MOYA AND TONI NADAL

May 23, 2016 24 comments