Rafael Nadal will hold Babolat racket until end of his career, says CEO
In an interview with Le Journal Dimanche, Eric Babolat recalled when they first met Rafael Nadal to sign a deal between the Spaniard and the French brand. "When Rafael decided to get fully involved in tennis, Toni brought him to pick a racket in the sports shop in Manacor, where he was told to buy a Babolat. His first contract was signed when one of our workers in Spain noted a prodigy, he was just 13 years old but we trusted on him. I met him for the first time in New York in the 2001 US Open. I saw him sitting in the hall of the hotel alone, a young player, still unknown. He was looking at me being very shy, but he did not speak English at all so we could not speak to each other. I found myself a bit stupid, probably he did not even know that my name was the producer of his racket.
Every year, at the end of the season, we do some tests in his home, we come with up to three prototypes, and we will quickly see whether it works or not. In 2015 he wanted even more power, spin, and we gave him new strings, but he had lost his control and he chose to come back to the previous formula, but he never changed the weight of his strings, 24kg. You will never see him throwing a racket or break it... There is a close relationship between the two things: his racket in his hand. Our company is run by a family, so Rafa sees the same people, it's important for him that's it's very familiar."
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2GEb3M2
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