Familiar territory Rafael Nadal has won Roland Garros 13 times
Grand Slam tournament. At this year’s FrenchOpen hewill be attempting towin his 22nd Grand Slamsingles title and extend his lead at the top of themen’s all-time list. Babolat have beenwithNadal throughout his professional career, tweaking their products tomeet his changing needs. “I think Babolat has been good for Rafa because he really has the right product for him,” Verborg said. “Any athlete needs the right equipment towin. Rafa has the right rackets andwe provide himwith good service – expertise on the racket, customisation, evolution, communication, service. Financially, with his contract, we have also shown to him that he is important. “In 2009 Rafa lost for the first time at the French Open, against Robin Soderling. It wasn’t the best year for him. I took the opportunity to tell Rafa and his team: ‘Our staffwould love to see you come to our offices.’ He came and Toni toldme: ‘We have
to change something –maybe something on the racket, on the strings, on the tension.’ At that time our R and D department were developing a new string. It wasn’t finalised at that stage, but Rafa tried it. At the time Rafa was playing with another Babolat string, but he switched to the RPMBlast. It showed howplayers always feed us with information that can help us to improve, though it’s also sometimes our job to find a solution. “It was the same when Toni wanted to change something with Rafa’s serve. We added two grams to his racket. In the hands of top professionals, rackets are like Formula One cars: just tiny changes can make amajor difference. Rafa used to tell me: ‘I’mnot a good tester.’ But I said to him: ‘You are. Even if you don’t manage to explain everything that you’re feeling about the racket, we can interpret what you’re thinking about it.’ It’s the job of our
Poster boy How Babolat have capitalised on Rafael Nadal's success
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