“I put more weight in the head to achieve more power.” Rafael Nadal reveals secrets behind the improving his tennis racquet to enhance his game
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Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal has managed to win the first two grand slams of 2022. Nadal was phenomenal in Melbourne where he pulled off one of the most special grand slam wins of his career. He successfully won his second Australian Open by defeating the top-seeded Daniil Medvedev in the finals.
Coming into the French Open Nadal was having problems with his foot. He was put into a really tough draw where he would’ve been against an in-form Novak Djokovic in the Quarter-finals. But you could never rule the Spanish Bull out on court Philippe Chartier.
Nadal had some very tough matches in the first four rounds which included a tiring five-setter against Felix Auger-Aliassime. But Nadal won those and reached the finals where he faced Djokovic who looked out of touch. Nadal capitalized on the opening and dominated his way into winning the match in four sets.
After Djokovic Nadal’s journey seemed to be quite straightforward. But Alexander Zverev put up a good fight in the first set of the Semi-finals which abruptly ended because Zverev got injured while chasing a ball on his forehand. In the finals, it was smooth sailing for Nadal against Casper Ruud, and the ‘King of Clay’ was crowned the Roland Garros champion for the 14th time in his career.
Rafael Nadal talks about changes he made to his tennis racquet
Rafael Nadal is considered to be a player with great power and strength. But he is incredibly smart as well, after the win at French Open, The Spaniard revealed how he varied the weight of his tennis racquet to suit his game.
He said, “Everything changes in this life. We have to adapt to things. Before, much more classical tennis was played on clay courts, like that of Casper [Ruud]. Nowadays, there are fewer players doing that, including myself. In general, things evolve. I’ve continued to change things, my racquet for example. At the start of the year, I changed the weight and the strings. I was playing with 1.35 kg [racquet weight] and now it’s 1.3 Kg. I put more weight in the head to achieve more power.”
“And there is another unusual thing; I went back to my old racquet two days before starting this Roland Garros. Now I’ll go back to the other one, the new one, but I felt that I didn’t have enough control to play on clay. I have to thank Babolat because they prepared the racquets for me in one afternoon. My feelings of control improved, but you have to adapt to everything that happens.” Nadal added
Also Read: Serena Williams reacts to Rafael Nadal’s historic 14th French Open triumph
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Parth Dubey
(314 Articles Published)