Rafael Nadal Explains Adding Weights to His Rackets

Written by: Staff on 20th January 2012

Rafael Nadal Explains Adding Weights to His Rackets

Spain's Rafael Nadal reacts after winning a point in his third round match against Lukas Lacko of Slovakia at the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne, Australia, 20 January 2012. EPA/JOE CASTRO AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND OUT |

Rafael Nadal says that the changes he made to his Babolat AeroPro Drive during the off season has already turned into a mental positive. The Spaniard fine tuned his racket’s swing weight by seven points, adding a few grams of weight to the head. He is still using the RPM Blast strings.

“I am happy,” Nadal said. “I did that because we believe that can be a really positive thing to help me in a few aspects of my game. It’s working well in practice.

“In Doha I had really positive feelings. You cannot make crazy changes having two weeks of preparation to start another season. You cannot have drastic changes in nothing in your life. All the changes must be slow.

At the beginning it was a little bit harder. After two weeks and a half practicing every day with top level guys, the feeling is quite normal. It gives you a little bit more power. It’s three more grams, just on the top of the racket.

On higher balls, you can hit the ball with a little bit more flat because the racket goes faster into the ball. The normal thing when you have a change like this, you lose a little bit of control in the beginning, you win a little bit more power at the beginning. At the end, after a few months, you feel like is your racquet.”.

Topics: Rafael Nadal