And you thought Rafael Nadal had it all?
Rafael Nadal, one of the best all-rounders in tennis, ever, is just trying to get better. He has been called the man with the magic racquet. But the rackets he has been using are not as smart compared to what he now wields.
Rafael Nadal will he better his game with a smart tennis racquet?
Watching him knock out from the sidelines, you may not be able to make this high-tech racquet out from another. But they are rather different. The current one from Babolat has a switch that can be pushed on or off.
This smart racquet actually tells you where you hit the ball. The racket owes its intelligence to an app. There are sensors inside the handle of the racket. Once it is switched on, it records the placing of every ball that the player hits. At the end of a match or training session the player and his training team can download the data to a smart phone or computer. Then, the player and his training team can actually analyse, ball by ball, where the player went right and more importantly, where the player went wrong.
Babolat smart tennis racquet
Nadal has analysed his game to such an extent that he knows the percentage of shots he needs to play for a winning chance: 70 per cent forehands, 30 per cent backhands. This racket will help him check if he does that! Little wonder that he has already won 14 Grand Slams. During one practice session that lasted 1 hour and 31 minutes, Nadal hit 572 shots, or 22 per minute, including 156 backhands, 222 forehands, 118 serves and 76 smashes. The forehands had 133 topspins, 49 slices and 40 were flat.
Others using these rackets include Caroline Wozniacki and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Tennis is getting smarter!
Pictures under creative commons labelled licenced for reuse via Youtube and WSJ
