current crop of super-talented and charismatic French tennis stars, has joined the French brand, whose primary male endorsees include Spaniard, Rafael Nadal and American, Andy Roddick, who have both played with Babolat racquets for years.  Kim Clijsters and Dinara Safina are the most high-profile female tennis players who compete with Babolat racquets. 

Babolat, which was established in 1875 in Lyon, France, has been a family-run company for five generations.  Babolat, which was originally primarily known for its tennis strings, has slowly become a leading manufacturer of tennis racquets over the past decade or so. Babolat also produces tennis sneakers worn by Andy Roddick.  Clearly, having a leading French tennis player such as Tsonga join Team Babolat is very appealing to the Lyon-based, company.

Several top players such as Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic recently started wearing different tennis duds in January, but it is a much more significant move to change tennis equipment in mid career, especially when a player is at the height of his game such as Tsonga.  It can often be tricky to switch tennis racquets and strings while also maintaining the sometimes elusive, but always essential “feel” which a tennis players requires to play his/her best tennis.  Confidence is directly related to having the right “feel” to be able to tee off on a big point in the critical stage of a match.  In the beginning of 2009, Novak Djokovic struggled to find his rhythm after changing rackets during the off-season, but eventually found his form after several months and finished the year playing some of his best tennis.  However, one hopes that Tsonga will make a smooth transition from his current Wilson racquets to the Babolat model without any adverse effect on his play or fitness.  Given his semifinal finish at the 2010 Australian Open, Tsonga seems to be off to a great start!

Posted by TC at 02:42 AM |