Eric Babolat on Nadal: "We were able to become part of his family".

Throughout his career, Rafael Nadal has used Babolat rackets.

CEO of the famous brand, Eric Babolat spoke of his meeting with the Spanish champion and the evolution of his career in an interview with local media AS.

"He was nine the first time we met him. The racket he had was a Babolat, a Pure Drive. We didn't know that.

A year or two later, our representative in southern Spain heard about him, about the fact that there was a very good young boy.

When he was twelve, we signed his first contract as a junior ambassador, and we'd had several in Spain and around the world," Babolat began.

"After that, we had a lot of discussions, and we were able to accompany him on court at major tournaments like Roland-Garros and Wimbledon.

We also spent a lot of time off-court as we went to Manacor, where we worked with him to prepare for the season, to see what equipment he wanted.

We got to meet the man and the champion, and become part of his family. We're a family business; I'm the fifth generation of Babolat.

And that made all the difference to him and his family in this world where businesses only last a few years."

"Rafa has always trusted Babolat to provide him with the right equipment, the right racket and the right strings.

We invented a category of racket that didn't exist for him, the Aero, because he played with a lot of top spin, something unique.

Somehow, it was easy to meet his needs, as he was always asking us for more spin.

Rafa pushed us to design better products, and it worked out well. He always trusted us," he enthuses.