Just as the Arizona Cardinals and Pittsburgh Steelers finish their games and move on to the final game of the NFL season, the Superbowl, another favorite sport of mine is kicking off the Grandslam season down under. I am speaking of tennis. The early round coverage is found on ESPN and the Tennis Channel. Multiple matches are televised, and I am currently watching the Carlos Moya match against a 20 year old russian. Andy Roddick breezed through his match. Another two players I will be watching closely is No. 4 seed Andy Murray and No. 5/last year’s runner-up Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. I watched the Tsonga vs Nadal match from last year and Tsonga was very impressive. Andy Murray finished strong last year. The thing to watch is if they can keep up the performance and maybe upset the higher seeds. Last year Tsonga defeated Murray in the first round en route to the final and the two could meet in the quarter-finals (tied 1-1 lifetime). They both have favorable draws. Murray has a 13-3 career record against the seeds in his section before the semi-finals and Tsonga has No. 9 James Blake (Tsonga leads 1-0), No. 18 Igor Andreev and No. 30 Rainer Schuettler (both never played) in his section to the quarter-finals. Andreev is a strong player. James Blake is unpredictable.

In terms of tennis equipment. Nadal, Moya, and Roddick play with Babolat racquets. Carlos Moya uses the Babolat Pure Drive. The Pure Drive has a 100 square inch head size and is lightweight. Nadal hits with the Aeropro Drive. It also has a 100 square inch head size and is 100% modulus Graphite. Most reviews indicate that the Babolat Aeropro Drive Cortex delivered excellent control and a large sweetspot for hitting baseline shots. Reviewers also mentioned that spin was easy to come by, although I wonder if they were influenced to try given Nadal’s game. Finally, given the amount of Babolat racquets I see at the junior tournaments, I think this brand will be a strong seller for years to come.

Babolat AeroPro Drive Plus Cortex Tennis Racquet

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