Upgrading one of the most iconic tennis rackets of all-time is always a bold move and Babolat has gone big with their revamped version of the Pure Drive racket.

Spanish great Carlos Moya led the way when he started using the Babolat Pure Drive frame back in 1997 and even though the suggestion was that this frame was designed for female players, he instantly felt it could take his game to the next level.

Within a few weeks of switching to the Pure Drive, Moya was competing in the Australian Open final and the crowning glory of his career came as he beat Alex Corretja in the French Open final.

Grand Slam winners Kim Clijsters and Garbine Muguruza are among the players who use the Pure Drive when they won Grand Slam titles and now a new model has been released to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the racket.

The colourful Pure Drive Gen11 Spectra Edition has been released in time for the US Open and it will look spectacular when it is used under the lights at Flushing Meadows.

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“The Pure Drive Gen11 will provide you with the power level needed to outperform your rivals,” declare Babolat on their website.

“Its technical features, true to its DNA, make it the most powerful and versatile racket. It will help you control the game to outplay your opponents and execute winning shots at the right moments.

“The Pure Drive Gen11 will deliver pure sensations thanks to the addition of flax fibres at the core of the racket. These natural fibres provide optimal vibration filtering, allowing only the good sensations to come through on impact.”

We spoke to Moya about his journey with the Pure Drive and it was very much a love-at-first-hit moment for the player who won the French Open title in 1998 and inspired a young Rafael Nadal to follow in his footsteps.

“I remember practising with a Babolat racket in 1996 and straightaway it felt like it could be special for me, but I was playing with a different racket at the time and did not change straight away,” stated Moya, was a member of Nadal’s coaching team after he retired.

“Then at the end of that year, I played a tournament in Bercy with a Babolat racket and I beat Tim Henman in the first round and then Boris Becker in the second round as I got to the quarter-finals.

“I remember I had only two rackets that week as I was just practising, but it felt right for me and then a few weeks later at the Australian Open, I had the turning point of my career when I got to the final.

“At the time, I was looking for the racket to have a lot of power. Yes, I wanted control, but I needed power to make a break in the game and that is what I felt with the Pure Drive. I didn’t find this with any other racket and that’s why I have stuck with it.”

Moya admitted the challenge of finding the ideal racket is no easy task for professional or club players, but he suggested the game’s finest appreciate pretty quickly when they have stumbled across the right frame for them.

“You have the strings to consider, you have the tension, you have the balance of the racket and I have worked with Babolat down the years to give me the weapon that has helped me to do well on court,” he added.

“I still play with Babolat rackets. Believe me, most professional players need two minutes to know whether the racket is going to work and I felt that for me.

“When I started using the Pure Drive, they said it was a woman’s racket, but that did not worry me. It has been my racket for a long time now and was very good for my career.”

The Babolat Spectra collection is available now.

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