This racquet may be shorter than spec due to hoop compression during stringing. I did not get a chance to measure the racquet unstrung.
There is no way to take a racquet with the specs given by USRSA and make it into a “Nadal” racquet. However, if one had a racquet with Tennis Warehouse’s measurements, one could add roughly 9.5 grams under the bumperguard near the tip, and about 2.5 grams one inch up from the end of the butt cap to get a racquet with measurements very similar to those of Nadal’s racquet.
It is not unheard of for otherwise identical brand new Babolat racquets to have 2 kg•cm² difference in flex.
Nadal’s string reel reads “Pro Hurricane Nadal.” The printing on the string itself reads “Babolat Pro Hurricane Tour,” just like the normal Pro Hurricane Tour. However, the string is translucent, unlike the normal opaque Pro Hurricane Tour. Here is a 60x image with Nadal’s string on top and the retail Pro Hurricane Tour on the bottom.
To the casual observer, Nadal’s Pro Hurricane Tour looks and acts for all the world like Babolat Duralast.
Nadal requested that the crosses be strung from the bottom up.
