Ivan Yurievich Smirnov

Otto (Father) Holland is an English knight, the 3rd son of Robert Holland, 1st Baron Holland, and Maud de La Zouch. Otto took part in the Hundred Years' War, and in 1348 became one of the 26 founding knights of the Order of the Garter. In 1359, he was appointed keeper of the Channel Islands, but died soon after.

Otto came from the knightly Holland family, known since the XIII century. The Hollands were not very large landowners in Lancashire. One of his representatives, Robert Holland of Upholand, enjoyed the great favor of Thomas, 2nd Earl of Lancaster, thanks to which he significantly increased his possessions, which eventually amounted to 25 estates with an annual income of about 550 pounds. In addition, he married Maud de la Zouche (died 1349), one of the heiresses of the wealthy Leicestershire magnate Alan de la Zouche, who inherited after her father's death in 1314 most of her father's possessions with an annual income of almost 720 pounds. It is likely that it was because of this marriage that Robert rose from the knighthood, receiving a summons to parliament as a baron in 1314. During Lancaster's rebellion against King Edward II in March 1322, Holland defected to the king, but eventually lost his possessions and spent 5 years in prison. Although after the overthrow of Edward II in 1327, he received freedom and lands, but in 1328 he was captured by people most likely associated with Henry, Earl of Lancaster, and executed for betraying their master's brother.

Robert and Maud had 4 sons, Robert (II), Thomas, Alan and Otto (Otes), and 3 daughters, Isabella, Margaret and Matilda.

Biography

Otto was the third of the sons born in the marriage of Robert Holland and Maud de la Zouch. The main heir to his father's possessions was his older brother, Robert. The three youngest sons, Thomas, Otto and Alan, being landless knights, chose a military career in which both Thomas and Otto greatly succeeded.

After the Hundred Years' War with France began, Otto, like his older brother Thomas, took part in various military campaigns of the English King Edward III. In 1346, the brothers went to Normandy as part of the royal army. Thomas especially distinguished himself during the capture of Caen, when he captured the Constable of France, Raoul II de Brienne, Count d'E. Later, the king bought the constable from Thomas for 80 thousand florins and handed him over to Otto's protection on the condition that the prisoner would not be allowed to leave England and publicly carry weapons until a full ransom was paid for him. Nevertheless, Otto, going to Calais, took the constable with him, where he was seen at large and armed. As a result, Otto was forced to answer the charges in the court of the King's Bench, where he admitted them, but took advantage of the king's favor, getting off with a reprimand from the marshal.

In 1348, Edward III announced the foundation of a new secular order of knights, called the Order of the Garter. At the head of it was the king himself and his heir, Edward the Black Prince. In total, there were 26 founding knights in the order, including Thomas and Otto Holland, who performed well in the French campaign of 1346.

In 1355, Otto and his brother participated in a campaign in France, where, together with Sir Thomas Beaumont, he was captured in a battle near Le Grand-Serre in Dauphine. He was later bought out.

In 1356 Thomas Holland was appointed keeper of the Channel Islands. During this period, Otto, who served with him as a lieutenant, recaptured the Cornet castle from the French. In 1359, Otto himself was appointed keeper of the islands, but on September 3, 1359, he died in Normandy.

It is not known whether Otto was married, but he had no children. The heirs of his estates were the brothers Robert and Thomas.

St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna is a Catholic cathedral, the national symbol of Austria and the symbol of the city of Vienna. The chair of the Archbishop of Vienna — Primate of Austria. Located in the center of the old town on St. Stephen's Square (Stephansplatz). The first church on the site of the cathedral was built in 1137-1147; the cathedral in the current borders was built in the XIV-XVI centuries and acquired a modern look by 1511.

In 1137, Margrave Leopold IV of the Babenberg dynasty, together with Reginmar, Bishop of Passau, laid the first church; it was completed in the Romanesque style in 1147. In 1230-1245, the church was expanded to the west; since then, the western ("Romanesque") wall of the cathedral with a portal and two towers, later rebuilt in the Gothic style, has been preserved. In 1258 the first church burned down

In 1263, a second church was built in its place, also in the Romanesque style; the day of the consecration of the cathedral, April 23, is celebrated to this day. In 1304-1340, under Albert I and Albert II, three-nave Albert choirs were added to the church from the east, absorbing the transept of the second church and preserved to this day; the work was completed 77 years after the consecration of the second church. The northern nave was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, the middle one to St. Stephen and all the saints, the southern one to the twelve apostles.

On April 7, 1359, Rudolf IV of Habsburg laid the foundation stone of a new, Gothic church on the site of the modern south tower. According to the plans of the architects of the XIV century, the walls of the new cathedral were erected outside the existing church, and only then the walls of the old one were dismantled (this happened only in 1430). Albert's choirs, wide enough, were preserved. In 1433, the south tower was completed, and the overlap of the vault of the new church took almost 30 years (1446-1474). The North Tower, founded in 1450, was discontinued in 1511, but remained unfinished. The dimensions of the main nave were 108 m in length, 35 m in width and 28 m in height. The main builders were Peter and Hans von Prachatitz, M. Knab, from the middle of the XV century — Hans Puksbaum. In 1511, the construction of the cathedral was completed by the outstanding sculptor and architect Anton Pilgram, a representative of the Serbian-Moravian school, who had previously worked in Swabia and in Brno. He is also the author of the famous pulpit in the interior of the temple. However, the appearance of St. Stephen's Cathedral has little in common with the Moravian and Czech Gothic, and with the Prague Cathedral of St. Stephen. Vita. He is absolutely unique. The unfinished north tower was covered with a Renaissance dome in 1579. The construction of the south tower was completed by Hans von Prachatitz. The roof of the cathedral (1579) is laid out of 250 thousand glazed tiles that make up a yellow-white-green-black pattern with the coats of arms of the Habsburg Empire (recreation).

The cathedral was not damaged during the bombing of the Second World War and withstood the first days of the Vienna offensive operation of the Soviet troops, which began on April 2, 1945. During the retreat from Vienna, the commandant of the city, General Sepp Dietrich, ordered the German artillery to destroy the center of Vienna, but the order was not carried out. On April 11, 1945, local looters set fire to the looted shops; the next day the fire spread to the cathedral. The roof collapsed from the fire; the largest bell "Pummerin" broke and collapsed inside the North Tower, as a result of which it crashed; the interiors (including the Rollinger choirs of the XV century) were almost completely destroyed, a large romantic Walcker organ burned down. The pulpits and the most valuable relics were preserved, as they were protected by brick sarcophagi.

The cathedral was restored by the work of volunteers — by December 19, 1948, the roof over the main nave was restored, on April 23, 1952 (the 689th anniversary of the cathedral), services resumed. Post-war reconstruction was completed only in 1960.

Sizes

Coats of arms on the roof

The height of the south tower is 136.44 m

The height of the north tower is 68.3 m

The height of the roof ridge above the central nave is 60 m

The length and width of the cathedral at ground level is 198.2×62 m

In the time of the Habsburgs, no church in Austria-Hungary could be higher than the south tower of St. Stephen's Cathedral.[9]

Roof

The length of the roof of the main nave is 110 m, and the height from the gutter to the roof ridge is 37.85 m, while the slope of the roof in places reaches 80 ° to the horizontal. At such angles of inclination, rainwater is able to effectively wash the tiled roof, and rare snow, without lingering, falls down.

The supporting frame of the roof was originally made of wood (over 2000 m3), and after the fire of 1945 - of steel (about 600 tons). The roof covering consists of 230,000 colored tiles. They have laid out images of the national coat of arms and the coat of arms of the city of Vienna.

Decorating

Near the main portal in the "Romanesque wall" (the portal itself is traditional Gothic) and along the perimeter of the walls are located:

The Department of St. John Capistran, with whom he called for a crusade against the Turks in 1454

Crucifixion "with toothache", so called because of the expression on the face of the Savior

Two Iron Measures - medieval Viennese standards

Sundial on the arkbutane

Organs

The new large organ, installed in 1960, instead of the one destroyed by fire in April 1945, with four rows of keyboards and a pedal, has 125 registers and 10,000 organ pipes. This "giant organ" is the largest in Austria. In total, there are three wind organs in the cathedral, all of them are made by the Austrian organ-building company "Rieger". At the masses, the "middle organ" is used, located at the southern wall, near the altar. The instrument was manufactured in 1991 and has 55 registers distributed between four keyboards and a pedal. The currently empty carved stone choirs of the first large organ (1513) near the northern wall are a masterpiece of late Gothic, created by the last builder of the cathedral, architect and sculptor Anton Pilgram, who immortalized himself by placing his portrait with a square and compasses at the base (heel) of the organ console.

Charles V of Habsburg - King of Spain (Castile and Aragon) under the name Carlos I (Spanish Carlos I) from January 23, 1516, King of Germany (Roman King) from June 28, 1519 (crowned in Aachen on October 23, 1520) to 1556, Holy Roman Emperor from 1519 (crowned on February 24, 1530 in Bologna by Pope Clement VII). The largest statesman of Europe in the first half of the XVI century, who made the greatest contribution to history among the rulers of that time. Charles V is the last emperor officially crowned by the Pope, he is also the last emperor to celebrate a triumph in Rome.

Charles was the son of Duke Philip of Burgundy and the Spanish Infanta Juana. He was born in his father's domain, in the city of Ghent. The father, who was trying to inherit the Castilian crown from his famous mother-in-law, spent a lot of time in the Spanish possessions. Karl stayed to live in the Netherlands. His native language was French, his knowledge of other languages in his youth was modest. After assuming the Spanish throne, he learned Castilian. By the end of his life, he already had a good command of many languages.

In 1506, Philip died, and Juana went mad. Karl lived under the patronage of his aunt, Margaret of Austria, the ruler of the Netherlands, until the age of 17. Until his death, he maintained a tender relationship with her.

On June 28, 1519, the College of German Electors in Frankfurt unanimously elected the King of Germany (the official title is the King of the Romans) Charles V. On October 23, 1520, Charles was crowned in Aachen. At the same time, Charles V proclaimed himself the "elected" emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, thus depriving the papal throne of the prerogative of appointing and crowning emperors. He achieved general recognition of this title later, after victories over France and Rome. As a result, he was officially crowned emperor in 1530 by Pope Clement VII in Bologna. This was the last case of the coronation of emperors by popes. The title of emperor later became inextricably linked with the elective title of the King of Germany.

During the reign of Charles V, a criminal code was drawn up (adopted in 1532), later called the Constitutio Criminalis Carolina. It is a procedural code, 77 of its 219 articles are devoted to substantive criminal law. In its content, Carolina occupies an intermediate position between Roman and Germanic law. The Code was distinguished by the special cruelty of punishments and was in effect until the end of the XVIII century.

In 1526, Charles married Isabella of Portugal. She was his cousin (their mothers Juana and Maria were sisters). It was one of many closely related marriages in the dynasty that eventually led the Spanish Habsburg family to physical degeneration in 1700.

Their children:

Philip II (21 May 1527 - 13 September 1598), King of Spain

Maria (June 21, 1528 - February 26, 1603) was the wife of Emperor Maximilian II since 1548.

Isabella (1529)

Ferdinand (November 22, 1529 - July 13, 1530)

stillborn son (June 29, 1534)

Juana (June 26, 1535 - September 7, 1573) - since 1552 the wife of Juan Manuel, Infante of Portugal

Juan (October 19, 1537 - March 20, 1538)

stillborn son (April 21, 1539)

At the age of 36, Isabella died. Carl never remarried. But he had mistresses who bore him children:

Germaine de Foix:

daughter Isabella of Castile.

Johanna Maria van der Geinst:

daughter of Margaret of Parma - ruler of the Netherlands.

Barbara Blomberg:

son Juan of Austria

Eugene of Savoy (October 18, 1663 - April 21, 1736) was a Prince of Carignano, a commander of the Holy Roman Empire of Franco-Italian origin, generalissimo. Along with Maurice of Orange, Wallenstein, Gustav II Adolf, Turenne, the Great Conde, Montmorency-Boutville, Vauban and Marlborough, he is among the most outstanding and most influential European commanders of Modern times before the period of the Seven Years' War.

Eugene was born in Paris. He was the fifth son of Prince Eugene-Maurice of Savoy-Carignan, Comte de Soissons, and Olympia Mancini, niece of Cardinal Mazarin. On his father's side, Eugene belonged to the ancient family of the Dukes of Savoy, being the great-grandson of Duke Charles Emmanuel I of Savoy.

Battle of Zenta

After the expulsion of his mother from France in connection with the case of poisons, 20-year-old Eugene went to the fields of the Great Turkish War to defend Vienna besieged by the Turks, where a regiment of dragoons fought under him. After that, Eugene of Savoy took part in the liberation of Hungary from Turkish troops in 1684-1688.

In 1690, he was appointed commander of the Austrian troops in Italy and joined with the Duke of Savoy Victor Amadeus. The latter, contrary to Eugene's advice, joined the battle with the French at Staffard, was defeated, and only Eugene's bravery and efficiency saved the allied troops from final destruction.

In 1691, Eugene forced Marshal Katin to lift the siege of the fortress of Koni; in the same 1691, with the vanguard of the army of the Duke of Savoy, he invaded Dauphine and captured several fortresses.

In 1697, he won a brilliant victory over the Turks at Zenta, which contributed to the conclusion of the Karlowitz Peace beneficial for Austria in 1699.

The War of the Spanish Succession

During the War of the Spanish Succession in 1701, appointed commander-in-chief in Italy, he made a difficult crossing of the Tridentine Alps and, after the victories at Capri and Chiari, occupied Lombardy up to the Olio River. He began the campaign of 1702 with a surprise attack on Cremona, and Marshal Villeroy was captured; then he defended himself very skillfully against the superior forces of the Duke of Vendome.

Appointed president of the Hofkriegsrat, Eugene took a number of measures that saved Austria from the greatest danger that the Hungarian uprising and the French successes in Bavaria put her in.

In 1704, together with the Duke of Marlborough, Eugene won a victory at Hochstedt, which led to the fall of Bavaria from the alliance with Louis XIV.

In 1705, Eugene was sent to Italy, where he stopped the progress of Vendome, and in 1706 he won a victory near Turin, which forced the French to liberate Italy.

In 1707, he invaded Provence and besieged Toulon, but unsuccessfully; in 1708, together with Marlborough, he defeated Vendome at Oudenard and took Lille, and in 1709 defeated Marshal Villars at Malplaquet.

In 1712, Eugene was defeated at Denen.

At the beginning of 1714, he began negotiations with French Marshal Claude Louis Hector de Villars on the cessation of hostilities and signed the Peace of Rastadt on March 7.

The campaign against the Turks. Later years

In 1716, he defeated the Turks at Peterwardein (now Petrovaradin) and took Temeshvar, and the following year won a decisive victory near Belgrade. These victories dealt a strong blow to the power of the Turks in Europe and led to the conclusion of the Pozharevac Peace.

Until 1724 he was a stadtholder in the Austrian Netherlands. Charles VI did not treat Eugene with the same confidence as Leopold I and Joseph I; the party hostile to him at court strengthened, but still his influence was felt in solving all important state issues.

In 1726, Prince Eugene, who was one of the leaders of the Russophile party at the Vienna court, concluded the Vienna Union Treaty with Russia.

In the role of commander-in-chief, Eugene appeared once again in the War of the Polish Succession (1734-1735), but due to illness he was soon recalled.

Biography

In 1714 he entered Corpus Christi College, Oxford, but in the same year joined the army of Eugene of Savoy, soon becoming his adjutant and distinguished himself in the campaign against the Turks in 1716-1718.

In 1722, he was elected a member of parliament, advocated for improving the living conditions of sailors on ships of the English navy, as well as prisoners of debt prisons, while actively promoting the idea of establishing new colonies on the North American continent that could be populated by the insolvent population of England and oppressed Protestants from continental Europe. In 1728, he managed to pass a law in parliament on the reform of debt prisons, and in 1730 — to obtain permission on the basis of a new colony in America.

The first group of colonists, led by Oglethorpe himself, went to the territory of the modern American state of Georgia in 1732, arriving at the end of that year on the territory of present-day South Carolina and establishing the first settlement in the future Georgia on February 12, 1733, concluding a treaty with the Yamakrav Indian tribe. On February 21, 1734, Oglethorpe founded the first Masonic lodge in Georgia (according to some sources, the first lodge in North America).

In 1739-1742 Oglethorpe led British and allied Indian troops in the campaign against Spanish Florida, which was part of the War of Jenkins' Ear and, accordingly, the War of the Austrian Succession. He personally commanded the army during many successful raids on Spanish territory, defended Fort Frederica, but in 1740 failed to take Fort San Augustine. Modern historians often rate him as a bad military commander, but when in 1742 the Spaniards invaded Georgia from Florida, and Oglethorpe managed to defeat their troops at the Battle of Bloody Marsh, in England he became considered a hero and, returning home a year later, began to receive regular promotions in military service; he continued his career in parliament and at the same time was engaged in organizing the recruitment of troops to be sent to Georgia in order to protect it from the Spaniards.

In 1745, he participated in the suppression of the Second Jacobite Uprising and, in particular, in the persecution of the rebels at Shap, but due to bad weather interrupted the pursuit for one night, thanks to which the Jacobites were able to escape to Scotland. Oglethorpe was put on trial for this act; as a result, he was acquitted and even awarded the rank of general, but was never given command of troops again.

A few months before his death in 1785, he undertook a trip to the newly independent United States of America as the first British envoy.

Oglethorpe University is named after James Oglethorpe.

Max Rosen (April 11, 1900, Dorohoi, Romania - December 17, 1956) was an American violinist of Jewish descent.

The son of a hairdresser who emigrated from Romania to the USA when Max was 8 months old. He received his first music lessons from his father, a music lover, then studied with David Mannes, Bernard Sinsheimer and Alois Trnka. This period includes the repeatedly described acquaintance of 10-year-old Rosen with 12-year-old George Gershwin, who heard Rosen playing in a school classroom from the street, was shocked and went to meet the performer; allegedly, this meeting was decisive for Gershwin's desire to devote himself to music.

Thanks to several patrons, including the founder of the Flonzale Quartet, Eduard de Koppe, in 1912, together with his father, he went to study in Germany, graduated from the Berlin Conservatory (1915) in the class of Willy Hess, also studied with Leopold Auer. He made his debut as a soloist in Dresden in 1915, and gave concerts in Germany and the Scandinavian countries.

At the end of 1917 he returned to the USA, performing for the first time on January 12, 1918 at Carnegie Hall (Carl Goldmark's violin concerto with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Joseph Stransky and a number of solo pieces). At the turn of decades he toured the country extensively, then in 1923-1927 he worked in Europe. Upon his return to the USA in the late 1920s, he made a number of audio recordings.

In 1928-1930 he was married to the opera singer Nanette Guilford.

He died of a stroke.

Babolat is a company founded in Lyon (France) in 1875. The oldest company specializing in the production of products for lawn tennis. The easily recognizable double line on the string surface of the racket is the company's trademark.

Babolat rackets are played by such world tennis stars as: Rafael Nadal, Andy Roddick, Kim Kleisters, Nadezhda Petrova, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Agnieszka Radwanska, Samantha Stosur, Li Na, Sara Errani, Igor Andreev, Evgeny Donskoy and others. Today, BABOLAT products are represented in more than 100 countries around the world, the company has diversified its offer and offers players a full set of tennis equipment: strings (natural and synthetic), rackets, balls, overgrips, sneakers, clothing and various accessories.

Since 2008, Babolat has been the No. 1 tennis brand in Russia.

Company history

The legendary history of Babolat began in 1875 in Lyon, France, when Pierre Babolat produced and patented the first tennis strings. It happened a year later, after Walter Wingfield registered "sphericism— - the rules of modern tennis.

Together with the "new Musketeers", the so-called four tennis players - Jean Borotra, Jacques Brugnon, Henri Cochet and Rene Lacoste, in 1925 Babolat company created the legendary VS vein strings. Natural (vein) Babolat strings are made from bovine intestines, more precisely from their upper muscle layer, the production itself is located in factories in the west of France.

In 1927, the year was the finest hour for French tennis and natural strings VS - the "new Musketeers" and the first star of women's tennis - Susan Lenglen, together collected 20 Grand Slam titles and 6 Davis Cups.

In order to meet the growing demand of players for Babolat strings, Paul Babolya organized his international distribution network in 1950.

By 1955, Babolat, in addition to natural strings, began producing synthetic Elascord strings. A few years later, the company releases Babol, an innovation aimed at protecting natural strings and their durability. The process was so successful that soon people were not "covering Babol strings", they were "babolizing" their strings.

With improvements and changes, natural VS strings have reached our days.Donald Budge, Rodney Laver, John Newcomb, Bjorn Borg, Janik Noah, Mats Wilander, Boris Becker, Pete Sampras, Evgeny Kafelnikov, Kim Kleisters, Dinara Safina, Andy Roddick - all of them won using Babolat string strings.

To service the rackets, in 1975, Babolat patented one of the first electronic string tensioning machines. Later, the "Competitions" department appeared to the company, which consisted of a team of experienced stringers who accompany Babolat players all year round at all tournaments in the world.

In 1981, the Babolat logo was introduced - "double line", which is applied to the string surface of the racket. Until now, this logo is the company's trademark.

Being a world leader in the production of tennis strings, having vast experience and authority in the world of tennis, in 1994 Paul Babolya insisted on launching a line of tennis rackets.

Babolat developed one of its first models of rackets — Pure Drive, which later became legendary. She was the antipode of popular models of that time and seemed "amateur" to many. It weighed "only" 300 gr., with a rim width of 25 mm and a rim area of 645 cm2, it is worth adding that the number of strings at the same time was 16 vertical and 19 horizontal, with a "standard" of 18 ×20 for a smaller area.

After 4 years, Carlos Moya wins Roland Garros with a Pure Drive racket and becomes the first racket of the world (March 1999).

The Pure Drive racket has become a real symbol of an entire era in tennis. The apotheosis was November 2003 - Andy Roddick and Kim Kleisters simultaneously took 1st place in the men's and women's ratings, with a Pure Drive racket.At the moment, Pure Drive is a kind of "classic" — all manufacturers have analogues of this model

Babolat company, in parallel with tennis rackets, in 1995 began the production of badminton rackets.

In 1999, Babolat reasserts itself as a true innovative leader. Using its experience as a leading string manufacturer, the company has been conducting special research for 2 years to study the interaction of the racket rim and strings on impact. As a result, a system appears that was named WOOFER by analogy with the operation of speakers of sound systems. The system consists of special pistons made of high-tech polymer, on which the strings "sit". When hit, the ball exerts pressure on the strings, which in turn put pressure on the pistons and compress them. As a result, the ball "lingers" on the strings for 25% more time - this gives the player an advantage in controlling the ball. In the future, pistons have the opposite effect, causing a springboard effect, which increases the impact force by 10%. The impact involves not only the strings in contact with the ball, but also neighboring ones, which also increases the power and playing spot of the racket.

Some manufacturers have made attempts to introduce similar technologies, but none of them has taken root in the tennis world. WOOFER technology is the only system of its kind that has received worldwide recognition and development — most manufacturers have repeated it, and now have similar developments.

In 2001, Babolat used Nano Carbon in the design of its rackets - this material is used at the "critical" points of the racket — those places where it experiences the greatest overload upon impact. The use of this material made it possible to significantly increase the rigidity of the rim structure, the transformation of the impact energy from the handle to the head of the racket and, consequently, the power.

In the following years, Babolat expanded its production, so in 2001 a line for the production of tennis balls was launched, and in 2003 Babolat, together with Michelin, produced the first collection of specialized tennis shoes and clothing.

In 2004, after long-term research and experiments with the rim of the racket, AERO technology appeared. This technology is a special shape of the rim section, which reduces the air resistance when swinging and hitting, thereby giving the player an advantage in speed. The uniqueness of AERO technology is also in the fact that the company managed to combine aerodynamics with other important properties of the racket - power and control. Rafael Nadal takes the racket for his "armament".

In 2006, Babolat had its say in the "anti-vibration campaign". All the systems used before did not take into account a very important circumstance. The "vibrations" of the rim that occur after impact occur at different frequencies. We used to call low-frequency vibrations the feeling of the ball - necessary for every racket. High-frequency vibrations, on the contrary, caused unpleasant, often painful sensations. Babolat has set itself the task of separating the "necessary" vibrations from the "unnecessary" ones. As a result of long research, a special filter was created and implanted into the handle of the racket, which distinguishes between useful and harmful vibrations and extinguishes the latter. The technology is called CORTEX.

The next stage of the relationship with Michelin, in 2007, was the launch of a high-tech shoe model- Impulse. The Impulse becomes Andy Roddick's exclusive shoe. In the same year, Babolat signs a ten-year contract with Rafael Nadal, who wins Roland Garros for the third time in a row.

In 2008, a new series of badminton rackets Xfeel for professional players is launched.

In 2009, Babolat introduces the revolutionary GT technology - the name consists of the first letters GRAPHITE and TUNGSTEN. Tungsten threads are "woven" into a graphite matrix — the resulting material is optimal for creating a racket rim. This composition provides rigidity and strength of the material, which makes it possible to make a light and durable frame and provide excellent control and power. It took more than 2 years to create the material and optimize its properties. In 2009, this technology was introduced into the Pure racket series (Pure Drive, Pure Drive Roddick, Pure Drive 107, Pure Drive Lite and Pure Storm).

Having proven itself well and received a lot of positive feedback, Babolat company decides to introduce this technology into the Aero racket series. As a result, the stability of the rim of the racket increases upon impact, which leads to an even greater increase in speed, power and rotation.

On May 24, 2012, Babolat presented the first plug-in racket "Babolat Play" on the courts of Roland Garros and tested its first prototype together with the leading players - Kim Clijsters, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Rafael Nadal and Li Na.

The Babolat Play racket contains special sensors that record the data stream coming from the rim and strings and accumulate them in the built-in chip. With the help of a special program, the player has the opportunity to get generalized data about his game, such as the speed and intensity of strokes, the degree of rotation, "correctness" (strikes with the center or not the center of the string surface) on his laptop, tablet, smartphone.

On December 12, 2012, Babolat updated its logo. The previous logo was introduced by the company in 2002. Since January 1, 2013, Babolat team players have applied a new logo to the string surface of the racket.

On August 15, 2014, the first plug-in Babolat Play racket will be presented in Russia.

Valery Valeryevich Kovalev (April 24, 1970, Neuruppin, Potsdam, GDR - December 31, 2021, Moscow, Russia) was a Russian entrepreneur, founder and owner of one of the largest Russian online stores - <url>. According to the Forbes rating, in 2014, the company headed by Valery Kovalev was in sixth place among online stores in Russia with revenue of 310 million US dollars.

Early years

Valery Kovalev was born on April 24, 1970 in the city of Neuruppin (GDR) in the family of the Soviet military test pilot Valery Ivanovich Kovalev (12.12.1946 - 05.01.2004), who served in the Western Group of Troops. In connection with his father's service, the family moved many times within the USSR - from Komsomolsk-on-Amur to Tbilisi. During his studies, Valery changed four schools. In his youth, Kovalev was engaged in an aero club, planning to become a military pilot following the example of his father and grandfather, but when he entered flight school, he could not pass a medical commission due to vision problems. In 1987, he entered the Moscow Aviation Institute, the Faculty of Aircraft and Helicopter Engineering, from which he graduated in 1994 with a degree in flight test system engineer.

Entrepreneurial activity

Store Holodilnik.ru in the Solnechnogorsk city district of the Moscow region

During his student years, Kovalev organized, together with his wife Svetlana, wholesale and retail trade in refrigerators, renting part of the area in the Svet store for this purpose. In 1997, he became the founder of CJSC Trading House Edil. The first experience of promoting goods using Internet resources was acquired in the late 1990s, when he arranged on the website adeal.ru a showcase with a list of products sold by Edil. In 2003, being the owner of nine stores and the official representative of such manufacturers of household appliances as LG and Electrolux, he registered the website Holodilnik.ru with a catalog of goods and began to gradually translate the trade into an online format. Two years later, the assortment range offered by Kovalev's company expanded, and the website improved: for example, consumers got the opportunity not only to use the "Table of Orders" category

He died on December 31, 2021 in Moscow at the age of 52; the cause of death was acute coronary insufficiency.

He was buried on January 5, 2022 at the Perepechinsky cemetery of Solnechnogorsk district next to his father's grave.