My second racquet

Wilson Advantage was the only wood racquet I ever owned or played with, and the challenge of handling that unwieldable stick prompted me to go for another one as soon as I was able to afford it. My second racquet, also a Wilson, was a Sting 2.

Looking back, I have to admit that the choice was not an informed one. Back then in the pre-Internet era of the early 80s, it was not easy to research about racquets like we do today, and there was no such thing as demo racquets in the sporting goods shops in Hong Kong (this is sadly still the case today), so unless you were lucky enough to have a friend who owned a racquet you were thinking about buying and let you have a few hits with it, the decision could only rest on how much the brand, the look and the price appealed to you. The chance of such a decision being the right one was at best a long shot. As it turned out, my choice of Wilson Sting 2 proved to be a costly mistake. The racquet was too advanced for my elementary skill level. It was only after a couple of years, as my game began to pick up, that I was more able to handle the weight of the racquet and the precision it required. Only my heart had by then been set on other racquets, and the Sting 2 was given away to make way for a new purchase.