People always ask, "What's a good racket?  Which racket should I buy?"  I always think that they should try hitting with some demos to get a feel for the racket.  In addition, the string type and tension also affect the feel of the racket.  The right strings and string tension seem to have taken on much greater importance to players nowadays compared to a decade ago.  For example,  Andre Agassi normally strings his rackets a pound looser for night matches, but something just wasn’t right during his first round match on Monday night.  Agassi’s fortunes changed dramatically after he switched to a more tightly-strung racket.  Ivan Lendl was the first player to start changing to a brand new, freshly-strung racket with each change of balls during a match.  Other players soon adopted the practice.  Roger Federer actually changes to a new racket the game before new balls are opened!  Then along came the traveling stringers.  Pro tournaments had provided free stringing to players for years, but now many players only wanted "their stringer" to string their rackets.  Thus, stringers such as Jay Schweid and his team started traveling the circuit and setting up temporary stringing shops in hotel rooms around the world.  And now... many top pros not only travel with a coach and a trainer, but also have added a personal stringer to their entourage.  So how much does the string job affect the feel of a racket?  A lot... a difference of only 5 pounds is very noticeable, but the psychological effects of a 1-2 pound difference could cost a player much more than the approximately $75-100,000 it costs to bring along a personal stringer.  As they say, feel is everything...