It's possible to permanently injure yourself just by playing with the wrong type of racquet so it's not just your performance on the court that can suffer by making a purchase without a little planning.

There are three different sorts of racquet to choose from which are control, power and tweener. Control racquets are mainly for advanced players, power racquets are for beginners and tweeners fall somewhere in the middle.

It's also possible to make changes to the way that a racquet performs simply by changing the strings. You can buy a variety of different materials and these can also be arranged into differing patterns.

The power racquet usually has a larger head - which of course is designed to give less experienced players more chance of hitting the ball! They also usually have a slightly heavier head which also makes it easier for beginners to make the right shot.

Tweener racquets can have smaller or larger heads but they are usually lighter and also longer than power racquets - which gives increased control and power but makes them a little harder to handle.

Control racquets often have a higher overall weight and smaller heads - but they give the advanced player increased ability. Overall, it's well worth taking the advice of someone who is experienced (such as an assistant in a good shop) when choosing a new racquet.

While choice of racquet is crucial, it's worth learning as much as possible before making that purchase about grip size, racquet length, string types and patterns, head size and the overall balance, weight and flexibility of the racquet.