Between us — and do not repeat this — the junior racquet is where parents get taken for a ride most often, and this is one of the ones that does not do it. Lean in. I will explain the numbers, because the numbers are the only thing in that shop telling you the truth.

Twenty-six. That is the length in inches, sixty-six centimetres, and it is the last stop before a full twenty-seven-inch adult frame. Tecnifibre put it at competitors of roughly ten to twelve years old, though height matters more than the birthday and any coach will tell you the same.

Two hundred and fifty grams — eight point eight ounces — which is light enough for a child to swing properly for an hour and heavy enough not to be knocked about by a decent ball. Balance at 330 millimetres, so the mass sits forward and does some of the work for them. String pattern 16×17.

And here is the part worth knowing: it is built in one hundred per cent graphite.

Not aluminium, which is what most frames at this size are, and which transmits a great deal more shock into a young arm. Graphite, in a junior frame, from the same T-Fight line the adults play. It comes strung. It is white. And it is not a beginner's first racquet — a child who has never held one does not need this.

This is for the one who has started competing.

Marijampole is a town for small important things too. The basilica of St Michael the Archangel is described as small and it is anything but. The Marian fathers founded their monastery here in 1751. There is a monument to Vytautas the Great. And along the Sesupe runs the Poetry park with six bridges over the river — six, in one park, which somebody in a meeting had to justify.

Graphite, not aluminium. That is the sentence to say out loud in the shop.

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