  The structure functions $F_1$ and $F_2$ of the hadronic tensor of vector
mesons are obtained at order $1/N$ and strong coupling using the gauge/gravity
duality. We find that the large $N$ limit and the high energy one do not
commute. Thus, by considering the high energy limit first, our results of the
first moments of $F_1$ for the rho meson agree well with those from lattice
QCD, with an important improvement of the accuracy with respect to the
holographic dual calculation in the planar limit.
