Yes, Roger does reach the ball and yes, Nick Kyrgios was just as shocked as the rest of us.
Despite heckling the crowd and giving up on trying to return his opponent’s serve, Ozzie Kygrios won his second-round match at the US Open.
That set up a showdown with Roger Federer, and the Swiss world number two was in no mood to take it easy. He came out on top in three sets, 6-4, 6-1, 7-5, but it was his around the net shot during the third set that is worth revisiting.
Tied at 3-3, and with Kyrgios serving for the game, Federer produced this beauty:
Gotta love Kyrgios’ reaction, and he wasn’t done there. Here’s Tennis:
On the changeover, microphones picked up Kyrgios calling the winner “the greatest shot you’ve ever seen.”
In his post-match press conference, Kyrgios was asked about the shot. “It was unbelievable,” he said with a smile. I’m probably going to post it on Instagram.”
…”It really only happens on a center [sic] court of this size,” Federer told ESPN’s Darren Cahill about the genesis of the shot. “The funny thing about this shot is, I didn’t think about it until I hit it. I actually didn’t think I was going to get it.”
…”Definitely a bit of luck, good feet,” mused Federer, “but I guess I deserve it because I went for it.”
Cue some lame comment about missing 100% of the shots you don’t take.
If zero-gravity is more your vibe, how about the first tennis match in space? TIME with those details:
Commander Andrew “Drew” Feustel and three flight engineers—Serena Aunon-Chancellor from the European Space Agency along with NASA’s Ricky Arnold and Alexander Gerst—played the interstellar doubles match…
Due to the confines of the space station, and the lack of gravity to direct the balls, the astronauts played on tiny tennis rackets hitting the floating ball slowly over a make-shift net. Feustel predicted that the space match would play out like a giant game of Pong, the old video game, and he was not wrong with the astronauts volleying more than scoring.
It’s really more Pong, or badminton, than tennis, but who really cares at this point:
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