No tennis player had ever done this before. It happened last September at a tournament in Frankfurt. On one side of the net was Gaël Monfils, a veteran with uncanny agility. On the other was Andrey Rublev, ranked in the world’s Top 10.
Rublev was ahead, and it was Monfils’s turn to serve. He stood at the baseline, bouncing the ball with his racket. Could he find his way back into the match?
