Roger Federer being out of rhythm on the tennis court proved to be particularly painful for fellow player Gael Monfils.

WTA player Elina Svitolina, who is also Monfils’ fiancé, shared a video of the three of them practicing on a clay court... but not tennis. Federer took up a challenge that GEMS life – an acronym for Gael Monfils and Elina Svitolina – have been known to do on social media: hitting balls around a person standing at a wall, without hitting them.

However, unlike GEMS, the 39-year-old, who has played just three tennis matches in the last 16 months, didn’t quite master it and ended up hitting the Frenchman in not the best of spots. Apologies were made and the three of them had a good laugh about it, in person and on social media.

Here’s the challenge and how Federer fluffed it