‘I took on Serena Williams and Pete Sampras at Wimbledon – and won’ | Tennis | Sport

Wimbledon legend Roger Federer once said “you play the ball, you don’t play the opponent”. And that’s what I (sort of) did against a genius machine replicating the serves of tennis’ greatest-ever players.

Standing at the baseline as Vodafone’s 5G+ Serve limbered up was quite terrifying. The 4-tonne monster moved on tracks along the other side of the court in Wimbledon Park, reaching up to 3.5 metres in the air, before cannoning a serve towards me like a laser-guided missile. The three-person team running the first-of-its-kind robotic arm decided to bed me in with a nice easy start.

It was just the case of returning a 115mph serve from 7-time grand slam winner Venus Williams. Simple.

The ball was fired close to my body, but I managed to return it with some comfort back over the net.

Next up was a 122mph serve from Venus’ sister 23-time grand slam winner Serena down the T.

I stooped low to fire a stylish (if I may say so myself) backhand slice. Ooossh.

I also used my single backhand — Stan Wawrinka eat your heart out — to return a 146mph humdinger from 7-time Wimbledon champion Pete Sampras.

I was in the mood and by now, had started to get a bit cocky.

“Go on,” I said when they offered me one from Novak Djokovic.

So, the machine served me up a 112mph rocket, full of spin, from the 24-time grand slam winner.

I met force with force, but unfortunately I didn’t meet accuracy with accuracy.

Instead, my return was more appropriate for Lord’s than Wimbledon. Six!

Undeterred, I also faced the fastest-ever Wimbledon serve of 153mph from Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard against Taylor Fritz in last year’s first round.

To my surprise, I made a clean connection which was a close call on the baseline.

As well as replicating serves from iconic players over the years, the machine also recreates serves — including speed, angle and trajectory — happening at Wimbledon within a second by capturing live serve data from the broadcast feed.

Oliver Kibblewhite, founder of The 5GS which built the machine over a period of three months in Cambridgeshire, said: “We think it’s the fastest tennis-serving robot on the planet and certainly the most agile.

“We believe [it can serve] up to 160mph, but faster is technically possible, we just haven’t pushed it that far.”

All in all, I returned more than I didn’t and the organisers from Vodafone told me I was among the best to have taken on the machine,

A good effort but alas, not enough for me to give up the day job.

Former England rugby star Joe Marler was among those to face the 5G+ Serve on Monday which is open to the public throughout the day on Tuesday.