The average first serve from a professional men’s tennis player is about 120 miles per hour, which is to say: really, really fast. Is it delusional to think that one of us could stroll down to the court from the audience and return one?

Well, probably, right? There’s a reason that Serena Williams and Roger Federer are pros and the rest of us are watching them on TV. It’s still tempting to think we could get lucky after a certain number of tries and hit that bright green ball over the net, however unrealistic it may be — just imagine how loud the applause would be.