Monfils and friends pull off long distance trick shot

Gael Monfils has been gracing tennis with mind-bending trick shots for well over a decade now, but this one might be his biggest, at least in terms of the amount of space needed—and it required some help, from Fabio Fognini, Marin Cilic, Karen Khachanov and Malek Jaziri.

In a "Supply Chain Challenge" video for the ATP, the players had to advance the ball across four different locations in Dubai, from a hotel rooftop to Centre Court, without letting it touch the ground.

It took a few tries, but once the shot worked it was wonderful. Here's how it went down:

1

Monfils blasts the ball off the hotel roof:

2

Khachanov catches it with the back of his racquet, standing on a separate rooftop, and sends the ball over to Fognini, in the Irish Village:

3

Fognini hurries to get the ball before the bounce as well, and pops it into the stadium:

4

Cilic cradles it and volleys to Jaziri:

Of the players who participated, the only one to take make the Dubai semifinals is Monfils, who, having won back-to-back tournaments in France and the Netherlands, is one of the hottest players in tennis right now—he's won 24 sets in a row.

In Friday's semi, he faces Novak Djokovic, who's 16-0 on the year. Monfils will clearly need to bring his best shots, though the skills he showed off here probably won't be applicable.