Andrey Rublev tries out cricket (don't quit your day job)
It went about as well as you might expect, but the Russian had fun.
The number 6 is an important one in tennis—it is, of course, the number of games necessary to win a set.
In cricket, 6 is also significant: it's the number of runs a team is given when a batter hits the equivalent of a home run in baseball.
That's where the similarities of the two sports ended, as Andrey Rublev found out.
The Russian, in Melbourne for the Australian Open, got a taste of a host country pastime when he traded in a tennis racquet for a cricket bat.
It went about as well as you might expect for a rookie:
Rublev tried a few things he was very well on the tennis court in the cricket oval:
"How you hit hard?" he asked, when just hitting the ball at all would do.
"Let me try backhand," he offered, after a few more swings and misses.
Then, Rublev tried bowling—in baseball parlance, pitching. Was he better on the mound?
"Is this one disaster?" he asked after one delivery.
Say this, though: Rublev made sure he had a good time.
"This most important thing is to do a healthy life and to do sport," he said, "and then which sport any kid like is their own choice.
The 26-year-old may still be a kid at heart, but I don't think this Grand Slam title contender will be choosing cricket as a serious pursuit any time soon.