MELBOURNE: Meet the ultimate tennis player who has never lost a match.
OK, to be fair, this menacing machine is yet to actually step foot on a court – and even in this AI world is unlikely to do so in the near future.
But we are allowed to dream and Mark Petchey – the former coach of grand slam champions Andy Murray and Emma Raducanu – has created a monster comprising six of the world's brightest stars.
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The criteria is this: you can select only from the top 50 ranked current men's and women's tennis players.
And you can only choose a player once as you pick the best of six specialist attributes: mentality, serve, forehand, backhand, volley and speed.
Without further adieu…
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Novak Djokovic of Serbia celebrates against Jordan Thompson of Australia. Getty
MENTALITY: Novak Djokovic
"He's one of the most complete players of all time but you've still got to come up with a shot at the right time and you've also got to be willing to," Petchey told Wide World of Sports.
"You need strategic shifts against different opponents and that takes an incredible amount of willpower. To play very differently against Rafa (Nadal) in his prime, Roger (Federer) in his prime, Andy (Murray) in his prime – and come out on top in the bigger moments more often than not, just underlines what a giant he is.
"The forehand return that he hit against Roger in the US Open down match point, the pass that he made against Roger in the final in 2019, – two of the key shots that have gained him a couple of the majors that he wouldn't have won otherwise.
"He's so clutch in the big moments."
Ben Shelton of the United States serves against Frances Tiafoe. Getty
SERVE: Ben Shelton
"Ben's numbers aren't quite as good as Jannik's (Sinner)," Petchey told WWOS.
"But I just feel the toggling of speeds and spins, and also the lefty factor, makes it incredibly difficult to get a good rhythm on the return. You're consistently feeling under pressure on the return, you don't know what's coming, you don't know what power is coming.
"He's got high end speed, but he'll also drop it down and just cut and make the slide away. Plus just under 90 per cent of the players on the tour are right handed.
"So the break points, the majority of them come on the ad side, and that's a huge advantage for a lefty like Ben."
Iga Swiatek of Poland plays a forehand against Coco Gauff. Getty
FOREHAND: Iga Swiatek
"Iga's forehand is not as big as some of the other players but it's consistent and relentless," Petchey told WWOS.
"And she can move it every single which way. She can go fast line, she can go high line and get you out of position and get you off the baseline. She cuts the singles line, the three quarter on the cross court, as well as we have seen here in in Melbourne.
"I wouldn't have picked her forehand prior to Melbourne, had I not seen how it's played out during the course of this tournament.
"That was the thing that swayed me. It's always been a great shot on a clay court, but she's found a way of making her shape and style equally effective here in Australia.
"It's just very hard to get behind the ball with Iga's forehand and get a good play on it. So it's not going to rack up the quantity of winners that another great forehand might, but it's going to extract a lot of errors and make your shot a lot more ordinary in return."
Alexander Zverev of Germany plays a backhand against Carlos Alcaraz. Getty
BACKHAND: Alexander Zverev
"Sascha's backhand is still underrated," Petchey told WWOS.
"Again, it's not a shot that necessarily pulls huge numbers, but he never misses it. It's an awesome return from deep, it stays very flat, he can pull it across the line equally as well – which forces you as an opponent to have to stay in the middle.
"And also from downtown, he can pass you if you attack it and come in. Even though it's a pretty flat shot, he's got the ability to generate huge pace from downtown behind the baseline and be able to still get past you.
"So it's very hard to find a weakness in it, and he also has a good slice. So he's not only got the two hander in terms of the pace and everything else, but he's also got a reliable use of the slice."
Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic plays a volley against Simona Halep. Getty
VOLLEY: Karolina Muchova
"She's such a great all court player with incredible volley technique," Petchey told WWOS.
"It's out in front, which allows you to access the short parts of the court.
"Anytime you hit late, you're going to hit most of your volleys deep or allow the ball to play you. But her movement, I think it's astonishing because she doesn't have the biggest ground strokes but when she comes in, she knows where to put herself.
"And just beautiful feel, great ability to take pace off the ball, drop it short."
SPEED: Coco Gauff
"With speed, I'm considering overall movement as well," Petchey told WWOS.
"It's not just about pure A to B, 100m speed. I would be fascinated to see a sprint and find out who is the quickest.
"But tennis is also about the ability to cover the court behind you and recover. Coco's speed is insane.
"She's able to hit and recover to the middle of the court and never really feel like she's out of position. I've never seen a better athlete.
"She can track almost any drop shot down, but left to right and getting behind the ball and then getting back to the middle.
"She's able to shrink the space faster than anyone else. When you think you've got a winner available to you, it suddenly doesn't seem like it because she's there."
Stan's Mark Petchey built the 'ultimate tennis player.'Â Getty/Nine
And the final question for Petchey: would he rather coach or commentate on this ultimate tennis player?
"I certainly wouldn't want to play against them!" he laughed.
"I would love to commentate. If you could do all of those things in one match, that would be the best entertainment ever."
Thanks to Stan Sport, you can create the ultimate tennis player too – and with it go into the draw to win a trip for two to the French Open valued at more than $11,000
