Roger Federer of Switzerland blows kisses.
Roger Federer of Switzerland blows kisses after being defeated by Novak Djokovic of Serbia in their men's singles finals tennis match on Centre Court at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships in London July 6, 2014. REUTERS/Suzanne Plunkett REUTERS

Roger Federer is perhaps the greatest player in the history of tennis. He should probably stick with his sport judging from his performance in the exhibition game called the Ball Hockey Challenge.

It probably didn’t help that Federer was playing against tough and legit competition going against NHL players like Jason Spezza, Phil Kessel, John Mitchell, Mike Hoffman, Steve Thomas, Brad May, Mike Johnson, Cody Hodgson, Nick Kyperios, Mark Schefiele and Carlo Colaiacovo among others.

Other players who tried the rare crossover competition were Radek Stepanek,Jack Sock, Eric Butorac, Peter Polansky, Joao Sousa, Nenad Zimonjic and Treat Huey and even ATP boss Chris Kermode joined the fun fray.

“It’s great fun doing this kind of stuff,” said Federer via the official ATP site. “Getting hockey and tennis together on a centre court that they built specially; I think is great. I had a lot of fun meeting all the guys. They’re so relaxed.”

The Swiss Master also shared his experience on Twitter.

Got schooled by some NHL players today.. Had a blast! pic.twitter.com/3H9sLtbHjH

— Roger Federer (@rogerfederer) August 3, 2014

Watch some highlights and a Federer interview here:

(YouTube/ATPWorldTour)

The 17-time Grand Slam champion did score on a forehand albeit no defensive player was within two metres of Federer:

(YouTube/TCtenniscanada)

Federer also admitted that he was a big NHL fan and can actually skate—if he tried.

“I’ve always been a big hockey fan. I can’t skate at all actually. I can’t stop so I have to go in circles. I used to play a little bit of unihockey, we call it in Europe. That’s what I did for warm-ups in tennis back in the day. I’ve always collected NHL jerseys; I’ve got a nice collection so far.”

Safe to say Roger Federer probably held back some of those hockey skills and the Swiss is not winning the 2014 Rogers Cup if shows the same form in that tennis-slash-hockey exhibition game.