Nasa astronaut plays the first ever game of tennis in space

It was both the most thrilling and slowest match ever played

The first ever tennis match in space has finally taken place.

Astronauts moved important equipment out of the way in the International Space Station and constructed their own court inside the capsule. They then got around to playing, with modified rules that allowed them to hit balls off the roof and walls and under the floating net.

The reason there's never been a tennis match in space before is reasonably obvious: there is ironically very little space, and gravity is quite important to the game. But US NASA astronaut Andrew Feustel was keen to promote the sport by playing it in the capsule, and did so as part of a tie-up with the US open.

Feustel played with three flight engineers – Serena Aunon-Chancellor from the European Space Agency along with NASA’s Ricky Arnold and Alexander Gerst – in the pioneering doubles match.

In advance of the match, the astronaut had predicted the game might be something like Pong given that it would be much easier than usual to reach the ball. And that's how it played out, with long, slow rallies in keeping with the lack of gravity.

In a strange statement, the US Tennis Association said that the match had been part of the organisation's mission to promote the sport.

"Tonight is about missions," said USTA CEO and Executive Director Gordon Smith. "It's about the mission of the USTA to promote and develop the growth of tenniss. We like to say we're about growing tennis and making it look like America. But tonight, we're about another kind of mission: a space misison.The first tennis mission to space."