For years, Hawk-Eye, the line-calling system, was the biggest and most prominent technology used in professional tennis, but that is fast changing. Like in other sports and even other aspects of life otherwise, technology is playing a greater role than ever before. Information technology company, IBM, is the one spearheading the change with their artificial intelligence powered computer system, IBM Watson. IBM has been a partner of the US Open for almost three decades and recently announced that it will be partnering with professional tennis athletes and coaches to improve their match strategy and preparation. More specifically, IBM will join together with the nonprofit, United States Tennis Association, to advance player performance and drive the sport as a whole on its technological growth.
IBM Watson is bringing multiple features to the US Open and tennis as a whole. Fans can use the US Open app, powered by IBM Watson natural language processing, to find what they need at the tournament in real-time with the app’s interactive chatbot. Another feature from IBM is their SlamTracker which shows scores for every match going on at the time and earlier in the tournament. A special feature is that it carries over stats from 12 years worth of player matches! Using this data, IBM SlamTracker will be able to show unique things such as player momentum and how that momentum shifts based on player advantage during various parts of the match. The most unique feature is that IBM SlamTracker will show each player’s unique strengths and strategies each player can employ to win the match using stats from previous and clever data analysis.
Traditionally, humans would take footage from matchplay and compile the hottest moments into shorter clips to create highlights from multi-hour matches. Now, using Watson’s technology, it is becoming possible for the digital team at the US Open to create highlights even faster and better. Watson watches hours of tennis footage in minutes and compiles it into highlights automatically. This is done by analyzing match data and by perusing footage, frame by frame, for fan and player reactions and gestures. Thanks to Watson, fans who cannot attend the US Open in person can now receive footage of the matches in a record time.
Overall, IBM Watson is taking tennis in the right direction and that is a huge win.