If you’ve stumbled across an Australian Open live-stream on their official YouTube channel this week, you may have been surprised by exactly what you were looking at.
Tennis Australia has followed the lead of a number of other sports by animating their players in a video game-esque format. In this case, Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, Coco Gauff et al look like characters from Wii Tennis.
The Australian Open YouTube account has streamed a number of matches from the main courts live in this format and plan to do so until the end of the tournament on 26 January.
The animations are not perfect replicas of the stars they’re representing but they’re certainly very impressive approximations, with correct outfit colours and hats, plus a successful mimicking of each player’s unique movement quirks. Their rackets, the court and the balls are also displayed as animated versions.
How does it work?
The animation works by having sensors on the actual courts at Melbourne Park, which feeds data into a system that then produces digital reproductions of the live match, with only around a two-minute delay.
These animated versions of the matches are then synced to feature live commentary, crowd noise and chair umpire calls, plus player reactions, so they can be watched as live-streams.
“The wonderful part of it is it’s the players’ actual movement,” Machar Reid, Tennis Australia’s director of innovation, told The Associated Press. “It’s the actual trajectory of the ball. We’re taking the real into the unreal. That’s part of the magic.”
Why is the Australian Open doing this?
In short, to avoid breaching the strict broadcasting rights around the tournament. Tennis Australia has sold lucrative exclusive broadcast rights to various TV companies around the world but by animating the matches, it can show them on their own social media channels, including YouTube, without being in breach of this exclusivity.
This quirky animation of live sport is becoming a trend, with the NFL, NBA and NHL all having used this kind of approach over the past couple of years as alternate game telecasts.
For example, Disney+ broadcast an NFL game between the Dallas Cowboys and Cincinnati Bengals in the style of The Simpsons earlier this season.
What has the reaction been like?
Tennis Australia actually experimented with this during the Australian Open last year, animating matches on one court in an attempt to attract younger viewers to the sport.
While it didn’t necessarily take off initially, 12 months on there has been much bigger pick-up and the streams in the first four days of this year’s event drew more than 950,000 views according to Tennis Australia. By contrast, the same time period in 2024 received around 140,000 views.
Players appear to largely have been slightly baffled but delighted when stumbling across the animations.
“Sometimes I think it’s a very accurate (depiction) of the actual player that’s playing. So it’s weird. It’s funny and weird,” laughed 2021 US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez.
“I did not see myself just yet. Maybe I will. Now I’m curious because I’ve seen different players and I think I want to watch myself, too.”
Fernandez was actually scouring YouTube for match footage to prepare for future opponents when she accidentally discovered the animated versions.
“So I click on it and think, ’This is it! Finally! I have one,’” Fernandez added. “Nope. It’s a Wii character, which is hilarious.”
Four-time grand slam champion Carlos Alcaraz has called the idea “a good alternative” to regular coverage, while 24th seed in the men’s singles Jiri Lehecka saw the animated version of Daniil Medvedev destroying a net camera by smacking it repeatedly with his racket during a first-round victory.
“I had no idea that something like that exists, so for me, it was quite funny to see that,” Lehecka smiled. “Maybe I will see myself as a game character one day. We will see.”
