‘Real into unreal’: Australian Open brings game to the gamers with live matches in animation
Using an approach tried by the NFL and NBA, the year’s first grand slam is using Wii-like characters to attract a younger audience
Maybe attending sports events in person is too been-there, done-that in the modern age. So, apparently, is watching the actual action on a TV, laptop or phone. The Australian Open is getting in on the newest trend in the sports world by re-creating tennis matches in video-game form.
Players are represented by characters that look like something out of a Wii game – not exactly perfect portrayals of Coco Gauff or Novak Djokovic, perhaps, but the graphics do try to show the correct outfit colours or hats and bandanas the athletes are wearing and reflect what is happening in the matches, with about a one-point delay.
“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,” said 2021 US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez, who will face Gauff in the third round on Friday. “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.”
Tennis Australia created its own “skins” to represent players, chair umpires and ball persons.
“The wonderful part of it is it’s the players’ actual movement. It’s the actual trajectory of the ball,” said Machar Reid, Tennis Australia’s director of innovation. “We’re taking the real into the unreal. That’s part of the magic.”
