‘This is the future’: the AI revolution hits Wimbledon

Artificial intelligence is delivering new levels of instant game-changing insight – and it may soon be accessible to players themselves on court, writes Lawrence Ostlere

- Lawrence Ostlere

Andre Agassi lost his first three matches against Boris Becker in 1988 and 1989, but then won 10 of the last 11 they played. “I didn’t understand how he could read me like that,” Becker later said, perplexed by the grip Agassi held over his serve, somehow able to anticipate the direction of every ball. It was only after their careers had ended that Agassi revealed his secret: he had spotted a tell in Becker’s tongue, which would unconsciously point to where he was aiming as he tossed the ball.

It is the most famous example of tennis espionage, one perhaps never to be repeated. But there is a modern equivalent in the priceless insight tucked by the knees of every coach at Wimbledon this week: an iPad brimming with ATP Tour data about the opponent. Data on serve direction, data on landing spots, data on exactly which type of shot they most frequently miss, with AI deployed to make sense of it all. The platform is called Tennis IQ.

Since rules were relaxed in 2023, coaches have been able to communicate with players during their matches, which has coincided with a major step forward in the way data is presented, with generative AI able to answer niche questions about forehand returns in an instant, to the point where the technology is now making live recommendations for how to change the momentum of a match.

“There’s been a huge shift over the last 24 months on what you're getting during the match,” says Andy Murray’s former coach Dani Vallverdu, speaking to The Independent on a terrace overlooking the All England Club. “Service patterns, shot selection patterns, spin of serves... You can give a lot of information that can really help turn a match around.”