WTF?! If you go the Australian Open tennis tournament's YouTube page and click to watch a live match, you'd be forgiven for thinking someone had spiked you with LSD. But there's a good reason why the players, crowd, balls, and everything else are digital animations, making the whole thing look like a Wii Sports game. The first professional tennis tournament of 2025 is using a clever way to ensure more people can watch the matches. As explained by tennis reporter Bastien Fachan on X, the Australian Open doesn't own all of its broadcasting rights, which is fairly common. So, to ensure fans of the sport can view the action in real-time without showing any of the actual footage, the tournament is replacing the players with digital avatars that mirror their movements using motion-tracking tech.You can check out the matches live on the event's YouTube page.If this were an actual Wii Sports-like tennis game, there would probably be complaints about weird bugs such as the rackets floating in mid-air, the balls popping in and out of existence, and the audio not quite syncing up. The fact the players' heads are so large and their (tennis) balls are massive is also disconcerting.These imperfections can be forgiven when you consider what an effective method this is of allowing anyone with access to YouTube to view the proceedings, no matter where they live or which networks own the broadcast rights to the matches. // Related StoriesThis isn't the first time a sporting event has used modern tech to recreate a live game digitally in real-time. The NHL broadcast a match last year that swapped out the players for Looney Tunes characters such as Bugs Bunny and Goofy.There was also the NFL and Disney Plus partnership that broadcast a Simpsons-themed alternative version of the Cincinnati Bengals vs. Dallas Cowboys game on December 9. Homer, Bart, Moe, Carl, Barney, and Lenny and others joined in the action through the use of Sony's Beyond Sports Technology.Reactions to the digital recreations have been positive a few people say they even prefer watching these alternate versions over the real thing.
