IBM (NYSE: IBM) and the United States Tennis Association (USTA) today announced several watsonx-powered fan features coming to the US Open digital platforms ahead of this year’s tournament. These new and enhanced capabilities – a product of collaboration between IBM and the USTA digital team – aim to deliver a more informative and engaging experience for millions of tennis fans around the world.
All-new this year, IBM will deliver AI-generated Match Report summaries for every men’s and women’s singles match within minutes of conclusion. The solution leverages technologies from watsonx, IBM’s AI and data platform – including Granite 13B, its large language model (LLM) purpose-built for business – and the USTA’s trusted data and editorial guidelines to produce long-form, post-match articles featuring analysis of player performance, statistics, and highlights. The content is reviewed and updated with context and commentary from USTA editorial staff prior to publication on the US Open app and USOpen.org.
Match Reports will expand the editorial capabilities of the USTA, enabling them to provide fans with timely coverage at an unprecedented scale – for all 254 main draw singles matches across seven rounds and all seventeen courts.
An enhanced version of IBM’s AI commentary is also returning to the US Open digital platforms. First introduced in 2023, AI commentary provides automated English-language audio and subtitles for men’s and women’s singles match summary highlight videos. This year, IBM will utilize watsonx including the Granite 13B LLM to generate more frequent, expressive, and contextual commentary, with highlight packages published just minutes after a match concludes.
Fans will also have access to a fully redesigned IBM SlamTracker experience offering detailed pre-, live, and post-match insights. These include likelihood-to-win predictions, point-by-point analysis, and bulleted match previews and recaps, built on IBM watsonx, for all men’s and women’s singles matches. This includes for live matches a new, near real-time 3D graphic of current play.
Additionally, IBM and the USTA Foundation, the USTA’s philanthropic arm, are announcing a collaboration to offer free career readiness training through IBM SkillsBuild, aligning with the USTA Foundation’s mission to help under-resourced youth become more engaged in school and learning and IBM’s goal of skilling 30 million people by 2030. The collaboration will provide students from select USTA Foundation National Junior Tennis & Learning (NJTL) chapters, as well as teaching professionals and the public, access to AI and professional development courses, such as customized learning plans, workshops, and guidance from IBM volunteers. Participants will also have access to a new guidebook and interactive micro-learning course, available in English and Spanish, providing information on AI concepts and techniques used in tennis, such as electronic line calling and player analytics, as well as an introduction to LLMs, including IBM Granite.
“Fans want more quality content around their favorite sports and athletes, and IBM Match Reports enables us to deliver it right away for the US Open,” said Jonathan Adashek, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications for IBM. “IBM’s continued partnership with the USTA, built on more than 30 years of innovation, is an example of how businesses in any sector can modernize and scale their workflows with models like Granite and AI technologies like watsonx.”
“One of the key goals of the US Open Digital Platforms is to provide fans worldwide with comprehensive coverage of all the action taking place during the three weeks of the tournament,” said Brian Ryerson, Sr. Director of Digital Strategy at the USTA. “AI Match Reports enables us to efficiently deliver concise, factual match previews and reports for over 150 matches to fans across our platforms. The efficiency of providing this content at scale allows our editorial teams to focus on other storylines and interviews ensuring we can provide the most comprehensive coverage possible.”
These new features and efforts showcase how IBM and the USTA continue to co-create world-class digital experiences that bring the drama and excitement of the US Open to more than 15 million people around the world each year. The US Open’s digital experiences are run on the USTA’s flexible, open hybrid cloud platform, which integrates technology from dozens of partners, automates key business processes, and secures the entire world-class digital experience of the US Open.
About IBM
IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs, and gain a competitive edge in their industries. Thousands of government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications, and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to affect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently, and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions, and consulting deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s long-standing commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity, and service.
About USTA
The USTA is the national governing body for the sport of tennis in the U.S. and the leader in promoting and developing the growth of tennis at every level — from local communities to the highest level of the professional game. A not-for-profit organization, it invests 100 percent of its proceeds in growing the game. It owns and operates the US Open, one of the highest-attended annual sporting events in the world, along with approximately 100 Pro Circuit events throughout the U.S., and selects the teams for the Davis Cup, Billie Jean King Cup, and the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The USTA’s philanthropic entity, the USTA Foundation, provides grants and scholarships in addition to supporting tennis and education programs nationwide to benefit under-resourced youth through the National Junior Tennis & Learning (NJTL) network. For more information about the USTA, go to USTA.com or follow the official accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (X), and TikTok.
USTA Foundation Incorporated (USTAF or USTA Foundation), the national charitable arm of the United States Tennis Association Incorporated (USTA), utilizes the powerful combination of tennis and education to enhance the lives of under-resourced youth through its support of the National Junior Tennis & Learning (NJTL) network. For more than 50 years, NJTL has impacted thousands of youth nationwide, and today, the network features over 250 chapters. The USTAF supports these chapters by providing financial grants, scholarship opportunities, curricula, technical assistance, and training. USTAF raises money and public awareness through donations, corporate support, foundations, and fundraisers, including the US Open Opening Night Gala and various Pro-Ams, to name just a few. To date, the USTA Foundation has awarded approximately $64 million in grants and scholarships.
