IBM Uses AI at US Open to Track 21 Points on Every Tennis Serve
Synopsis
IBM is using AI at the 2026 US Open to analyse tennis serves, with its Serve Quality system tracking 21 body and racquet points 50 times per second.
IBM AI US Open sports technology will be used at the 2026 US Open to analyze tennis serves, with IBM's new Serve Quality metric that tracks twenty-one points across a player's body and racquet.
The system will capture fifty frames per second, processing about 1.2 billion data points for all the 254 singles matches in the tournament.
Serve Tracking Adds a New Layer of Match Data
The Serve Quality metric from IBM analyzes the motion of the serve and translates it into a score which can be shared via the US Open's digital channels.
The feature was created by IBM using optical data from limb-tracking research conducted throughout the 2024 and 2025 tennis season. The system will track the player's movements as well as the racquet throughout the various phases of a serve.
IBM's AI system is also supported by other digital tools, like Match Chat, Live Likelihood to Win and Key Moments. For a few of the tournament's AI-powered digital services, IBM's watsonx technology is being employed.
IBM and the USTA have been collaborating on the US Open since 1992. The company's technology is responsible for match and player data across the tournament's website and digital services.
AI Use in Sports Expands Across Major Markets
In 2026, IBM's Sports Intelligence Report polled 20,589 sports fans in 12 countries. The markets surveyed in the study are the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, India, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Brazil.
The report found out that 69% of the surveyed fans utilized AI for sports related activities in 2026, up from 52% in 2025. It also discovered that 72% of them used sporting applications.
The study comes on the heels of a wider trend of expanding the use of AI in sports tech across various key sports sectors. The survey does not rank the 12 countries as a whole in terms of the extent of using AI.
In Australia, comparable AI fan experience sports tech is applicable to Tennis Australia, who operates the Australian Open and has a sports technology program. There is no evidence of the Tennis Australia using the IBM Serve Quality measure.
IBM Financials Reflect Latest 2026 Results
IBM's second-quarter 2026 revenue is $17.16 billion, an increase of 1% compared to the same period last year. Free cash flow for the quarter was $2.5 billion and the first-half free cash flow was $4.8 billion.
The business has slashed its forecast for revenue growth in 2026 to 4-5%, down from an earlier forecast of more than 5%, due to second-quarter performance misses.
For the entire year 2025, IBM had $67.5 billion in revenue and $14.7 billion in free cash flow.
Source: Entrepreneur
Pooja Malik is a business journalist with over six years of experience covering startups, entrepreneurship, and emerging trends. She has previously worked with leading media platforms such as YourStory Media and BW BusinessWorld, where she reported on business, policy, and market developments. Currently, she serves as Editor at The Inspirepreneur Magazine, where she writes and edits stories across business, lifestyle, and travel, with a focus on clarity, accuracy, and reader relevance.
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