Being real, when it comes to tennis ability, I’m more Andy Bernard than Andy Murray, so the chance to play against an AI-fueled robot made me nervous — especially in jeans in 80-degree heat.
And just as expected, the Acemate handily defeated me with zero fuss at IFA 2025. But in taking to the court against it, the bot is humble in victory and actually teaches you a thing or two to improve your technique. Let me tell you about it.
How it works
There’s a lot happening here — looking kind of like a net hammock on wheels. Up top, there’s the catching mechanism, which is wheeled around on Mecanum omnidirectional wheels to catch balls you hit back towards it. Those wheels can work on clay, grass and hard tennis courts, and can travel up to 16.4ft per second to chase down shots.
Then there’s a firing mechanism in the base that spits them back out towards you at different angles and speeds to keep you on your toes. With serves up to 80mph and the ability to launch lobs, backspins and more, this machine can really put you to the test — it’s rated for players from NTRP 1.0 to 6.0, just shy of pro level.
To figure out where the ball is going to go to catch it, there are two 4K cameras on the base that are connected to an AI chip (NPU), which has been trained on a whole lot of court footage and different shots to anticipate direction and where the ball will bounce. The AI side of things does a lot more than this, too, but more about that later. On average, it caught around 90% of my returning shots (ignoring all the times I hit it out).
On the stamina side of things, you’ve got a swappable 6,700 mAh battery that gives you three hours of playtime on one charge.
Game, set and match
But of course, as we’re learning about a lot of tech here at IFA, AI is the secret sauce that brings it all together. The companion app is where you can customize the game style you get from the bot, get accurate statistics on what your ball return rate is like and net clearance, too.
Digging even deeper, you can get a generated coaching report that processes all this data and gives you a tailored response to how you’re doing and what you can improve. As you’d expect, the response I got was not pretty, but it did point out some key issues with my forehand shots with actionable ways to up my game.
Outlook
Let’s tear off the band-aid — the Acemate tennis robot is $2,499. Early pre-order bonus means you can get it for $1,599, but this is a steep price. But in terms of what has been achieved here, this is a phenomenal piece of fitness tech.
You see, there’s a whole lot of wearables and fitness AI options that will give you some generic advice on how to improve your sporting performance. But to actually have a robot play you at tennis, while learning your play style and giving real advice, feels futuristic. It’s seriously impressive.
Follow Tom's Guide on Google News to get our up-to-date news, how-tos, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
More from Tom's Guide
- Apple Watch Ultra 3 vs Apple Watch Ultra 2 — biggest rumored upgrades explained
- Polar’s screenless fitness tracker has arrived — here’s everything you need to know about the Whoop rival
- Sorry, Garmin — the Apple Watch Ultra 2 is the Most Accurate Fitness Tracker, According to a Recent Study
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
