The Spanish Carlos Alcaraz, in action against the Argentine Francisco Cerundolo during the second round match of the Queen’s Club tournament in London
Photo: EFE – ANDY RAIN
The Spanish Carlos Alcaraz, current Wimbledon champion, began his tour on grass and the defense of his title at Queen’s with a victory in two sets, 6-1 and 7-5, against the Argentine Francisco Cerúndolo (N.26), this Tuesday in London.
The world number two, who has just won his third Grand Slam title at Roland Garros, nevertheless found it difficult to adapt to the new surface.
The first seed of the London tournament took the first set with authority against the 26th in the world, but his level dropped at the beginning of the second, in which he went behind 2-5.
From there he bounced back, saving three set points on serve at 4-5 before sealing the victory and extending his winning streak on grass to 13 matches.
The Spaniard, who after winning at Queen’s last year won his first Wimbledon, will face the British Jack Draper, executioner of the Argentine Mariano Navone, in the next round.
“The first match of any tournament is never easy, but it is even more difficult here on grass, at the beginning of the tour,” Alcaraz acknowledged. “You want to do well and you have to manage the high expectations you put on yourself. “I am very happy with the match and it was a good test, playing with Francisco.”
Before, Lorenzo Musetti eliminated the Australian Alex De Miñaur, 1-6, 6-4, 6-2, and the Chilean Alejandro Tabilo (N.24) won a match that had been suspended the day before due to the slippery state of the grass against the Spanish Alejandro Davidovich (N.33), 7-6 (8/6), 3-6, 6-1.
Another Argentine, Sebastián Báez (N.19), lost to the American Tommy Paul (N.13), who will be Tabilo’s next rival.
To complete the bad day for the Albiceleste armada, Tomás Martín Etcheverry lost to the British Billy Harris 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
‘Catch Me Up’ to follow Carlos Alcaraz at Wimbledon
IBM (NYSE: IBM) and The All England Lawn Tennis Club announced a new feature in the Wimbledon digital experience that will leverage match data along with generative AI from data and AI platform, IBM watsonx, to keep players Updated fans on the best players in the world as they progress through the Championship.
The new “Catch Me Up” feature shows player cards before and after the match, also including player stories and AI-generated analysis through wimbledon.com and the Wimbledon 2024 app, which will be played from 1 to 24. July 14, 2024.
Player cards will be personalized based on the user’s preferences and data, such as their location, myWimbledon profile and their favorite players. Pre-match content will include analysis of recent performance and predictions on winning odds, and post-match content will include key statistics and highlights. The feature will also create longer game summaries daily.
‘Catch Me Up’ was created using the IBM Granite Large Language Model (LLM), to provide AI-generated text using the capabilities of the watsonx platform. The model has been trained in the Wimbledon editorial style and will be monitored by the All England Club. The new functionality is designed to help Wimbledon scale its content for new and existing tennis fans around the world, as well as giving them access to more timely and curated coverage of the women’s and men’s singles matches that often occur simultaneously.
This year, Wimbledon will also use generative AI to provide broader match coverage than previously available, including wheelchair events, to offer more to Wimbledon’s diverse international audience.
This will form part of a redesigned digital match centre, known as IBM Slamtracker, available on the Wimbledon app and wimbledon.com. Using generative AI built from watsonx, IBM Slamtracker has been enhanced to provide bullet-based match previews and post-reviews of ladies’ and men’s singles matches.
“We are committed to offering fans the highest quality Wimbledon experience, whether in person or digitally. Generative AI allows us to expand our ability to provide different types of content to fans anywhere in the world in a way that is personalized for them. “This year’s new feature, Catch Me Up, will make it easier for fans to follow key stories as they emerge throughout the Championship,” said Chris Clements, digital product leader at the All England Club.
“The new feature, Catch Me Up, is an exciting example of how we can use the power of generative AI to deliver compelling, insight-driven storytelling at scale. For 35 years, IBM and Wimbledon have been co-creating solutions that make fans feel more connected to all the action on the court, and our new study confirms that they are beginning to understand the positive impact that technologies such as generative AI can have in their digital experiences,” said Jonathan Adashek, senior vice president of marketing and communications at IBM.
The announcement comes with a new study from IBM and Morning Consult* revealing that 55% of tennis fans surveyed worldwide believe AI will have a positive impact on sports. When considering how generative AI could improve their experience, these respondents prioritized real-time updates (36%), personalized content (31%), and unique insights (30%).
Approximately one-third (31%) of tennis fans surveyed globally use multiple devices while watching sporting events, primarily to get more information, watch multiple matches at the same time and interact with other fans.
Additionally, nearly half (47%) of them engage with additional tennis content daily or weekly and rank summary and personalization as the two most important features of sports content.
