Melbourne: Scientists say they have created an algorithm that can predict where a tennis player will hit the next ball by analysing data of thousands of shots played by Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer in Australian Open. The algorithm called Semi Supervised Generative Adversarial Network architecture can also be used in virtual reality games, offering people the chance to go head-to-head with world’s best players in an accurate but artificial grand slam.
The researchers analysed over 3,400 shots for Djokovic, nearly 3,500 shots for Nadal and almost 1,900 shots by Federer, adding context for each shot such as whether it was a return, a winner or an error. “After about 1,000 shots, the model has a pretty good idea of what is going on,” said Simon Denman, a Senior Research Fellow at Queensland Universtity of Technology.
The algorithm was mimicking the brains of the top players who were already trying to predict their opponent’s next shot. While the artificial intelligent system proved successful, its biggest challenge was the unpredictability of the “Greatest Of All Time” player.
