The Acemate S10 tennis robot is now $600 cheaper

Acemate is taking $600 off its S10 tennis robot for Prime Day, bringing the US price down to $1,899 from its usual $2,499. The campaign runs from June 23 to June 30, with the first 100 buyers also getting a branded bag and towel.

A lower price for Acemate’s rally robot

We first covered the Acemate S10 back in May, when the company was still riding the momentum of its crowdfunding campaign. That momentum appears to have held up well. Acemate says the device received support from more than 1,500 backers and raised over $2.4 million.

Now the company is moving into a more traditional sales push. For Prime Day, the S10 will be available at $1,899 in the US, £1,899 in the UK, €1,899 in Europe, CAD$2,499 in Canada and AUD$2,899 in Australia. In the US, that works out to a nice reduction from the listed $2,499 MSRP.

This still makes the S10 a premium training device. But it does bring the price closer to the upper end of advanced ball machines, which is probably where many buyers will mentally place it.

More than a static ball machine

The pitch for Acemate remains interesting because the S10 is not just another machine that fires balls from one end of the court. It tracks incoming shots, moves around the court, catches the ball and sends it back. Yes, you read that correctly, it catches the balls you hit back at it.

The robot uses 4K binocular vision and Acemate claims a 0.15-second response time. Ball return speeds go up to 100 km/h. In theory, that should make practice feel closer to a rally than a feed session. A bit like hitting with a real person.

That’s not what you get with normal ball machines. These types of devices can help with repetition, but they often lets the player stand still and groove a shot in isolation. Acemate’s approach should put more pressure on movement, recovery and timing.

The software may be the bigger story

The hardware grabs attention, but the coaching features could be what make the S10 more valuable over time. Acemate includes more than 40 training templates across NTRP levels 1.0 to 5.0, covering forehands, backhands, volleys, overheads and other common drills.

Players can also build custom sessions by changing feed interval, ball height, direction, speed, spin and ball count. After practice, the robot provides session data, including shot placement, speed, net clearance and accuracy.

Acemate S10 AI Tennis robot*

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As always, “AI coaching” deserves a little scepticism until people use it over many sessions. But tennis is a good candidate for this type of feedback. The sport gives you measurable patterns. If the S10 can track them reliably, it could help players spot problems they would otherwise miss.

The Prime Day discount definitely doesn’t make the Acemate S10 cheap, but it does make it a lot easier to justify for regular players, coaches or clubs. If you’ve been eyeing this thing since the crowdfunding campaign, this is probably the right time to pull the trigger.

We’ll find out exactly how well it handles on the court when we put the robot through its paces next month. So keep an eye out for our full hands-on review.

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