8.7

Design 8.5/10

Ease of use 9.0/10

Use of information 9.0/10

Value for money 8.0/10

Pros

• – Moves around the court
• – Reactive timing creates more natural rallies
• – Much more engaging than a conventional ball machine
• – Extensive control over placement, speed, spin and height
• – Useful shot maps and training statistics
• – Can also work as a stationary ball machine

Cons

• – Slightly awkward to transport over longer distances
• – Pricey

Design and setup

The Acemate S10 does not look like a normal ball machine. It looks more like a small tennis robot, complete with two camera “eyes” at the front and four chunky wheels underneath. The frog comparison is hard to avoid, although the design makes more sense once you see it sliding sideways across the court.

I have used quite a few ball machines over the years, including the Slinger Bag for a couple of years and, more recently, the PongBot Pace S Pro. The S10 is easily the most ambitious of them in terms of what it tries to do on court.

At 17.8 kg, the S10 is actually lighter than many other ball machines. If you are taking it to the court by car or another mode of transport, it will be an easy job. It is compact enough to lift in and out without too much trouble.

Where it gets a little awkward is moving it any real distance on foot. There is no telescopic handle, so I usually extend the poles slightly and pull it along that way. It works, but a proper suitcase-style handle would make life easier. You can also drive it using the app, although that is more useful for moving it around the court than getting it from A to B.

Once it is on court, the four Mecanum wheels come into their own. The S10 can move sideways, diagonally and forwards without first turning its body. Watching it in action for the first time is slightly surreal, particularly when it starts tracking a return and positioning itself behind the incoming ball.

The main unit feels very solid, although a few areas are less convincing. The removable hopper clips onto the sides and is easy enough to fit, but it does not feel quite as robust as the rest of the machine.

Then there is the optional catching net. Putting it together for the first time takes some patience. The telescopic poles also feel noticeably more delicate than the main machine, and this is one part of the S10 I would be careful with. I quickly learned to hold each section near the bottom while extending or collapsing it rather than simply pulling from the top.

The good news is that you do not need to dismantle the entire structure after every session. The poles retract, and the frame folds down into something much easier to transport. Once I had done it a couple of times, setting up the net took less than a minute.

Acemate tennis robot S10

At checkout use code “G&W01” for a $50 discount.

View at Acemate

With the net extended, the S10 becomes a fairly substantial presence on court. It also attracts attention. I have had people on neighbouring courts looking over to see what it is doing, which is hardly surprising when a tennis robot suddenly starts racing sideways across the baseline. I have even seen passers-by stop to take photos. People tend to look slightly mesmerised by it.

That said, you can use the S10 without the net. In that configuration it is much more low-key and looks closer to a conventional ball machine.

As far as the device itself – there are very few built-in controls. There’s a power-on button, LED indicator and below it a little display that shows the battery life. That’s pretty much it. So you need the smartphone app while on court in order to communicate with the device.

The software setup is straightforward. You need to download the Acemate app, connect it to the robot and install any available firmware updates before getting started. That was pretty seamless for me.

Unboxing and attaching everything for the first time takes a bit of effort, especially if you try to work it out without help. The official Acemate setup video on YouTube makes the process much easier. With that playing beside me, I had the S10 assembled, connected and ready to use in around 15 minutes.

Battery life, noise

Official specs rate battery life at around 90 minutes in rally mode and up to two hours when the S10 is used more like a conventional ball machine. Which does not sound like very much.

But in practice I found the S10 used roughly 40% of its battery per hour. That is because you are not hitting continuously. There are pauses to collect stray balls, change drills, adjust settings and take a breather.

Based on my testing, I think you could get around two and a half hours of practice without much trouble. Which is plenty. In the month or so that I have been testing the robot, I never felt constrained by battery life.

Charging can be done by plugging the charging cord into the port in the machine. The other option is to open the hatch and remove the battery and plug it into the charging cord. Once refuelled, simply return the battery to its home.

When you power it on, one of the first things you notice is how quiet the S10 is. The motor makes almost no noise, and I could barely hear it while it was feeding balls. You mainly hear a slight whooshing sound as the balls come out, which is far less intrusive than I expected from something this large and mechanically complex.

The wheels are a little louder once the S10 starts moving around the court. The sound is similar to pulling a suitcase on wheels, especially when it slides sideways or accelerates towards a return. Even then, though, it is not particularly loud. I would have no concerns using it on a court next to other players.

How the Acemate S10 works

So what makes the Acemate S10 different from other machines? Plenty.

The basic idea is quite simple. Instead of standing in one place and firing balls at fixed intervals, the S10 watches where the ball goes, moves across the court and sends the next one back at a more natural moment.

There are two 4K cameras on the front of the robot. These track the ball, recognise the court and work out where your shots are heading. The four Mecanum wheels then allow the S10 to slide sideways or diagonally, and it is surprisingly quick once it is moving.

Before starting a session, you place it around the middle of the opposite baseline and let the app check its position. This only takes a few moments, and I found the cameras are very quick to recognise the court and confirm that everything is lined up correctly.

The clever part is the timing. The robot does not immediately fire another ball as soon as yours crosses the net. It waits until roughly the point where another player would make contact. A slower return gives you more time, while a harder shot brings the next ball back sooner.

That might sound like a small detail, but it changes the whole feel of the session. With a normal ball machine, you quickly fall into a fixed rhythm because you know when the next ball is coming and exactly where it is coming from. It can get repetitive pretty quickly.

With the S10, I found myself recovering, split-stepping and preparing for the next shot in a much more natural way. And because the device itself moves, the next ball is not always coming from exactly the same position on the other side of the court.

Most importantly, with stationary tennis machines it feels like work after a while. Here it feels like fun. And that is perhaps the most important difference.

As an added bonus, when the catching net is attached and the feature is enabled in the app, the robot tries to collect your return and feed it back into the system. Which is interesting in itself.

It still does not feel exactly like playing another person. The shots are generated by software, and there is no disguise or improvisation. Even so, the combination of movement and reactive timing makes it feel far less mechanical than what you get with a traditional ball machine.

Training modes and custom drills

The S10 gives you three main ways to train. There is a drill mode for working on specific shot patterns, a rally mode where the robot tries to keep the point going, and a conventional ball-machine mode where it stays in one place and feeds balls at fixed intervals.

I spent most of my time in drill and rally modes because those are what separate the S10 from a normal ball machine. In drill mode, I could choose where the robot sent the ball and define the area I was supposed to hit in return. The app then scored the session based on how accurately I found that target. This was particularly addictive. I found it pushed me to repeat the same drill in order to try and improve the score.

Rally mode feels less structured. Instead of repeating a fixed pattern, the S10 moves around its selected area and reacts to where I hit the ball. It tries to keep the rally going.

Acemate tennis robot S10

At checkout use code “G&W01” for a $50 discount.

View at Acemate

The standard ball-machine mode is more familiar. The S10 stays in one position, and you can set the direction, pace, spin, height and time between feeds. It is useful for working on one stroke repeatedly, and it also gives the robot a fallback role when I do not need the cameras or movement.

There are around 50 pre-installed drills in the app, covering forehands, backhands, volleys, baseline patterns and changes of depth. They are fine for getting started. The default feeds are also mostly flat, so I quickly moved on to creating my own drills.

The customisation is one of the stronger parts of the S10. You can build a sequence of up to 10 different balls, then adjust the landing position, speed, spin and height for each one. It takes a little trial and error because a setting that looks right in the app does not always produce the exact ball you expect on court.

You might find it easier to create the basic drill at home, then fine-tune it once you are actually playing. A ball might arrive too high, land too short or carry more than expected, so you can stop the session, adjust the individual feed and try again. Once saved, the drill is ready for future sessions.

The on-court experience

What surprised me most was how quickly the S10 stopped feeling like a gadget I was testing. After a few minutes, I was simply playing tennis and trying to keep the rally going.

The timing makes a bigger difference than I expected. Because the next feed reacts to my return rather than following a fixed interval, I had time to recover, split-step and prepare properly. With a conventional ball machine, it is easy to fall into an artificial rhythm. The S10 felt much closer to the timing of hitting with another player.

Once the novelty wore off, I found myself concentrating less on the robot and more on my footwork, recovery and shot placement. That is probably the biggest compliment I can give it. The S10 soon felt like part of the session rather than a device sitting at the other end of the court.

As a mid-intermediate player, I found the pace more than adequate. It could give me comfortable warm-up balls and then make things much harder once I increased the speed, depth and spin. The heaviest settings still do not reproduce the weight of shot from a strong tournament player, and the differences between some spin levels are not always dramatic, but there was more than enough variety for my level.

The sessions were also far more engaging than working through a hopper of identical feeds. I spent more time trying to build longer rallies, recover into position and find specific areas of the court. The target zones and scores added a competitive element, which is hard to get when training with a traditional ball machine.

Another thing I noticed is that I did not experience a single ball jam with the S10. That has happened occasionally with other machines I have used, so it was good to see.

What did happen, perhaps once an hour, was the S10 stopping because it thought there was an obstacle on the court. I play in the middle of a park where leaves regularly fall onto the surface, so my guess is that these occasionally triggered the warning. Fortunately, it did not happen often and was more of a minor interruption than a real problem.

Does the ball-catching system work?

What about the ball catching system? I think you should look at it as a bonus rather than the reason to buy this robot.

It works, but don’t buy this device expecting it will capture 100% of your returns. When the feature is enabled in the app, the S10 moves towards the incoming ball and tries to collect it in the net before feeding it back into the hopper.

The success rate of this depends heavily on the pace, height and direction of returns, as well as the type of drill you are using. For me it was anywhere between 30% and 50%, depending on the training mode and playing conditions.

Alternating between backhand and forehand crosscourt shots resulted in very few balls being caught because the robot had much more ground to cover. It performed better when I was hitting repeatedly towards one area, such as a forehand or backhand target near the centre. Wider shots, deep topspin balls and harder returns often passed beside the S10, bounced into its body or flew over the net.

If you start off with 80 balls in the hopper, you should get the equivalent of more than 100 balls when you factor in the caught balls. Which means you will spend a bit less time walking around the court collecting balls. Which is always a good thing.

Make no mistake, you will still need to pick up plenty of balls – just not quite as often. For me, the big selling point of the robot is that it moves around the court and has the built-in cameras which follow the ball, react to where you are hitting and help create a much more natural rally. The catching net is useful, but it is really just a bonus on top of that.

App and training analysis

As mentioned, there are almost no controls on the robot itself. Which means you need to use the Acemate smartphone app. Which is easy enough, and the connection to the S10 was stable during my sessions. The main screens cover training, saved data, device settings and firmware updates without burying everything in complicated menus.

After each drill, the app saves a surprisingly detailed breakdown of what happened. I could see where my shots landed, how many stayed in bounds, my longest streak, average and maximum ball speed, and how high the ball cleared the net. There is also an overall score out of 100, which gave me something simple to compare between sessions.

The court map was the part I found most useful. It quickly showed whether I was consistently finding the intended area or spraying balls across the court. I would not treat every plotted position as perfectly precise, but it was accurate enough to reveal obvious patterns in my play.

AI analysis is also there. It produces a long assessment of the session, along with recommendations and suggested follow-up drills, but much of it feels fairly generic. Running the analysis again can also produce slightly different conclusions, which makes it slightly difficult to take the player-level assessment too seriously. But it is useful in providing a direction of what needs work in your game.

For me, most of the analysis value lies in the recorded numbers and shot map rather than the AI coaching. The app gives me useful evidence of how a session went, but I still trust my own feel, and the view of an actual coach, more than its automated conclusions.

One feature I would like to see added in a future firmware update is session recording. The S10 already has two cameras watching the court. Being able to download the footage after a session would make it much easier to review technique alongside the shot data. Perhaps an idea for the next version of this robot?

Who is the Acemate S10 for?

I think the S10 makes the most sense for recreational and intermediate players who want solo practice to feel less repetitive. That is where its movement, reactive timing and scoring features add the most value. As an intermediate player, I found it challenging enough without feeling overwhelming.

Beginners should also get plenty from it, especially through the simpler drills and target-based sessions. The app makes practice feel more structured, and the scoring adds a useful sense of progress even when there is no coach on court.

Acemate tennis robot S10

At checkout use code “G&W01” for a $50 discount.

View at Acemate

It could also work well for coaches who want to add something different to individual lessons. The S10 is engaging, easy to customise and gives students immediate feedback after a drill. I would be less convinced about using it for back-to-back sessions all day, mainly because of the setup, transport and battery demands.

Advanced tournament players may find the maximum pace and spin less demanding than they need. Anyone who only wants repeatable feeds from one position can also spend less on a conventional ball machine. The S10 is for players who value realistic rally timing and a more interactive training experience, rather than raw speed alone.

Price and value

The S10 has an MSRP of $2,499 in the US, although Acemate normally sells it for $2,199 rather than at full list price. The current promotion takes another $200 off, bringing it down to $1,999. At checkout, you can then use code “G&W01” for an additional $50 discount, reducing the final price to $1,949.

Slinger Bag typically costs $749, while the Pongbot Pace S Pro comes in at around $2,270. Granted, these are full prices and the Pongbot can often be purchased with discounts. Proton sells for $1,695.

Then you have the Lobster Elite Grand Four which is currently $1,999, while the Grand Five costs $2,249 and the Grand Five LE reaches $2,499. Those machines offer more raw speed, larger ball capacities and longer quoted battery life, but they remain stationary feeders. 

That is why I do not think the S10 should be judged purely against a feature checklist. You are paying for a tennis robot that reacts to your shots, moves around the court, catches some of your balls, keeps rallies going and records what happened afterwards. None of the conventional alternatives offer that same experience.

FAQ

Does the Acemate S10 return the same ball?

No. Its cameras track your return, while the launcher sends a different ball from the hopper. With the catching net enabled, it attempts to collect your return and recycle it into the machine.

How often does the Acemate S10 catch the ball?

As an intermediate player, I found that it caught somewhere between 30% and 50% of my returns. The success rate depends heavily on the speed, height and placement of the shot. Sometimes it was more than that range, sometimes less.

Can the Acemate S10 work like a normal ball machine?

Yes. Its standard ball-machine mode keeps it in one position and feeds balls at fixed intervals. You can adjust the speed, spin, height and landing position.

How long does the Acemate S10 battery last?

During my testing, it used roughly 40% of its battery during an hour of normal practice. Allowing for stops to change drills and collect balls, around two and a half hours should be realistic.

Is the Acemate S10 suitable for advanced players?

It is best suited to recreational and intermediate players. Very advanced players can still use its custom drills, but some may want greater top-end pace and heavier spin.

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Fast forward to 2026 and the product looks very different. In/Out has moved well beyond that original single-device setup into a full v4.0 system with Net Devices, Line Devices, multiple sport support and years of software updates that have made the whole thing feel much more practical.

In the original review, one of the main attractions was simplicity. You clipped the device onto the net post, connected it to your phone and suddenly your local tennis match had a touch of Hawk-Eye style technology. It was fun, useful and definitely something that got people talking on court.

But there were obvious limits. Asking one device sitting at the side of the net to judge everything was always ambitious. Accuracy depended heavily on positioning and calibration, and while the idea worked, it still felt like an early version of something that needed more refinement.

From one gadget to a proper court system

That is probably the biggest difference today. In/Out is no longer really selling one gadget. It is selling a court setup.

The company now uses Net Devices and Line Devices. Net Devices still sit on the net posts and handle the main match operation, while Line Devices sit directly along the lines they monitor. In/Out describes them as the equivalent of chair umpires and line umpires, which is actually a very good way to explain it.

This solves one of the obvious weaknesses from the original product. A device looking straight down a baseline has a much better chance of making an accurate call than one trying to judge everything from the side. In/Out says these Line Devices help deliver millimetre accuracy, and for amateur matches it recommends using two Net Devices and two Line Devices, particularly for baseline coverage.

Compared to the version I tested in 2017, this feels far less like a clever gadget experiment and much more like a serious officiating system.

Hardware has matured

My early review focused on a much simpler hardware package. Since then, In Out has gone through multiple generations including v1, v2, v3 and now v4.0.

Version 3.0 introduced support for a third middle camera on the Net Device, which expanded both video capture and match analysis. It also improved net-related tracking by separating serve net faults from rally net faults, something the original system could not handle nearly as well.

Version 4.0 takes things further with a dedicated app flow, clearer device pairing and support for a much more modular setup. One v4.0 device can now work with multiple Line Devices, and the whole system is positioned not just for tennis, but also pickleball and badminton. Also, now there’s no screen on the device itself – instead it all works through your smartphone.

Software did most of the real work

Looking back at the original review, the concept was already strong. What the product really needed was reliability.

That seems to be where most of the work happened. In/Out’s own changelog says there have been 75 software releases and five hardware generations over eight years, which tells you this was not a product left sitting after launch.

Updates improved camera speed, Line Device communication, calibration, ball detection and overall call consistency. There were fixes for cases where devices disagreed with each other, better automatic recalibration after movement and fewer false detections.

One feature I particularly like is the “Too Close To Call” alert. Instead of pretending every call is perfectly certain, the system can now flag when a decision falls inside the margin of error. That feels much more honest and much more useful for real tennis.

Back in 2017, the discussion was often whether the technology could work. Now the focus is more about how smoothly it works in practice.

The app matters much more now

When I first tested In/Out, the app was mostly there to support the device. Today it’s a much bigger part of the product.

The v4.0 app handles umpiring, stats, camera views, replays and video recording. It can record from the phone or device view, stream matches and save videos directly to the smartphone. That makes it far more useful for coaching sessions and match review, not just line calls.

Stats have also grown. Training zones, player positioning and better Line Device stats all make the system feel less one-dimensional than before. It is still not trying to replace professional broadcast-level analytics, but it offers far more than the original “was it in or out?” use case.

Still not for everyone

One thing has not changed much. This is still a specialist product.

The current v4.0 pricing costs around $499 for one Net Device and two Line Devices. That means it is still aimed more at serious players, coaches and clubs than someone playing casual doubles once a week. But that was always the reality. Even in 2017, the value was strongest for people who played regularly enough to care about accuracy, video review and structured training.

You can also opt just for the Net Device for $299. Plus, there’s a special promotion with free shipping until May 8th for Europe. No customs fees or import duties guaranteed, too.

Looking back at that original review, the core idea was right. Tennis players hate bad line calls and love any tool that removes arguments. The difference now is that the product is far more complete.

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The French Open will now allow the wearables on a trial basis, with Wimbledon and the US Open expected to follow later this year. The move comes after confusion at the Australian Open, where players including Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka were told the devices were not permitted on court. To remind, these devices were already allowed on ATP and WTA Tour events.

Why the rule is changing

So why the rule change?

It all kicked off in Melbourne earlier this year. Players who regularly wear recovery bands like Whoop suddenly found themselves being told to take them off before matches, despite using them throughout the rest of the season.

There were even awkward moments on court. Carlos Alcaraz had a device hidden under his wristband during a match, while Jannik Sinner was stopped before play after an official noticed his wearable before the coin toss.

That confusion came from the fact that Grand Slams were operating under separate rules from the regular tour. The International Tennis Federation had already approved these devices, and ATP and WTA events were allowing them. But the majors were still taking a stricter approach.

Now that appears to be changing.

Players were never using them for coaching

This was never really about live coaching or someone getting tactical advice through a wrist strap. Players have been clear that the main reason for wearing these devices is recovery and health tracking.

Whoop and similar wearables track metrics such as heart rate, heart rate variability, recovery, strain, sleep, respiratory rate, blood oxygen and skin temperature. For elite players dealing with back-to-back matches, long rallies and difficult weather conditions, that data can be useful when deciding how hard to train the next day or whether the body needs more recovery.

Sinner spoke about this after the Australian Open issue, explaining that after playing in the extreme Melbourne heat, he wanted to check recovery numbers and understand how his body was responding before the next round.

Aryna Sabalenka made a similar point. She said she uses the device to monitor stress and recovery between matches and was frustrated by the ban, especially because the same wearable was allowed all year on WTA events.

Why organisers are backing it

French Open tournament director Amélie Mauresmo said the decision to allow the wearables was made in order to improve the player experience and respond to what athletes were asking for. The idea is simple enough: if players want better access to their own health data, there is little reason to block it if the technology does not affect fairness.

That is probably the key point. These are not hidden performance enhancers. They are passive trackers collecting information from the body. The argument from supporters is that data should help protect players, not be treated like an unfair advantage.

In a social media post – Whoop itself leaned heavily into that argument with the phrase “Data is not steroids”. Which is dramatic but gets the point across.

For now, the bigger takeaway is that Grand Slam tennis is catching up with the rest of the tour. The French Open is treating this as a trial, but once players start using these devices openly on the biggest stages, it will be difficult to go back.

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How the robot actually learned to play

The interesting part is not just that the robot can hit a tennis ball. It is how it learned to do it.

Instead of relying on perfect motion capture data, the researchers used short fragments of human movements. Things like forehand swings, backhand strokes and basic footwork. These fragments were not precise, and they did not represent full tennis rallies.

The system stitches together these fragments using a learned latent action space. In simple terms, it builds a library of movement building blocks and then figures out how to combine them in real time. So instead of copying a textbook forehand, it learns something closer to how a human moves when playing tennis, then refines that into something usable.

There is also a clever workaround for one of the hardest problems in tennis, wrist control. The robot’s high-level controller directly adjusts the wrist during play, rather than relying on the imperfect training data.

That alone tells you how messy this problem is. Even humans struggle to explain what their wrist is doing mid-swing.

What the video actually shows

The video doing the rounds online makes this look almost match-ready, but it is worth looking a bit closer.

The robot is genuinely tracking the ball and returning shots. This is not stitched footage or selective cuts. But the rally is clearly controlled. The human is feeding relatively clean, predictable balls rather than pushing the pace or mixing things up.

But it’s still impressive. And fairly surreal.

The system works because it can anticipate fairly consistent trajectories. You do not see last-second adjustments or recovery from awkward bounces. The swings are functional, not precise, and there is a slight hesitation between movements that would become more obvious if the tempo increased.

What does stand out is the coordination.

The footwork is surprisingly decent. The robot repositions itself, shuffles across the court, and times its swings in a way that feels closer to natural movement than earlier humanoid demos. It is not fluid in a human sense, but it is not rigid either.

What it can actually do on court

This is not just a one-hit demo.

The system can sustain multi-shot rallies with human players and return balls across different areas of the court. The incoming balls in testing travel at speeds above 15 metres per second. Which is more basic level tennis. But if this is the worst its ever going to be, it makes you wonder.

In simulation, the robot handles thousands of trials and consistently returns balls close to target areas. In real-world testing, performance holds up across forehand and backhand strokes, as well as different court positions.

There is also another interesting detail. When two of these systems play each other in simulation, they can keep rallies going for up to 25 consecutive shots.

Why this is more interesting than it looks

Robots playing sports is not new. There have been table tennis bots, badminton experiments, even robot football teams. What stands out here is the approach.

Most systems depend on clean, high-quality motion data or unrealistic physics assumptions. This one leans into imperfect data and still produces movement that looks relatively natural.

That has broader implications. If a robot can learn a complex physical skill like tennis from messy, incomplete data, it suggests the same approach could work for other real-world tasks. Anything involving coordination, timing, and adaptation.

Also, instead of trying to perfectly model physics, the system trains with a wide range of variations. Friction, mass, air drag, all of it gets randomised. That makes the robot more robust when moving from simulation to reality.

Where this could go next

Before anyone starts worrying about being replaced at Wimbledon, there are limits.

The setup still relies on motion capture systems to track the robot and the ball. The rallies are controlled, and the robot is not diving for impossible shots or dealing with real match pressure.

The next step is moving away from motion capture and toward vision-based systems, so the robot can operate independently. Another direction is training in more realistic match conditions, with unpredictable shots and longer rallies.

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Players push for more in-match data

On Sunday in his 4th round match, Alcaraz was spotted wearing a Whoop on his right wrist and was quickly told to take it off by the umpire. Shortly after, Whoop CEO Will Ahmed voiced his frustration on social media, calling the decision “ridiculous” and stating that the tracker poses no safety risk. “Let the athletes measure their bodies. Data is not steroids!” he added in a post on X.

Jannik Sinner faced the same request in the tournament, after wearing his Whoop tucked under a wristband. Like Alcaraz, he complied, but said afterwards that the decision was disappointing. He explained that he and his team had no intention of using the device for live data, but rather to analyse post-match heart rate, calorie burn and effort metrics. For Sinner, these insights are useful in tailoring future training sessions and refining recovery strategies.

“I understand. I won’t use it again,” he said after advancing to the quarter-finals. “There are other things we could use. The vest with a tracker inside. But it’s a bit uncomfortable, you feel like you have something on your shoulders.”

His comments point to the shift that has been happening in the sport. More players are integrating physiological data into their match preparation and recovery routines. I mean, why wouldn’t they? Aryna Sabalenka was also seen wearing a Whoop tracker during the event

Grand Slam rules lag behind pro tour standards

Tennis Australia, which oversees the Australian Open, confirmed that wearable tech is currently not allowed during play at Grand Slam events. That puts it at odds with the broader rules of the sport. The International Tennis Federation includes the Whoop strap on its official list of approved Player Analysis Technology. The same goes for the ATP and WTA tours, where wearables are permitted under specific guidelines.

That split in policy creates a grey area for players and their teams. On one hand, governing bodies encourage smarter recovery and performance tracking. On the other, players risk penalties if they try to wear the same tech on the sport’s biggest stages.

In most other sports, wearable sensors have become standard. They’re in team kits, shoes and jerseys, often with league support. Tennis remains one of the more conservative corners of pro sport when it comes to tech integration, with Grand Slam tournaments especially reluctant to modernise.

Commercial partnerships complicate the picture

There’s also a commercial angle here. Whoop has marketing deals with several high-profile players and teams, and its strap is marketed specifically as something athletes can wear throughout their day. The brand is known for pushing the limits of real-time physiological data, especially in endurance and combat sports. Tennis fits neatly into that strategy.

But tournament organisers may be wary of giving visibility to commercial brands unless they’re official sponsors. That could partly explain the tension at this year’s event.

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A tennis bag that trains with you

The core idea behind the Nisplay Y1 is to reduce the hassle of setting up a ball machine. It combines gear storage and training functionality into a single compact unit. There’s no need to lug around multiple pieces of equipment or find a separate power source on the court. Instead, players can unzip the bag, turn it on and start hitting. Nisplay says the transition from bag to ball launch takes only seconds.

The outer build uses soft-touch vegan leather with quality zippers and fastenings, along with an ergonomic back panel and padded straps. The look is intentionally clean, avoiding the bulky industrial design of traditional ball machines. There are also magnetic modular attachments for extras like bottles, towels and rackets.

Training features with a focus on flexibility

Inside the Y1 is a dual-wheel launcher designed to produce topspin, backspin and flat shots. You can choose between pre-set drills that target different skills, or you can manually configure your own. The system supports up to 15 court target zones, with shot combinations adjustable to suit everything from basic consistency work to more intense rally simulation.

An interesting feature is the so-called Ball Boy mode. It offers one-shot-at-a-time delivery for serve practice or recovery drills, letting users control the pace more naturally. You can switch modes using the included controller, through a smartphone app or even via Apple Watch or voice command. The whole setup is built to be used solo, without needing to walk back and forth to tweak settings.

More than just tennis

Nisplay is positioning the Y1 as a multi-sport device. While it’s launching with tennis as the main focus, there are plans to support padel and pickleball too. Players in those communities often face the same challenges: inconsistent practice partners and limited access to training equipment. A portable launcher that fits in with standard gear bags could help bridge that gap.

There’s also a custom 58-inch mini racket accessory being offered. It’s meant for precision and control training, pushing users to move more deliberately and sharpen footwork. It’s optional, but it ties in with the broader goal of making practice sessions more engaging and dynamic.

Kickstarter coming soon

Now, this sounds very much along the lines of the Slinger Bag which we reviewed a few years ago. But something that is smaller in size. More recently we reviewed PongBot Pace S Pro – that one doesn’t look like a tennis bag but is one of the most feature-packed tennis robots you can purchase today.

The Y1 isn’t out yet, but early backers can place a refundable deposit to lock in a lower launch price. Nisplay lists the VIP tier at $499, compared to a future MSRP of $1,199. Actual payment only happens once the Kickstarter campaign goes live and hits its funding target.

This also isn’t Nisplay’s first rodeo. Their earlier L1 ball machine launched on Kickstarter back in 2022 and raised over $1 million from more than 2,000 backers. That model leaned more toward a compact traditional launcher, but it showed the company could deliver on crowdfunding promises.

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The footage is brief, but it is dense with implications. Tennis is not a forgiving activity for a humanoid form. It demands balance during lateral movement, fast visual tracking of a small object, timing of arm swings, and stability at the moment of impact. Walker S2 manages all of this without appearing stiff or unstable, which is what makes the demo worth a closer look.

What actually happens in the video

The robot stands opposite a human player and engages in a controlled rally. The pace is moderate. Shots are fed cleanly and predictably. Walker S2 steps into position, swings its racket, and sends the ball back over the net. Movements look coordinated rather than pre-frozen, with visible weight shifts and recovery after each hit.

This is not a robot planted in place with a single repetitive motion. Foot placement changes between shots. The torso rotates with the swing. Balance holds during contact, which is a critical detail. Many humanoid demos fall apart at this exact moment, when impact forces expose weak control loops.

At the same time, the sequence stays within a narrow envelope. The robot does not sprint, dive, or handle unpredictable spin. That appears deliberate. The goal here is controlled demonstration rather than stress testing.

Why tennis is a revealing test

Tennis compresses several hard robotics problems into one task. Vision systems must detect and track a fast moving ball against a complex background. Control systems must predict where that ball will be, not where it is. Locomotion must reposition the robot smoothly without destabilising it. Arm motion must stay synchronised with body movement.

Walker S2 showing competence across all of these layers at once is notable. Even if some aspects are simplified, the integration matters. This is closer to real world interaction than lifting boxes or waving to a camera.

Anyone who has played tennis will tell you this is an extremely difficult task. It is crazy to think a robot can not just hit a ball, but hit it cleanly and with fluid motion.

Autonomy versus demonstration

One open question is how autonomous this sequence really is. The video does not explain whether the robot is operating fully on board or receiving external guidance. That distinction matters, especially when demos circulate without technical context.

The movements suggest real time responsiveness rather than a fixed animation. However, the controlled environment and predictable ball feeds mean assistance cannot be ruled out. Until UBTECH publishes deeper technical detail, it is sensible to treat this as a capability showcase rather than proof of independent athletic performance.

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Why this still matters

Even as a demonstration, the clip shows how far humanoid coordination has progressed. Stable bipedal movement combined with dynamic arm motion remains one of the hardest problems in robotics. Tennis exposes weaknesses quickly. Walker S2 does not collapse, jitter, or freeze.

This kind of demo points less toward robots playing sports and more toward robots operating in environments where timing, balance, and interaction matter. Warehouses, factories, and service settings all demand similar underlying skills just with different tools.

The tennis court is simply a clear stage on which those skills become easy to see. We did review PongBot Pace S Pro a couple of months ago. The robotic tennis ball launcher is very impressive. But the device shown in the video is next level!

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Pongbot PACE S PRO

8.5

Design8.0/10

Ease of use9.5/10

Usefulness9.0/10

Value for money7.5/10

PROS

• Tracks player position for smarter ball delivery
• Covers the full court with fast spin and pace changes
• More than 500 built-in drills and custom options
• AI modes adapt to skill level and shot patterns
• Responsive and easy-to-use app

CONS

• Expensive
• Hopper and wheels feel somewhat fragile

Pongbot PACE S PRO review: Design and how it holds up

• Sturdy and quiet during use, with good on-court stability
• Easy to roll around, though less convenient on stairs or in tight spaces
• Minimal on-device controls, with functions handled through smartphone app or remote

The PACE S PRO feels like something built for people who actually train. It’s not trying to be stylish or compact. Visually, it’s low-profile but sturdy, giving off the impression of a system that’s meant to be forgotten once it’s working. Having said that, I’ve had players from nearby courts come over mid-session to ask what it is and watch it in action.

The hopper is fixed into the top half of the unit and loads easily, but removing it takes more effort than I expected. It fits tightly, which helps keep it in place, but I’ve caught myself worrying about breaking it.

The machine weighs around 19 kilos, so it’s not exactly something you’d call lightweight. That said, it’s lighter than a lot of the other ball machines on the market. Compared to the Slinger Bag, which I used for a few years, this one takes up noticeably less space. It’s about half the height, so it’s easier to store.

There are wheels and a telescopic handle, so moving the PACE S PRO across flat ground is pretty straightforward. Stairs are more of a hassle because of the slightly awkward weight distribution. Getting it in and out of a car on your own takes a bit of juggling. I haven’t had any issues with the wheels, even on a few 20-minute walks to the court. But I’ve seen some users mention that the rubber on the wheels might wear down faster on rough or uneven surfaces.

Once the machine is in place, it stays put. The wide base and locking mechanism hold it steady even when firing at high speeds or with heavy spin. That makes a big difference when running more intense drills. I never had to stop and reposition it mid-session.

What I particularly like is how quiet it is during use. You can barely hear the motor running and that’s a good thing. I for one, do not want to disturb players on nearby courts with a loud piece of gear. This one is practically silent.

There’s a sound alert before each ball is launched, probably a safety feature, but that can be turned off in the app. I prefer it off. One thing I noticed is that the internal wheels keep spinning even when it’s in standby. You can stop that by switching it into Eco mode, which is easy enough to do in the settings.

On the unit itself, you can find a small control interface. The LED indicators in front are clear and easy to read, and the whole system powers on without any weird delays or boot-up issues. I usually have it ready in a couple of minutes.

Nearly all interaction with the machine happens through the app or remote, which works well. The Bluetooth connection has been totally reliable, and I can adjust drills or settings straight from my phone without needing to touch the machine once it’s powered on. The only real job is loading on the balls to the hopper.

The system also comes with a player-tracking sensor you can wear, plus two net sensors for positional feedback. But you can train just fine without using any of them. They do allow, however, for some more advanced drills. More about that later.

The design doesn’t try to stand out, but once you’ve used it, it feels solid and well put together. Everything is laid out logically, and build quality has been good so far. Still, parts like the hopper and wheels may show wear over time, so that’s something I’ll be keeping an eye on. I’ve been using it for about a month – and so far I’ve had no issues.

Technical specs

• Fast, consistent feed with up to 80 mph speed and 60 RPS spin
• Smooth motorised angle and sweep adjustments
• 8 hours of battery life on a single charge

As far as the hardware, the PACE S PRO runs on a dual‑wheel drive system that feeds balls through direct contact with the wheels. It’s capable of delivering a wide range of shots, including topspin, backspin and flat balls.

Spin intensity can be adjusted across 21 levels, with a maximum of 60 revolutions per second, which covers everything from slow looping topspin to heavier drives. The response time when switching spin types is short, so drills can simulate real rally conditions without delay or mechanical lag.

Speed can be set anywhere up to around 75–80 miles per hour. That’s more than enough to replicate real match pace. Ball frequency is adjustable from 1.5 to 12 seconds, depending on the type of session you’re after. The ball feed has been consistent in my use, and the delivery feels smooth even when pushing the higher settings.

Elevation and horizontal movement are fully motorized. You can shift the launch angle from 10 to 50 degrees for anything from low skimming shots to high lobs. Side‑to‑side movement spans roughly 50 degrees across the court, which enough to simulate both singles and doubles coverage. Transitions are fluid, and the machine keeps its aim stable between sequences.

The outer shell is reinforced plastic with internal framing that supports the motor assemblies and protects the tracking hardware. Vents are cut into the side panels for cooling. There are no exposed belts, cables or high-friction parts prone to failure. In use I did not notice any overheating or noise from cooling fans, which suggests the PACE S PRO handles heat well.

I’ve also found the ball feed reliable. After a month of use, there was only one session where there was a ball jam. And this was easily rectified by opening the side door. Problem solved in a few seconds.

As mentioned, the machine supports player tracking. It does this through a 100 Hz motion‑sensing system, which can detect position. The feature is there if you want to add reactive drills or recovery‑based training.

Battery life

Everything runs off a removable battery stored beneath the motor housing. It’s got enough capacity for multiple sessions without needing a recharge. I’ve done a couple of long workouts back to back and never had to worry about it running out. The company says you get over eight hours on a full charge, and that seems accurate. After a two-hour session, I usually drop just one of the four battery bars, so the estimate checks out.

Charging is straightforward. You just plug it in and let it do its thing. Since the battery is removable, it’s easy to handle and doesn’t get in the way. I’ve never felt limited by battery life, even when running high-speed or heavy-spin drills.

One nice touch is that you can charge the sensors directly from the machine via USB. That is handy if you’ve forgotten to refuel them at home. 

Pongbot PACE S PRO review: How to use

• App setup is quick with presets and deep custom options for advanced drills
• Smart features like AI Recovery add match-like realism
• Building long custom drills takes time, but the control over each shot is impressive

Initial setup is quick. The smartphone app pairs to the machine without fuss, and it walks you through the basics the first time you connect. Even if you’re not especially tech-savvy, you’ll be fine after a bit of poking around.

Once it’s charged, you wheel it onto the court, position the hopper and dump in the tennis balls, power it on, and control everything from your phone or the included remote. There an on-unit LED indicator lets you know when Bluetooth is active.

The app is the main control hub. You can pick from a large set of preloaded drills or start building your own. The preset drills are handy for quick sessions, and probably enough for the majority of average tennis players out there.

You can choose varying levels of difficulty, hand preference, combo interval, sequential/random sequence and more. That gives some room to tweak without going into full custom mode.

Custom drills are where this machine really stands out. You can tweak every single ball in the sequence -speed, spin, depth, placement.

It does take time to build a drill from scratch, especially if you’re setting up a 30 or 40-ball sequence. The app supports up to 45 shots per drill, and you can combine different shot types in any order. Once created, drills can be saved to your library and edited later.

You can also download drills shared by other players, and some of them are actually great. It’s a simple way to keep things fresh. The drill-sharing feature is built into the app, and you can favorite or copy any public drill into your own library.

The thing to note is that there’s a bit of a learning curve. Not because it’s hard, but because there are so many options. Especially with drills.

It took me a few sessions to figure out which features and drills were actually useful and which ones I could ignore. But once you get used to it, the basics feel straightforward. You can also simplify things by adjusting court positioning and feed delay globally, which helps match the machine’s output to your timing.

Some of the smarter modes (referred to as Smart Pace in the app), such as Recovery Trigger, are where the PACE S PRO really stands out. These are features that make the machine feel less like a ball launcher and more like a training partner.

Recovery Trigger, for example, is especially useful for footwork drills. It tracks when you’ve moved back to the centre back-end of the court and only then fires the next ball. That changes the rhythm entirely. Instead of feeding on a fixed timer, the machine reacts to your recovery, simulating real match flow. And if you’re not fully fit, you can slow the tempo down to keep the session under control.

To get this working properly, you’ll need to clip the third sensor onto yourself and set up the two net sensors that come with the system. Once everything is paired, which usually takes only a few seconds, the tracking is surprisingly accurate.

There can be a bit of a lag now and then, but overall the experience adds a strong element of realism to solo practice. It forces you to reset quickly, stay balanced and not cut corners between shots. That alone gives these drills more value than anything you’d get from a fixed feed interval.

Ramp up the difficulty level to challenge yourself even more. The thing about this is – instead of a predictable rhythm, you get a more varied pace that mimics what happens in an actual rally. It’s sometimes quicker, sometimes slower, depending on the previous ball. The whole thing keeps you alert and removes the tendency to fall into a drill pattern. It’s like training with a partner who never misses!

Together, these modes make the training feel alive. If you want sessions that prepare you for how points actually play out, these features are the ones to lean on.

View PACE S PRO on Pongbot’s website (For $75 off, at checkout add coupon code: gadgetsandwearables).

Is this right for you?

Buy if

• You train solo and want full-court feeds with real spin and pace
• You want drills that adjust based on your movement, not just timers
• You need detailed control over shot type, speed and placement
• You value long battery life and app control for quick setup
• You can store or transport a 19 kg machine without hassle

Don’t buy if

• You only play casually and don’t need advanced drills
• You want something ultra-light to carry between locations
• You’re looking for a basic ball launcher

The post Pongbot PACE S PRO review: tracks your footwork, feeds like a pro, drills without mercy appeared first on Gadgets & Wearables.

You wheel it in like luggage and it’s ready to play tennis. Aceii One folds out and hits with you like a proper partner. It’s even designed to simulate actual match-play. The Kickstarter campaign is now underway.

The makers of Aceii One insist they weren’t interested in building just another spinning wheel in a box. They wanted to create a robot that actually plays tennis. That means it doesn’t just shoot balls.

Not your average ball launcher

The machine itself looks fairly compact. Its body folds down and fits into a wheeled suitcase form factor. Fold out the legs and it’s ready to roll. There is enough room inside for 120 balls.

Essential reading: Top fitness trackers and health gadgets

The thing uses differential drive tech, similar to what you’d find in robotics platforms, to sprint across the baseline or move up to the net. The acceleration tops out at 3.5 m/s², which is about the speed needed to match serious rallies. The company claims it can move from mid-court to sideline in 1.2 seconds.

Training, matches and more

Aceii One hits with you, reacts to your shots and changes things up based on how you play. Its vision system watches the whole court and follows your movement in real time, without needing any sensors or wearables. That’s how it knows where to fire the next ball, how fast to send it, how much spin to add and when to switch direction. It doesn’t actually return your shot, but it feels like it does.

At the same time, it records your rallies, saves highlight clips and tracks performance data. This includes shot speed, placement and consistency.

The machine supports everything from basic drills to more advanced match-style play. Training starts with rally modes that gradually increase in difficulty. From there, Match Play adds scoring and structure through three modes. Ranking places you on a scale tied to NTRP levels. Challenge rewards progress with new goals and achievements. Battle lets you compete with friends, test yourself against pro player profiles or take on shared virtual opponents from different locations.

It’s a different kind of setup. For solo tennis players, it brings structure, feedback and variety.

Coaching that goes beyond video

Another noteworthy feature is the coaching content. The Aceii app includes structured lessons co-developed with pro instructors and tennis academies. These are linked to training plans based on your NTRP score and hitting data. After each lesson, the robot delivers tailored drills to reinforce the content. You can either self-select your level or take an AI-powered test to get your starting point.

The app also allows full drill customization. You can dial in ball speed, direction, spin, interval and placement. Or use presets to simulate different play styles.

Bringing purpose to solo tennis

It’s still early days, and the Kickstarter will have to follow through before any big claims hold up. But as ideas go, this one sits at the edge of where robotics and sport start to blur. Whether it works as advertised is one thing. Still, the pitch should resonate with anyone who’s ever hit balls alone and wished it felt more like playing.

With 34 days to go, the campaign has already raised half a million dollars from nearly 500 backers. A single unit goes for $1,099 during the campaign, which is 48 percent off the planned retail price. If all goes to plan with manufacturing, deliveries are expected to begin in December 2025.

Price: $1099 and up

Raised: $498,002 of $3,857 goal

Estimated delivery: December 2025
34 days to go before campaign closes

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Tennis robots have been around for a while, but none that actually move and return like a real opponent. Acemate changes that. This device doesn’t just shoot balls — it plays back. Yes, you can actually rally with it. The device packs dual 4K cameras, full-court movement, and AI-driven shot analysis, turning solo training into something that finally feels like a real match.

Real footwork, real rallies, real feedback

Now, this isn’t a traditional launcher mounted on wheels. Acemate’s four mecanum wheels give it smooth 360-degree movement across the court. It can track you, shift positions, and hit back with forehands, backhands, topspin or slice. Rally Mode is the standout feature — the robot trades baseline shots with you, adjusts its pace, and reacts like a human sparring partner.

And it’s fast. We’re talking 80 mph shot speed, 60 RPS spin, and movement speeds up to 5 m/s. Serve intervals are fully adjustable between 1.5 and 12 seconds, with angles from 13 to 50 degrees vertically and up to 180 degrees horizontally. It can lob balls up to 8 metres high if you want to work on overheads or footwork recovery.

Ball capacity is split by mode. Rally Mode loads 30, while Serve Mode takes 130 (that’s 100 in the main bay plus 30 in the rally module). Just hit start on your Apple Watch or phone and get to work.

But there really neat thing is that it has an extendable net on top. That sees your return balls in real time and catches most of them. This means you are not limited to how long the rally can go. The catch net and inner buffer net use a patent-pending design to soften impact and reduce bounce-outs, so you’re not chasing balls after every rally.

Tracks your shots like it’s watching ATP highlights

The brains behind Acemate lie in its dual 4K binocular cameras. This setup gives it stereo vision, which means it sees depth just like you do. It knows exactly where your shot landed, how fast it was, and what type of spin you applied. There’s no wearable, no calibration, no setup.

Acemate tennis robot S10

At checkout use code “G&W01” for a $50 discount.

View at Acemate

AI crunches everything in real time. It detects shot placement, ball in/out, timing issues, swing mechanics, and builds that into live feedback. You get instant info on your phone or watch, along with full session breakdowns — calories burned, rally stats, serve accuracy, all logged for you to review.

Gesture controls, smart follow, and no cables to trip over

Acemate doesn’t just feed you balls. It listens. Wave to start or stop. Tap the app to shift drill type mid-session. It’ll even follow you around the court via remote control when you’re done, like a good hitting partner.

Battery life? Four hours on a single charge. The unit measures 45×55×50 cm, expanding to 170 cm when the net is raised, and it weighs 19 kg — light enough to roll into your trunk and drive to the next session.

Way ahead of typical ball machines

Compared to standard launchers, whether remote-controlled or basic app-linked ones, Acemate is in its own league. Traditional machines shoot. This one plays. It covers the court, tracks shots with centimeter-level accuracy, and responds in real time. It even estimates your NTRP rating based on performance.

Drill design is completely open-ended. You can set up unlimited training patterns, switch between serve, rally and lob modes, and even build performance-based routines that evolve as you train. That’s more than most smart watches offer.

For pros, beginners, and anyone who trains alone

This whole thing started because the creators couldn’t find consistent hitting partners or spare time for structured lessons. They built something that doesn’t just toss balls — it challenges you. You can play at full pace or start with short-court rallies to warm up. Use it for volley drills, serve practice, or match simulation. It’s all in one.

Whether you’re tuning your swing or simulating an ATP baseline slugfest, Acemate brings human-like rhythm to solo tennis.

A few days into the Kickstarter campaign the company has raised more than $1 million from over 750 backers. And that’s with another 50 days to go in the campaign. The starting price may seem expensive – but it is actually cheaper than traditional ball machines. Also, a typical Garmin Fenix watch now costs over $1,000 – which puts thing into perspective. If all goes well with manufacturing, backers can expect delivery in August.

View on company’s website. At checkout use code “G&W01” for a $50 discount.

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