For more than three decades, IBM has been the technical force and a major sponsor of the US Open tennis tournament. The company has consistently upped its game in partnership with the USTAwith respect to what a tech partner can deliver at a global sporting event. What began as infrastructure support has evolved into a showcase for IBM’s most advanced capabilities in AI, hybrid cloud, and now generative AI with Watsonx. For IBM, the US Open is a prime example of world class IBM marketing. But it’s also a proving ground for enterprise technology and an analytics engine for the world’s top tennis players.
From Infrastructure to AI Data Factory at Flushing Meadows
Our observation is IBM has transformed the US Open into a live laboratory for data-intensive, AI-driven, real-time experiences:
- 30 years as the official technology partner
- ~100 years of historical tennis data integrated with real-time telemetry from every match
- 4.5M data points per match processed in real time
- 17 courts instrumented with live scoring and tracking feeds
- ~1,000 hours of video analyzed automatically for highlights and AI commentary
- 3B+ fan interactions annually through IBM-developed apps and digital platforms
- LT 2 seconds latency for AI-generated stats delivered to fans and broadcasters
In our view, the key message is that IBM has transformed the US Open Open into an “AI Data Factory.” They’ve built a system that ingests massive data volumes, processes it across hybrid infrastructure, and delivers outputs in the form of statistics, insights and commentary in near real time.
Hero Stats and Fan Engagement
The most important outcomes claims the USTA is for fans as evidenced by what we refer to as the “hero stats” that engage fans, such as:
- Keys to the Match: Watson AI models crunch millions of permutations to predict what each player must do to win;
- Win probabilities and momentum metrics: Updated dynamically as the match unfolds. A boon for gamblers making real time wagers in search of value;
- AI Commentary: Natural-language insights auto-generated for every singles match;
- Personalized previews: Watsonx now generates storylines and context tailored to individual matches and players.
From a fan’s perspective, these are more than marketing gimmicks. They’re engagement vehicles that capture attention and show how enterprise AI can take raw telemetry and, in seconds, create consumable, trusted information at scale.
Where Watsonx Fits
Watsonx, IBM’s AI and data platform, underpins this journey. Its role at the US Open demonstrates how the US Open combines analytics with generative capabilities. According to IBM:
- Watsonx.ai underpins AI-generated commentary and storylines with large language models;
- Watsonx.data provides the scalable, governed layer for handling decades of structured and unstructured match data;
- Watsonx.governance ensures AI outputs are explainable, auditable, and secure.
In our opinion, this is a proof point for enterprises evaluating modern AI applications. IBM is showing that generative models, when paired with curated data and governance, can deliver business-grade outputs without (obvious) hallucinations.
The Hybrid Cloud Backbone
IBM, in a private meeting with customers that we attended, stressed that this capability requires plumbing. According to IBM, its hybrid cloud strategy, anchored by IBM Cloud and Red Hat OpenShift, allows workloads to run where they’re best suited, from public cloud for elastic workloads, to on-prem where resiliency and predictability are the keys. The US Open runs as a hybrid, distributed system that scales globally and sustains 24/7 uptime.
Why This Matters
In our opinion, the US Open is more than a sports marketing event for IBM (it is that too). It’s also a highly visible demonstration of what modern enterprises can accomplish with data and AI:
- Speed: Insights delivered in under two seconds;
- Scale: Billions of interactions supported globally;
- Trust: Security and governance designed in;
- Innovation: Each year, new AI features debut, showing enterprises how they might apply the same playbook. Fans of the US Open have seen dramatic stat enhancements over the years.
The point IBM is trying to convey is what IBM builds for the US Open is a microcosm of how enterprises can deploy hybrid cloud and AI to transform their industries. Essentially, an analytic-powered digital twin of tennis matches. Our view is that if IBM can take this into a 4-D map of the enterprise (people, places and activities) to support agentic workflows based on harmonized data, it can grab a piece of the high value System of Intelligence (SoI) layer as defined by theCUBE Research analyst George Gilbert.
The US Open isn’t just about star players for IBM. It’s about IBM proving, in real time, that enterprise AI and hybrid cloud can deliver at global scale in real time. Watsonx underpins this latest evolution in the story, combining analytics with predictive and deterministic AI to deliver a business outcome.
The information for this blog post was captured at the US Open as the author and John Furrier were invited by IBM to play on center court at the Arthur Ashe stadium with a dozen customers and friends of IBM. Two-time US Open champion Tracy Austin was our coach. Some highlight pics below for your enjoyment.
Tracy, John, Dave (The pro had us running around – we worked!)
John’s Backhand – Looking good bro!
What perfection looks like…
Horsing around at One Madison
