Tennis Australia has transformed the world's best players into animated versions of themselves to bypass broadcast restrictions at the Australian Open.

Australian Open (AO) broadcast may seem similar to previous years if you’re watching on the television. However, if you’re watching online via the official Australian Open TV YouTube channel you’ll encounter a distinctly different kind of coverage.

If you’re tuning into the 2025 Australian Open, you may notice something very, very weird about the players on the court if you’re watching matches on YouTube. They look like they’re straight out of a video game, like Wii Tennis. The players’ bodies and faces have been replaced with Miis, basically. What gives?

In a unique workaround to address geographical streaming constraints and copyrights issues, the Australian Open 2025 organizers have modified players to animation, enabling viewers to free access to all games albeit at a cost.

The tennis balls are unusually large, players' heads are out of proportion and the racquets they are holding sometimes seem to drift away from their hands. This cartoon is the Australian Open's free-to-watch version of the live action taking place at Melbourne Park.

The first Grand Slam tournament of 2025 continues on Thursday as we gear up for the third round of the Australian Open, set to kick off tonight.

The Australian Open is getting in on the newest trend in the sports world by re-creating tennis matches in video-game form

Tennis Australia has followed the lead of a number of other sports by animating their players in a video game-esque format. In this case, Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz, Coco Gauff et al look like characters from Wii Tennis.