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Madrid Open: Taylor Fritz’s Crucial Semi-final Contest Meets Bizarre Robotic Touch as Organizers Pull off Insane Feat

Published 05/03/2024, 10:44 AM EDT

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The Madrid Open has been a tournament full of surprises this year. Be it Carlos Alcaraz’s emotional breakdown or Rafael Nadal bidding adieu to his local fans, the tennis world has had its eyes glued to the tournament. Amid this, another surprising turn of events was captured before the start of the semifinal encounter today between Taylor Fritz and Andrey Rublev.

The Madrid Open organizers sent a robot dog to the court ahead of the start of the play. In what was an interesting event, the fans were left glued to the yellow object, which made the rounds of the tennis court. Subsequently, while leaving the court, it received a massive round of applause not just from the fans but also the ball kids present on the court.

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The video of the robotic dog was shared by Tennis TV on Twitter and it went viral as soon as it was posted. It is a smart move by the organizers, who partnered with Prosegur to include the robotic device in their security plan. It is the first time that this security company was deploying the technology at a major sporting event.

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Meanwhile, the CEO of the Mutua Madrid Open, Gerard Tsobanian, hailed this technological innovation and was delighted to partner in this project to bring about a change. Additionally, he revealed that this robotic dog defined the technological and innovative character that resonates with the tournament. Meanwhile, there have been technological advancements not just at the tournament but also in the life of Taylor Fritz.

New avatar of Taylor Fritz released in TopSpin 2K25

Recently, TopSpin took to social media to release a few characters. Among them was the American tennis star, Taylor Fritz’s avatar. Subsequently, Fritz was left pink at the release of his avatar and he had an interesting message after it went live.

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Fritz said, “Pretty good! Not gonna lie I’m looking at a pretty handsome guy in front of me on the screen.” However, Fritz also thought that it could be better and revealed, “Forehand 77, that should be a little higher, I got say. Backhand 89, will take that for sure. Serve 83, probably bring that up a little bit. I think serve’s probably my best shot. Volley’s 38, that’s fair! Power 73, this is where we have a problem here. Come on guys!

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The latest version of TopSpin was released on April 26, 2024 and Fritz is the latest character to get a changeover in this version. How do you rate his look in the latest version of TopSpin? Let us know your views in the comments below.

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Written by:

Vatsal Shah

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Vatsal Shah, a Tennis Writer at EssentiallySports, combines sports management insight with two years of rich content creation experience. His journey at ES involves delving into the core of tennis, covering ATP/WTA tours, and contributing around 2000 articles. Notably, one of his pieces on Venus Williams garnered over 400k views.
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Edited by:

Deepanshi Bajaj