Visually-impaired tennis fans are trialling headsets at Wimbledon that enable them to watch live action from in the stands.
The headsets, developed by UK company GiveVision and powered by Vodafone 5G, stream live footage from local TV cameras and enhance it to suit a user’s specific sight profile.
Sinead Grealy, a life-long tennis fan who once skipped school to queue for Wimbledon, has been taking part in the trial on Centre Court and Court One.
She told the PA news agency: “I can’t tell you how fantastic it is. I would need a thesaurus and know how to work it for all the superlatives.
“The technology is incredible. It takes my eyesight to better than it was. The first time I put it on I just went, ‘woah’. And then I went ‘woah’ again with the first adjustment because it’s so simple. I’m a technophobe and it’s so easy to use.
“I need it in my life, I will be buying it whenever it comes on the market. You don’t know how many people it’s going to help.
“I’ve got a very good chance of going 100 per cent blind. I don’t have to fear that, and that genuinely, in the quiet hours when I couldn’t sleep, kept me up at night, that I would never be able to go and enjoy live sport ever again. The scope this has is just beyond where I was even hoping it could go.”
GiveVision has also been working in sport with Premier League club Crystal Palace and hopes the technology can be rolled out across many more venues.
Head of operations Joanna Liddington explained: “It brings the image much closer to the user’s face, stimulates the photoreceptor cells in the retina and allows them to regain some of the sight they’ve lost, essentially.
“They can zoom in and out, change the brightness, have a look around and take in the atmosphere. They can manipulate it to fit their needs.”
The ability for visually impaired people to experience sport without being restricted to specific areas is one of the key benefits of the technology.
“With the headset, people can sit anywhere they want, be with their friends and family,” said Liddington.
“At the moment people with sight loss are severely under-represented. One in 30 people in the country have visual impairment and our experience with football is you have about five or six people at any given match.
“In Centre Court, you should have about 500 people, and of course we don’t see that because people don’t go because they can’t see what’s going on.
“There have been so many times I’ve seen people go, ‘Wow, this is amazing’. To see the difference it makes to people who are passionate fans of their sport, finally get to see their first goal, first bit of tennis.
“One of the guys we work with, who was born visually impaired, he said the best thing is, when there’s a foul, he can choose if it was a foul. ‘I can argue with my friends about it, I can be angry with the ref, my opinion and my voice finally matters’, and that’s the impact.”
Madrid champion Swiatek keen to maintain level at Italian Open
Iga Swiatek will not rest on her laurels after overcoming Aryna Sabalenka in last week's Madrid Open final, pledging to learn from that gruelling battle ahead of the Italian Open.
Swiatek toppled Sabalenka in an enthralling battle between the world's top two players on Saturday, saving three championship points en route to a 7-5 4-6 7-6 (9-7) win in over three hours on court.
The world number one has now won every European clay court tournament at WTA 500 level or higher, including back-to-back triumphs in Rome in 2021 and 2022.
As she prepares to open her Italian Open campaign against either Caroline Dolehide or a qualifier on Friday, Swiatek is determined to ensure she does not let her level drop.
Speaking during an appearance on the WTA Insider Podcast, Swiatek said: "I feel like after such a match, I deserve a two-month vacation, but I can't have that so I'll trade it for six tiramisus or something!
"I can let it go and rest and just forget about it, or I can really take a big lesson from it, so it depends on what is going to happen in the next few weeks in terms of how I analyse it."
Swiatek's latest win – her seventh in 10 meetings with Sabalenka – saw her put further distance between herself and the world number two in the WTA rankings.
However, the four-time grand slam champion knows she cannot afford to let up, given the fierce competition on the WTA tour.
"I'm not thinking about Aryna when I'm practising, but it's more that I know that the competition is big and if I stop for a while I might be pushed out," Swiatek said.
"But I had this kind of thing in Rome 2022, with the final against Ons [Jabeur]. Physically, I was so tired. The rallies were long, Ons was playing a pretty tricky game.
"So after that game for the next few years, when I was doing the worst practices on court and I was dying, I was thinking about that game."
Sinner will only play Roland Garros if '100 per cent' fit
Jannik Sinner says that he is aiming to make a return for Roland-Garros if he is "100 per cent" fit following a hip issue.
The world number two withdrew from the Madrid Open last week ahead of his quarter-final tie with Felix Auger-Aliassime due to the injury.
Sinner confirmed on Saturday that he will not be playing in what would be a home tournament in Rome.
Providing an update on his progress on Sunday, Sinner said: "I went back to Monte-Carlo, we did some more tests, which made me take this hard decision because I have to skip the most special tournament of the year for me.
"I have to accept it even if it hurts me and many fans. We realised something is not totally good. If it is not 100 per cent healed, I'll stay out a little longer. Caring for the body is much more important than everything else.
"I’ll just try to get back to 100 per cent as soon as possible, hopefully trying to play in Paris and then Wimbledon and all the rest.
"We'll take our time, there's no rush and, hopefully, I can get back very, very soon."
Nadal and Djokovic on opposite sides of Italian Open draw
Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic could meet in the Italian Open final after being positioned on opposite sides of the draw.
Nadal, a record 10-time champion at the tournament, could meet reigning champion Daniil Medvedev in the quarter-finals should they both get that far, while newly crowned Madrid Open winner, Andrey Rublev, would be a potential semi-final opponent.
In the top half of the draw, Djokovic will take on either Roman Safiullin or a qualifier in his first competitive appearance since Monte Carlo.
The Serbian, who is just two wins away from his 1100th tour-level career victory, is seeded to face Casper Ruud in the quarter-finals. Alexander Zverev and Grigor Dimitrov are also on their side of the draw.
Meanwhile, top seed Iga Swiatek has been drawn in the opposite half of the draw to Elena Rybakina, the reigning Italian Open champion.
Swiatek is projected to face Coco Gauff in the semi-finals for the second consecutive WTA 1000 event should they both progress.
Rybakina is due to meet second seed Aryna Sabalenka at the same stage, having lost to the Belarusian at last week’s Madrid Open semi-finals.
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