The Nintendo-style avatars only appear during the live tennis part of the broadcast. Fans get to watch the real-life players walk on, do the coin toss and pre-match warm-up as themselves, and once the umpire calls time on the start of the match the digital skins are added. As soon as “game, set and match” is called, the feed switches back and the avatars go away, so viewers can watch the handshake and post-match reactions in real time.
The feed stays live to include the post-match interview, where players’ personalities shine through: “I know I made it a lot harder than it could have been but, you know, whatever!” said a grinning Tien as he addressed the Melbourne crowd. In the comments, fans were raving: “That’s amazing. I’m a TIEN fan from today. I’m so excited that I can’t sleep. It’s 1 a.m. in Korea,” one user wrote.
