That includes the main characters, with their big heads, oversized tennis balls and volatile rackets. But part of the success of AO Animated is that its creators are not too precious about it.

The ball momentarily disappears, but de Minaur manages to serve. Sinner ultimately wins the point. Welcome to the world of AO Animated, an almost-live feed of Australian Open tennis matches on ...

Not all of it blends in perfectly, of course. The tennis balls are much larger in the animated version. The racquets are oddly oversized and, at times, tend to move away from the players’ hands.

Also, immediately after the first ball, the game was still playing ... so you can still enjoy the fun of the Australian Open and tennis even through the animation. Similar projects have been ...

Produced in-house by Tennis Australia, video game-like recreations of live matches featuring digital player avatars have been taking over the internet.

The world No. 1 joked that she "need[s] to know who designed my character" upon learning that her AO Animated counterpart looks different in one big way.