I faced a machine that serves like a British number one tennis player — here’s how it played out

It’s a Monday morning and my taxi has just pulled up in front of the National Tennis Centre where the entrance is draped with huge banners of Emma Radacanu and current British Men’s number one Jack Draper.

I’m led downstairs through a number of heavy doors and finally into a room with the most impeccably-looking set of indoor courts. On the one nearest is a small film crew crowded around what I‘d best describe as a robot on wheels shaped like the chassis of a car.

Once the Signature Shot machine is finished being the centre of attention, it’s then time for me to be handed a racket and stare across the net hoping I can read and return what this machine is about to launch in my direction.

It’s not simply going to fire balls over the net either. It’s going to do it with the precision and power of professional tennis players Alfie Hewett, women’s British number one Katie Boutler and world top 20 ranked Spaniard Paula Badosa. I’m glad none of those three players are here to witness my efforts facing one of their shots or serves.

Built by luxury car brand Lexus along with innovation production studio Unit9, this machine will let you experience what it’s like to face the pros. This isn’t just simply about being programmed to fire a serve like Boulter or a return from Hewett. It wants to give you the sense of those shots as if you’ve been dropped onto a court in the middle of a game.

There’s some AI in play with the development of the machine, but there was the need for a human element as Unit9’s team explains, to create that more authentic feel of facing a shot from some of the best talents in the game.

When it was finally time for me to step into the firing line, I started off by facing a flurry of serves from Katie Boulter. This requires the machine to be placed on top of a stand to elevate it to an angle to deliver those serves from the right height and angle.

The app-controlled machine can choose from three difficulty levels, easy, medium or hard.. My efforts across those levels facing a pro player serve weren’t all that different. Whether it was the power or placement, it was a tall order trying to get close to returning the ball back over the net. I managed to muster up less than a handful of barely acceptable returns.

It made me appreciate not just how accurate those serves were, but just how close they zip past the top of the net that make it so hard to read and react to. It reminded me a lot of staring down at a bowling machine in a cricket net as a ball is pumped out at 80mph.

Unlike a bowling machine, this one can move forwards and back, side to side, which also makes it capable of directing balls around the court. It won’t return the ball back to you, but when it’s off the stand and reverses back like a car, it then can proceed to put my forehand and backhand abilities into play.

This time, I started on the hardest difficulty level and it’s the placement and the speed that has me wishing I’d brought a pair of shorts and my tennis shoes to even give me a chance of getting across the court and near the ball. With the Signature machine dropped down a couple of levels I was then able to direct some back, but not without making me kick up a sweat in the process.

It was a brief, but fun encounter with the Signature Shot machine, even if it did make me wonder if I'd ever like to be embarrassed by a machine on a tennis court again. I was ready to have another go and was curious when that might be.

Lexus plans to give budding players and tennis fans the opportunity to face it in 2026, where it will appear at Lexus experiential and tennis events, as well as tour local tennis clubs throughout next year. Just be prepared to be humbled by it, because no matter how much you talk yourself up as being a bit of a player, this machine will give you a true appreciation of just how good you need to be to step out at Wimbledon or the US Open.

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