TURIN: Blind and partially sighted spectators will be able to follow the Nitto ATP Finals through live audio description for the first time when the season-ending tournament opens at Turin’s Inalpi Arena on Sunday.
The “Connect Me Too” service, developed by Italian firm CMT Translations, will deliver real-time commentary from specially trained describers over 4G and 5G networks throughout the event, which runs from Nov. 15 to 22.
The describers will narrate not only rallies and points but also players’ movements, expressions, gestures and clothing, along with the mood of the crowd, aiming to give listeners the full visual picture of a match.
“In tennis, the crowd falls silent during play,” said Tony D’Angelo, executive director of the project. Blind spectators can hear the ball and the applause, he said, but cannot always tell where a shot landed or how a player reacted.
He called tennis the toughest sport to describe, with fast rallies, brief breaks and no room for unnecessary words.
Fans download the free app on Android or iOS, sign up, select the event, enter the code for their ticketed session and connect headphones.
The technology has been used for Italy’s national football and rugby union teams, Serie A and Serie B clubs, basketball, the UEFA Futsal Champions League finals and winter sports from ice hockey to snowboarding. It has also served opera audiences at Genoa’s Teatro Carlo Felice.
The tournament, staged in Turin for the sixth straight year, brings together the season’s top eight singles players. World No. 1 Alexander Zverev, a two-time champion, and Carlos Alcaraz lead the field, joined by Ben Shelton, Daniil Medvedev, home hope Flavio Cobolli, Arthur Fils, Frances Tiafoe and 20-year-old Spaniard Rafael Jodar.
Two-time defending champion Jannik Sinner is missing the event with a knee injury that has kept him out since he won Wimbledon in July, leaving Italian crowds to rally behind Cobolli, a Roland Garros finalist this year.
Its arrival at one of the sport’s showpiece tournaments offers a model that organisers elsewhere, including in South Asia, where sport broadcasting is expanding fast, could follow at modest cost.
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