For sports fans globally, the day we've been waiting for is nearly upon us – the start of the Wimbledon Championships. From Monday, some of the biggest stars will battle for the most prestigious prize in tennis, including defending champions Novak Djokovic and Elena Rybakina. Britain's hopes rest on Cameron Norrie, Katie Boulter and Andy Murray, fresh from his victory at the Nottingham Open – although Emma Raducanu will be absent. MailOnline takes a look at the innovations, including controversial AI commentary and a new prediction tool that estimates the chances of players progressing. One of the biggest changes introduced for this Wimbledon year affects broadcast coverage – and no, we're not talking about the departure of Sue Barker.

The moment that tennis fans have been waiting for is almost finally here, with the Wimbledon Championships set to kick off next week. This year's tournament will see the likes of Petra Kvitova, Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz take to the grass. But in the near future, they could face stiff competition from an unlikely new contender - a robot. Scientists from Georgia Tech have developed a new robot named ESTHER (Experimental Sport Tennis Wheelchair Robot), which can zip around the court and even return human shots. The team believes the bot could serve as a training partner for professional players in the future, removing the psychological pressure of training against another human.

Uri Levine Co-founder of Waze, joined the Brian Kilmeade Show to discuss new book Fall In Love with the Problem, Not the Solution and why he thinks AI brings more opportunities and innovation. Wimbledon's All England Club will introduce artificial intelligence (AI)-powered commentary and captions for its coverage at this year's tournament. "This new insight will help tennis fans to uncover anomalies and potential surprises in the singles draw, which would not be apparent by looking only at the players' ranking," IBM, which developed the technology, said. IBM trained its watsonx AI platform to utilize the "unique language of tennis," and the All England Club has provided the platform access to player stats such as the power index, which analyzes performance, The Daily Telegraph reported. The technology will provide captions for highlights reels online, but could eventually lead to airing live AI commentary.

You won't recognise the voice and are unlikely to hear any phrases that stick in the memory, because commentary on Wimbledon's app and website this year is being provided by artificial intelligence. The All England Club has announced that daily highlights clips will use AI commentary and text captions rather than human input. Traditionalists may not agree but the technology from IBM watsonx is being described as'an exciting way' to make commentary available beyond the courts. To develop the system the AI commentator has been trained to use the'unique language of tennis'. Dialogue for recorded highlights will also be generated with the use of a ball tracking data and information about the types of shot being used and locations of the players around the court.

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. Legendary tennis star John McEnroe will undoubtedly go up against his toughest opponent this week – himself. Michelob ULTRA invited the four-time U.S. Open champion to "celebrate his joy" and to look back at his career accomplishments. McEnroe will go head-to-head against five different versions of himself – in 1979 when he won his first Grand Slam title, becoming the world's No. 1 tennis star in 1981, excelling as a tennis player in 1982, arguably his best year ever in 1984 and his final year on the ATP in 1992.

Michelob Ultra and ESPN have decided to use AI to answer an enduring question: what would happen if tennis legend John McEnroe played against himself? An upcoming ESPN special entitled "McEnroe vs. McEnroe" will feature the 63-year-old star, who retired from singles competition in 1992, playing against a complicated, AI-trained version of himself. According to TechCrunch, the process for the actual game is fairly involved. After the real McEnroe sends a ball over the net, the AI avatar responds to its direction and "swings" -- at this point, a new ball is launched from a ball cannon, which is obscured by a smokescreen. The positioning of the ball cannon and smokescreen are designed to make the ball appear as if it's coming off the avatar's racket.