On August 9 2022, Serena Williams announced her retirement from tennis. As a brand that made part of most of her career, Nike decided to launch a tribute in the form of a study, showcasing what it takes to stay on top for over two decades.

Our Goal was to reveal the evolution needed to become the greatest of all times, in order to honour the former tennis player and inspire younger generations.

Two days after Serena Williams announced her retirement, Nike released a year-long study, in the form of avatars, showcasing her evolution to stay on top for over 2 decades. After analyzing all data and footage from official tournaments throughout Serena's career, machine learning was able to model each era's playing style. To make it accessible and inspiring to everyone in the world, we turned the study's insights into a live virtual match on YouTube. Starring 17 year old Serena, the age she won her first Grand Slam. Against 35 year old Serena, the age she won her 23rd Grand Slam.

After collecting data from Serena's entire career, we decided to make it accessible and inspiring to even more people. So we transformed the study's insights into a live virtual match on YouTube, making it more tangible for everyone in the world. Starring 17 year old Serena, the age she won her first Grand Slam. Against 35 year old Serena, the age she won her 23rd and record breaking Grand Slam.

By analyzing all data and footage from official tournaments throughout Serena's career, machine learning was able to model each era’s playing style. It's the most accurate virtualization ever done with an athlete. We've created an avatar for each Serena over the years.

Then we applied this data into the Vid2Player technique, developed by Stanford University, which generated over 130.000 games.

To make it accessible and inspiring to everyone in the world, we've launched a live virtual match, simulating everything that happens in a tennis match. Sound effects, commentators, technical analysis and so on.

The live virtual match saw an increase of 1082% in organic views compared to other Nike content. It broke all Nike's organic views records on YouTube. And more than that, Nike is now applying this study's data not only to improve their products' technology, but also to improve their athletes' performance across sports.