Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

E-sports pro tennis tourney gives fans something to cheer

By
 

Pro tennis players will swap their real rackets for virtual ones this weekend in an e-sports contest set to deliver more than $1 million to charity.

Recommended Videos

If you haven’t already noticed, the coronavirus pandemic has prompted the suspension of professional sports events around the world, leaving fans everywhere wondering when they can next cheer on their favorite stars.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

For tennis lovers, this weekend should offer some fun respite from the coronavirus chaos. Top players — among them Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, and Naomi Osaka — will partner celebrities including Gigi Hadid, Steve Aoki, Addison Rae, and Seal, and play as characters from the Mario Tennis Aces game on the Nintendo Switch. Commentary will be provided by tennis legend John McEnroe and popular YouTuber iJustine.

The contest will be streamed live on Facebook Gaming as the social networking giant works to boost the profile of its recently launched gaming app for Android. You can also watch it on the Facebook page of IMG Tennis, which is backing the event. The stream starts at 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT on Sunday, May 3.

The victors will win $1 million for a charity of their choice, while all of the other competitors will each receive $25,000 for donation to good causes.

Here’s the full list of those getting involved, including who’s partnering with who for the online sports clash: Serena Williams and Gigi Hadid, Naomi Osaka and Hailey Bieber, Maria Sharapova and Karlie Kloss, Kevin Anderson and Ryan Tannehill, Venus Williams and Deandre Hopkins, Kei Nishikori and Steve Aoki, Madison Keys and Seal, Taylor Fritz and Addison Rae.

E-sports events have stepped in to fill the void for both players and fans alike until the pandemic passes. Formula 1 and the National Basketball Association have already held online competitions, while one Formula E team went a different route and turned to marbles for an altogether different kind of spectacle (it’s more mesmerizing than you might think!).

Editors’ Recommendations

Topics
Trevor Mogg
Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
It’s time for the Mario Sports games to go free-to-play
Mario and his team pose in Mario Strikers: Battle League.

Every time a Mario sports game has launched in the past decade, it’s seemingly been the same story. Players get a strong core experience anchored by highly refined sports gameplay. The problem? There aren’t a lot of compelling reasons to actually play due to thin feature lists. We saw it in Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash, Mario Sports Superstars, Mario Golf: Super Rush, and now again in Mario Strikers: Battle League.

The latter is arguably the most egregious offender yet. While it features some of the most complex and nuanced Mario sports gameplay to date, it's severely lacking when it comes to game modes. Rather than including challenges and minigames to test players’ skill, there are three options: Freeplay, a small set of tournaments, and online play. All of those can be enjoyed solo, but it very much feels like a multiplayer-first experience built around its standout online “club” mode.

Read more
The best sports games on Nintendo Switch
Donkey Kong charging across the field.

Although several high-profile titles are missing from the Switch catalog, that doesn't mean it's lacking great sports games. Nintendo's hybrid console has built up a sizeable roster of both indie and AAA sports titles over the years, with Rocket League, Mario Golf: Super Rush, and most of the major franchise games gracing its small screen. Between the sports titles and more casual games, the platform is once again home to some of the best party games on the planet. That's a lot of games to consider, with even more upcoming Switch games to think about as well.

From golf and tennis to football and baseball, here are the best sports games on Switch.

Read more
Can you play Switch Sports on a Nintendo Switch Lite?
Switch Sports player spiking a volleyball.

The massive success that the Nintendo Wii became was largely due to a single game: Wii Sports. This game, which came bundled with the console itself, helped introduce the concept of motion controls to the largest audience possible by pairing it with activities that most (if not all) people were already familiar with. If you knew how to bowl in real life, you could do it in the game. Over a decade later, Nintendo Switch Sports has released on the Nintendo Switch to continue that tradition of easy-to-pick-up, motion-controlled sports fun for the entire family. This new version brings a host of new sports, features, and ways to play that can create a whole new wave of fun memories like Wii Sports did all those years ago.

Being a primarily motion-controlled game, Nintendo Switch Sports naturally needs the use of Joy-Cons to play. However, there are multiple versions of the Nintendo Switch on the market, with many people opting to pick up the cheaper, handheld-only Lite version. This edition has the Joy-Cons attached to the console itself, leading to some games not being playable on the portable-only version of Nintendo's hit system. But what about Nintendo Switch Sports? If you're wondering whether or not you can still enjoy this sports package on your Nintendo Switch lite, here's the answer.

Read more