Acemate Unveils S10 Pro Tennis Robot with Ace+ Shot System at IFA 2026

Acemate unveiled its flagship S10 Pro tennis robot in Berlin, the successor to a model that raised $2.4 million on Kickstarter two years earlier. The new device pairs AI-driven game analysis with a mechanical ball-launching system called Ace+ Shot, designed to mimic the behavior of a real opponent on court.

The S10 Pro debuted at IFA 2026, running in Berlin from September 4 to 8, an edition of the show dominated by AI-equipped hardware ranging from TVs to smart home systems. Against that backdrop, the tennis robot stands out as a rare sporting-goods device where AI handles not content generation but real-time motion analysis and decision-making.

The Ace+ Shot System

The key change from the previous S10 model is the Ace+ Shot ball-launching system. On earlier machines, changing the direction of a shot required rotating the entire unit, which slowed down training pace. On the S10 Pro, the direction changes inside the machine itself without moving the whole housing, letting the robot switch between shots faster and hold its position on the court.

The system's horizontal range spans 180 degrees, effectively the full width of the court, while the launch angle can be set between 7 and 40 degrees. The machine also controls the ball's trajectory height, from 1 to 8 meters, and the interval between shots, from 1 to 15 seconds. Three spin types are available: flat, topspin, and backspin. By comparison, the previous S10 model topped out at 60 mph and held 80 balls.

Five Modes and AI as Coach

The S10 Pro offers five training modes. Rally Mode tracks the ball returned by the player, moves across the court to intercept it, and sends it back from the landing spot, simulating play against a second athlete. Drill Mode introduces marked target zones with scoring for accuracy, while Serve Mode analyzes the player's serve, including speed, height over the net, and spin, then simulates a return.

Ball Machine Mode handles repeatable, adjustable feeds in the style of a classic training machine, while Battle Mode runs an AI opponent simulation with four playing styles: defensive, offensive, topspin-heavy, and variable. The robot uses a dual 4K HDR camera setup to track the ball and on-court movement, and Acemate describes the entire training process as a five-step loop: train, track, analyze, review, and improve.

Price and Availability

Acemate is taking deposit payments for S10 Pro pre-orders through its official website. Suggested regional pricing is $2,999 in the United States, €2,999 in Europe, and £2,999 in the UK, with CA$3,999 in Canada and AU$4,599 in Australia. That places it firmly in the premium hardware segment, well above classic ball-machine feeders without AI features.

The company was founded with backing from robotics group OneRobotics, listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The original S10 won Best in IFA Next at the 2025 IFA Innovation Awards, received an ISPO Award honor, and made TIME magazine's list of the year's best inventions, giving the brand visibility beyond the narrow world of sporting-goods manufacturers.

AI Sports Gear as a Trade Show Trend

The S10 Pro launch fits into a broader trend at IFA 2026, where consumer electronics makers are widely adding AI features to devices not previously associated with the technology, from home appliances to sports gadgets. For training robots, AI mainly handles two things: precisely tracking the ball and player's movement, and generating training recommendations from the collected data, rather than producing content or holding a conversation.

For buyers, the key question is whether the performance jump, higher ball speed, wider coverage, and longer battery life, translates into real training value at a price near three thousand dollars. That answer will come from early hands-on testing once units ship to customers, which Acemate plans to draw from the pre-order list it has been building since the Berlin show.