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US Open Experience Lets Fans Play Virtual Tennis

Venus Williams attends The American Express Fan Experience at the 2017 US Open at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York City. (Photo by Brad Barket/Getty Images for American Express)

NEW YORK — A new experience at the US Open will let fans play tennis in a virtual experience where they can “feel” an invisible ball as they swat it with their bare hands.

Called Air Tennis, the American Express-sponsored game mixes together motion sensors that might remind most people of Kinect for Xbox One or Wii Tennis without the controller, with air haptics technology that blast air to mimic the ball as a player hits it with their hand.