How exciting was it when Roger Federer, two points away from winning his third-round match at the United States Open last week, whipped a forehand crosscourt and out of reach of his luckless opponent, Feliciano López of Spain?
Fair to medium exciting, you might conclude: It was a sharp little shot rather than a miraculous feat of Federerian magic. But according to an analysis by IBM’s artificial intelligence system, Watson, it was one of the match’s more thrilling moments, generating an overall “excitement level” of .809, out of a possible high of 1.0. The point was included in a two-minute compendium of Open highlights posted on the Open’s website and app.