The world's first fully autonomous tennis-playing humanoid robot took to the court at the opening ceremony of the Second World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing on Saturday. It joined Chinese tennis star Zheng Jie and actor Li Yunrui, the event's sports experience ambassador, for a human-robot mixed doubles exhibition.

Developed by Beijing-based robotics firm Galbot in collaboration with Tsinghua University, the robot can sense incoming balls, predict their trajectories, adjust its position and return shots without preset scripts or human control, demonstrating real-time decision-making and full-body coordination in a fast-changing competitive setting.