Things are going really well on the virtual tennis court. For years, various games have tried to follow in the great footsteps of the legendary Virtua Tennis to kick. However, success remains – sometimes more, sometimes less. In the last five years alone, a number of contenders have tried to win the favor of the players: here we are AO Tennis 1 and 2, Tennis World Tour 1 and 2 and Matchpoint Tennis Championships. In addition, Tiebreak, the official game of the ATP and WTA, has been in early access since mid-January. From Mario Tennis Aces Let's not even start here.
Overall, the selection is huge, but if we exclude the arcade Switch game in the Mario universe, no title can actually convince in terms of gameplay. After a thirteen-year break, the TopSpin series is now celebrating its reincarnation. Publisher 2K is taking the helm together with the developers of Hangar 13. Where 2K it says that's where the discussions are about Microtransactions Not far, but more on that later. With TopSpin 2K25 we get the best alternative of the tennis games mentioned, but we also have to take into account deductions in the B grade.
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Source: 2K
Young versus old
From April 25th we can let off steam virtually on the world's tennis courts. In contrast to tiebreak, there are significantly fewer real players. In addition to two legends who recently hung up their tennis rackets – we're talking about Serena Williams and Roger Federer – we also have 23 other professionals at our disposal.
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We can bring former Grand Slam winners like Maria Sharapova, Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi back onto the court, but also swing the raquette with up-and-coming young stars like Carlos Alcaraz and Emma Raducanu.
But we look in vain for Alexander Zverev, Jan-Lennard Struff or Angelique Kerber. If you want to start the hunt for the top world rankings with the current German professionals, you have to resort to one of the game alternatives.
Source: 2K
A real Grand Slam
TopSpin 2K25 has all four Grand Slams and many other official tournaments. So we're reaching for the crown at the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. That hasn't happened virtually for a long time.
In addition, well-known smaller tournaments such as in Madrid and Miami are also available. We are even allowed to take part in the German competitions in Halle and Munich. As in reality, the tour is divided into different tournament categories. There are the smaller 250cc events, medium-sized 500cc events and the four Grand Slams.
A few of our own creations on courts have also made it into the game. Due to the official tournaments, we are offered a full range of different surfaces. The three surfaces, grass, hard court and sand, differ in terms of playing speed. While the yellow felt ball bounces around rather slowly on grass, things move much faster on sand.
Using the exhibition match mode, we can compete on one of the courts with one of the real players against an AI opponent in singles or together with a partner in doubles against two other opponents.
Source: 2K
From Zero to Hero
The focus of TopSpin 2K25, on the other hand, is the MyCareer mode. There we create an aspiring professional and fight our way to the top of the world through the WTA or ATP tour. The character editor is quite versatile and lets us put our own character together in small parts.
We not only determine the appearance, but also the style of serve and the technique with which our player acts on forehand and backhand balls. A large number of recorded comments also ensure that the chair referee always announces the score using our selected name. It's only a small thing, but it brings more atmosphere to the match.