Seven (Plus One) Classic Tennis Games for the Last Seven Days of Wimbledon

By Dia Lacina | July 7, 2025 | 4:42pm

Video Games Features Tennis

Seven (Plus One) Classic Tennis Games for the Last Seven Days of Wimbledon

Today marks the halfway point of Wimbledon 2025, and it’s a weird one because I’ve realized something. Kids today don’t know about the tyranny of the Wimbledon broadcast. In an era of streaming, and innumerable ways of delivering custom TV and movie content to a multitude of devices, what Wimbledon symbolizes for people now is wholly different. It started with a stray tweet from Endless Mode‘s Editor-in-Chief, Garrett Martin—a reminder of all those muggy Junes and swampass Julys checking the small square pamphlet that came with an HBO subscription in the ‘80s and ‘90s when TVs didn’t have forward-looking menus and the best guide was its own media channel that scrolled slowly and has since become a post-internet vibe. For two weeks in the first worst part of summer, that little pamphlet offered no relief for those home from school. Page after page of no Cobra. No 8 Million Ways to Die. No Making Mr. Right, Just One of the Guys, Joe vs the Volcano, Summer Rental, or Less Than Zero. No Mannequin, no Mannequin 2, not even Hot to Trot. Just a small floppy rectangular booklet of daytime betrayals. Line after line, block after block, carving through the hottest parts of the day, ripping a wound in Continental Cablevision’s broadcasting timeline. One word, marking the broken promise of summer vacation: Wimbledon.

For the longest time tennis was a punishment to me. My mother was told early on by a child psychologist that my being trans meant that I would ultimately kill myself if I didn’t conform to the gender I was assigned. And while it’s taken a long time to forgive her, I can see how, when given a directive like that, you’re going to take certain steps. No one wants their child to die, obviously. I was to be a boy child, and boy children play sports. Afternoon soccer practices (where I refused to run—I wasn’t getting paid, duh) during the school year gave way to the horrors of summer tennis camp. Offered through the school I was sent to, this is what tennis was: A 12-foot tall chainlink fence surrounding four, terraced hardtop courts. Where the blonde hair, blue eyed proto-Trump supporter youths I spent all year with their racial slur hurling only curtailed because our coach thought it was “unsportsmanlike.” Every weekday from 9 to 5, I was forced onto a layered pancake of asphalt, cement, and resin to swing at balls, chase balls, and haul tankards of chipped ice from the cafeteria to the bleachers so we wouldn’t die. When my parents decided they’d rather spend all summer in the Outer Banks and I didn’t have to deal with camp anymore, did the horrors of tennis cease? No. Instead semi-private tennis clinics started. But at least there was a nice awkward girl there who was equally as uninterested and similarly pressured into these misery classes. It’s important to identify your doubles partner early.

The tyranny of Wimbledon followed me to the beach house too. There was no escaping it, especially when your stepfather was aligned against you. Maybe it was just prolonged exposure, an osmotic infection. Why fight the inevitable? I started asking questions and I started actively watching tennis. And before I knew it I learned to appreciate tennis, even if I hated running around like a molting penguin in the Carolina heat chasing balls. So that’s when the tennis games started… First with a stray rental. Then habit. And soon after that I was developing opinions and preferences about tennis video games and how they translated the real sport to the digital game. This would go on for years, only ending in a not entirely gradual distancing when my stepfather died.

So when all this surged up in the early days of June and the spinup for Wimbledon began, I spent my evenings doing a crash course in almost 30 years of tennis games. Revisiting old favorites, European games I’d only heard of, for consoles and computers I could only emulate but always dreamed of.

It’s been nearly 30 years since I’ve held a tennis racket in my own hands. And it’s probably been at least a decade since I’ve organically played a new tennis game. But the surge of enthusiasm for them came through in a renewed burst. Rather than do something as gaudy as assign value and rank to them, here are seven days worth of impeccable tennis experiences you can have right now, a little interactive Wimbledon advent calendar.

Day One: Rafa Nadal Tennis (Nintendo DS)

best tennis video games

While Nicole Kidman was supposedly improving her mind with the specious benefits of Brain Age, tennis legend Rafael Nadal was busy lending his name and likeness to one of the better non-Mario tennis games you can carry with you.

Sure, you’d be forgiven for thinking that this is a fairly no nonsense 2nd generation DS title that doesn’t do anything that Top Spin 2 or Tennis Elbow haven’t already covered. It’s not nearly as visually commanding as the seemingly endless import-only Prince of Tennis games, and it’s not… whatever the hell is going on with Sega Superstars. It looks and plays just like what you’d expect from a game box with Rafael Nadal and Codemasters on the front. In fact, it’s honestly one of the most ignorable tennis games played with a conventional d-pad and face buttons.

Except then you pull the stylus out like a tween boy unsheathing his racket while waiting for his mom after school the way a samurai preparing for battle would, and suddenly a run of the mill tennis simulator becomes a furious cross between Bushido Blade and Fruit Ninja. Okay, maybe the DS touchscreen controls are a bit laggy and the sensitivity isn’t great. And sure, after an hour your fingers and wrists will be on fire from rapid fire swipes and taps. But don’t believe the anti-hype of yesteryear; Rafa Nadal Tennis isn’t just a cheap cash-in on a gimmick. Performing arcane gestures with the flick of a wrist as you slice and lob your way to victory after victory with the power and execution of the man himself is an absolute pocketable delight. It’s transformative in a way that mobile games wouldn’t get to until much, much later.

Day Two: Anna Kournikova’s Smash Court Tennis (Sony PlayStation)

We never got Smash Court in America, not on the original PlayStation at any rate. For whatever reason, Namco wasn’t willing to take the chance on American players until after Operation Enduring Freedom was underway. But for the PAL countries, the venerable follow-up to their first PlayStation tennis game was given a more-than-gentle rebrand to the biggest blonde of the Y2K, Anna Kournikova.

If you were alive for her career, you’d understand why it’s only natural for Anna Kournikova’s name to be on a PlayStation tennis game (and weird for it to be relegated to Europe). If you weren’t you’re probably scratching your head and going “who?” While her tennis prowess was never quite enough to overpower the legacy of her image, the young Russian blonde enraptured an entire generation enough that her name and likeness was slapped onto every available surface, from sports bras to skim-milk cocktails to incredible women’s dress shoes (that were probably made in deplorable labor conditions). Everyone wanted a piece of Anna so badly and she wasn’t just one of the most common Google searches for years after her professional tennis career ended—she was also the Lycos spokeswoman. Photos of her were so in demand and ubiquitous that entire corporations were brought to their knees in the February of 2001 by horny mid-level managers who couldn’t resist clicking on “AnnaKournikova.jpg.vbs” for the chance to gaze longingly at some workplace tits in MS Outlook. Sorry, lads, she’s (still) only sharing those with Enrique Iglesias. Or maybe you remember her name from her incredibly short lived stint on The Biggest Loser, because of course she did that and everyone hated her. The point is, for a brilliant flash of skilled but occasionally undisciplined tennis talent that was overshadowed by the eternal craving for thin, blonde, youth, Anna Kournikova was an unstoppable, effervescent marketing force, and we were all in her downline.

So it makes total sense that someone would slap her on a tennis game at some point. In fact, it’s remarkable she didn’t get slapped on more games. What is remarkable is that her name and likeness got slapped on a game that was already oozing with all the hyper-marketable Y2K Tokyo Cool that Namco could bring to bear. Smash Court 2 was already hands down the most sellable tennis game around, and not just because it was stylish; it is easily the best tennis game for the Sony PlayStation. Period. But for whatever reason Namco didn’t have confidence in the slick art style, charming stage list, pervasive and ultra cool Y2K beats, and dreamy gameplay (with impeccable multitap doubles play too). You had to know kids who did weird shit with hardware and had unnerving amounts of disposable cash to even get a glimpse of this game stateside. But if you did, you’d know. Fortunately the pervasiveness of high speed internet, mass storage, and computers that run circles around the once mighty R3000 provide us with other means of finally getting our hands on one of the most invigorating quick-fix tennis games ever made.

Why we needed to slap Anna Kournikova on this one is beyond me, but aside from an appearance as stylized blonde bobblehead polygons—much like that match with her 31 double faults—she’s really just not here. Which is fine; I’ve had more than enough Anna Kournikova to last a lifetime, and she deserves her time away from the spotlight, leaving us to enjoy the simple delights of “her” tennis game.

Day Three: Pro Tennis Tour 2 (Amiga)

I’ll admit that, even now, I often still think of tennis as that fussy European sport. Okay, one of the fussy European sports. The obsession with rules and conduct in a way that even duelists seemed historically more flexible about, especially at Wimbledon, with the all-white everything approach to tennis. It’s fixed in my mind, no matter how much Andre Agassi wanted to be different. The silly white outfits that gave way to polos with the little alligator, the foppish rooster, or some other ridiculous crest denoting a brand that says “you play the sports for people with more money than sense.” I think about my father’s truly dire white Tretorn sneakers. Which is to say that no list of impeccable tennis games would be complete without an entry on the Amiga—a rather fussy and high-powered workstation computer that became the multimedia center of joy and practically synonymous with European sensibilities.

Great Courts 2, as it’s known in France and Germany, is unquestionably the apex predator of classic personal computer tennis. Thanks to the multimedia muscle of the Amiga (known for its dominance in creative fields at the time, particularly TV/Film), it produces animation with a smoothness and character from the rich depth of color that even later console hardware would chase after. And where the Amiga schooled its DOS counterpart graphically, the sound design for Pro Tennis Tour 2 (thanks to “Paula,” the custom Amiga soundchip) provides the full ricochet noises of ball and racquet and court that truly sells the tennis as an aesthetic. Maybe households with the Sound Blaster 1.5 came close, but in 1990 dedicated sound hardware in the MS-DOS-dominated US was hardly commonplace. While it would eventually make its way to North American players as a gussied up SNES port rebadged with a grumpy Jimmy Connors on the cover and his name in the title, that’s not what we actually care about. The Amiga version is the real deal.

What I didn’t realize at the time, when I was playing other tennis games like Top Players’ Tennis or Racket Attack on the NES, is that across the pond, Pro Tennis Tour 2 was busy defining what a good tennis game could be for the era, and in some ways, every one since. Power-controllable swings and serves that could be targeted, and a depth of play that could be achieved even with a keyboard (I tried it, it’s wild!), are fully developed and realized here (far beyond the capabilities of the first entry for the beloved and British ZX Spectrum).

Day Four: Doubles Time!

We’ve reached the middle of the final week of Wimbledon! Today marks the Mixed Doubles Final, so let’s celebrate by breaking out our Game Boy Color for two of the most compelling tennis experiences you can take with you everywhere.

Mario Tennis (2000)

Scratch a sports fan and you’ll find an RPG fanatic who doesn’t even realize it. Between an obsession with statistics and career progression, team synergies, rivalries, underdogs, the struggle of grinding out smaller wins for notoriety, money, and experience to tackle bigger challenges? Just ask yourself how many players, teams, coaches, and spectators have an adversarial relationship with God… Exactly. Sports is RPGs and there’s no getting around it. Sorry if you didn’t know.

“Why make one game when you can make two almost entirely different ones?” seems to be a defining feature of Camelot Software Planning’s approach to Nintendo sports titles. Starting with Mario Golf, the Game Boy Color companion title broke from the N64 version by including what some might say Camelot does best: real ass RPG shit.

After the success of Mario Golf, Camelot brought the whole Mushroom Kingdom gang to the tennis courts for some of the best tried-and-true singles and CPU-partner doubles gameplay you can find in a handheld (finding a real rival only in SNK’s Pocket Tennis Color) in the unquestionably best tennis RPG. How could it not be? This is the same company that gave us the Shining series and Golden Sun. Of course, as RPGs go, it’s just another riff on the classic “I wanna be the best!” / “Teamwork & Friendship” shonen manga RPG plot, but it’s slapped on some of the no question best tennis gameplay that two buttons and a wobbly d-pad can handle, packed full of Nintendo favorites and delivering an unexpectedly deep amount of gameplay for a handheld sports game (and the soundtrack sings on the miserable GBC hardware). Also you get to Jimmy Connors the shit out of Mario’s net game, which is just perfect. And while you may be inclined to argue that Mario Tennis: Power Tour is everything this game is refined for the Game Boy Advance, I’d be inclined to agree. But I love the Game Boy aesthetic and I like holding my GBC more than my GBA. Plus it’s my list.

Snoopy Tennis (2001)

I don’t think I’ll ever vibe with the Peanuts. My grandfather was a graphic designer and illustrator who tried to get me to love them as much as I did Calvin & Hobbes, but it just never clicked. That weird little shit Charlie Brown with his big weird head? Nope. A spiteful part of me hopes he has a terrible Christmas. I don’t even like those two little toxic lesbians, and someone needs to wash that damn dirty kid. Nope, I still can’t stand the goddamn Peanuts. And yet, I come to you today to attest that Snoopy Tennis is without a doubt one of the greatest triumphs of licensed gaming.

It’s such a smooth and joyous expression of tennis. It’s the distillation of the feeling of finding that one other kid you’re nursing a crush on in the 6th grade at summer camp to just bounce a ball back and forth until it’s time to go home while everyone else is trying to brutalize each other on the hard court under a godless southern sun like they’re reenacting John McEnroe v Björn Borg. Snoopy Tennis is a straightforward game with a rudimentary championship mode and an unlockable cast of 12 characters from the funny pages with subtle playstyle differences. While there’s no doubles play, progression, or minigame-like skill trials as with Mario Tennis, it comes with lively animation, pleasant sound effects, and unexpectedly tuned, precision ballplay.

Okay, okay, I do love that damn dog and his little bird friend.

Day Five: Top Spin (Xbox)

While Sega AM3’s Virtua Tennis 2 may have ruled the roost as the 3D arcade tennis to beat in arcades, on the Dreamcast, and even the PlayStation 2, Microsoft (*spits*) struck back with a fierce forehand swing. The freshly acquired Access Software (yes, of Tex Murphy fame) was transformed into the Salt Lake Studio and, along with Power and Magic Development (a fellow victim of Microsoft’s EA Sports-Panic Sell Off to 2K who would inevitably shutter both), brought to bear its nearly two decades of golf gaming expertise to create one hell of a tennis game.

Sure, the career mode is anemic for people craving real-world simulationist championship play. And the training modes, star power, and real courts are noticeably lacking. But Top Spin had the fucking sauce.

And part of that was thanks to what we can only describe as the closest a tennis game has gotten to the Tony Hawk’s Underground character creator. Let’s face it, I’m tired of playing as the Williams sisters with their perfect physiques. I want to be half-balding Agassi with part of my face melting, the other half bulging, I want to be Patti Mayonnaise with a Bobby Hill face in a bad branded t-shirt and cargo pants, and then I want a game I can pick up and play with friends and strangers over an astonishingly good Xbox Live connection to show them the horrors from right up against the net as I force their errors.

Look, there are some games that define a console. Where you can smell the carpet and microplastics of the GameStop you first picked it up and said “I dunno, $49.95? That’s a lot of money.” But then you take it home and it forever burns itself into your mind as the pinnacle of the console—Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball, Knights of the Old Republic, Ninja Gaiden, Dino Crisis 3, and (don’t you dare call it a “pack-in”) Top Spin.

Day Six: Virtua Tennis 2 (Dreamcast)

Sometimes I think about how unreal it is that neither of the Williams sisters have been given their own tennis game (did the bad mobile game from 2004 even come out?). Well, it’s not the same as if Sega changed Virtua Tennis 2’s name from Tennis 2k2 to The Williams Sisters’ Present The GOAT of Tennis, but they did get featured prominently on the cover of this Dreamcast classic so we’ll take what we can get, I guess.

Sure, Microsoft would come along with Top Spin and produce a compelling rival for those unfortunate souls who didn’t get a Dreamcast, but when I think of the era of properly 3D tennis, where licensing became big, budgets began to balloon, and we hadn’t been fully sold by corporations to a microtransaction hellscape? It’s Powers Smash 2, or Virtua Tennis 2, or Tennis 2k2 as they tried to brand it in North America (stupid name if you ask me, no one uses it). With a healthy roster of real tennis starpower, and numerous refinements over the original NAOMI game, Virtual Tennis 2 is loud and assertive. Literally. Where most tennis games strongly emphasize the relative silence of tennis (it saves on paying a composer), Virtua Tennis 2 let Chiho Kobayashi bring all of her rowdiness to the front, and no surprise: it works. Where the campaign mode features a yearly schedule and calendar-based tournaments in a bid for championship verissimilitude, the funky millennial electronica soundtrack turns every match into a frantic cinematic battle of wills and backhands. Sometimes for background stimulus I would set both players to AI control and let the Williams sisters battle it out like I was training Professor Falken’s computer about mutually assured destruction. With a strong single player game that lets you pick up and play, develop your skills with some of the most vivacious and challenging training modes, or invite four friends over for some extremely competitive mixed doubles,Tennis 2k2 is hard to beat.

Day Seven: Super Tennis (SNES)

We close out our time here at Wimbledon with the greatest tennis game that human hands have ever proven capable of creating. Ss we’ve seen across the games in this list, humanity has spent the last 24 years trying time and time again to create both a more elemental and vivacious representation of the sport, and also deeper and more simulationist versions. They’ve gone right up against the limits of current computational power to build more cunning adversaries and deliver more advanced graphics. We’ve included pro shops and branding and licensed the hell out of player, court, tournament, and gear. We have maximalized tennis, sometimes more than the sport itself was capable of, and of course, there’s always the distillation of the distillation: Pong. I know I said we weren’t ranking or pitting games against one another, but it’s my article and I can change the rules if and when I want.

So what if I told you that a humble, practically non-descript game published by Tonkin House, developed by Tose, was secretly the greatest tennis game achievement the world has ever known and likely ever will? It doesn’t have an impressive cover, its name is direct and unlicensed. There are no pro shop outfits, no stat management, and what “real world” players are featured are remixed into not-legally-actionable facsimiles.

Super Tennis has something more important in its favor. As Gene Siskel states in the 1991 holiday gift guide with his inimitable companion Roger Ebert, “this is my favorite video game.” And while it may be stretching reality to take that at face value, it’s no stretch to say that Super Tennis is truly the prince of tennis.

When my parents dragged us to the beach house every weekend so they could escape the misery of their high-paying but casually evil careers, there was one sad video store on the part of the island they would drive to and it had an inscrutable little collection of 7/10 SNES games:

Prince of Persia
Super Castlevania IV
Super Metroid
Super Star Wars

But there between that bonkers assortment was Super Tennis.

I didn’t even think I liked tennis, but there it was, demanding I play it because what else was I going to play?

I rented it every weekend for close to three years. Even when I had brought newer games down with me, even that time I accidentally stole Earthbound from Blockbuster (I swear I thought I put it back in the case when we dropped it off in the return slot), I made sure to rent Super Tennis. With some of the most effective sound design a tennis game can have, Super Tennis captures the nature of tennis in a charming, gently simulationist way. With Super Tennis it’s quick to pick up and just play some fast matches against a friend or computer. Its world tour mode is exactly what it needs to be and not a drop more. Rival players have their own unique performance stats and playstyles. But there’s something about the smooth Nintendo gentleness that ties it all together, right down to its deployment of Mode 7, so often associated with more bombastic pseudo-3D effects on the Super Nintendo: here it proves that sometimes the most delicate touch can produce dramatically impactful results.

What’s more important? Odds are you have a Nintendo Switch and a Nintendo Online account, which means you could be playing Super Tennis right now. What better way to spend a summer afternoon?

Dia Lacina is a queer indigenous writer and photographer. She tweets too much at @dialacina.