Sega serves up Virtua Tennis 4 for PS3

Last year saw a double fault for high-profile tennis games, as Electronic Arts' Grand Slam Tennis and Sega's Virtua Tennis 2009 both launched to middling reviews. EA's effort was disappointing enough to postpone plans to release the game on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, while Virtua Tennis 2009 received the series' lowest scores outside of an ill-fated N-Gage version.

Sega is hoping the future will be brighter, as the company today announced Virtua Tennis 4 for the PlayStation 3. Set for release in 2011, the game features full compatibility for Sony's PlayStation Move motion-sensing controller, as well as 3D TV support. Sega claims the game will use the Move controller to take into account the angle of the player's virtual racket, as well as the spin, speed, and power of every volley.

For Virtua Tennis 4, Sega is having the game "developed in Japan by the original Virtua Tennis team." The original Virtua Tennis was developed by Sega's HitMaker studio and launched on the Dreamcast in 2000. A HitMaker-developed sequel, Virtua Tennis 2K2, debuted on the system the following year. The two most recent major entries in the series--Virtua Tennis 3 and Virtua Tennis 2009--have been developed by Sumo Digital.

A full roster of tennis pros for the game will be revealed in the coming months, but Sega is already featuring Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, and Andy Murray on its promotional materials.