it's the best tennis game out there but that's not to say there isn't room for improvement
Virtua Tennis has a lot of positives that make it a fun game to play. These include a largely improved gameplay since the predecessing title (Virtua Tennis 3), you have extensive rallies and pull of some good(but limited) moves. This being said there are a couple of issues with it in that it is still suprisingly easy, all you have to do is serve, run up to the net and smash the ball for 15 love and so on. The difficulty may alter this slightly but once you sit down and play the game properly, hard difficulty becomes a shorter task. The atmosphere is rather subdued with the exception of the odd cheer when you win a match. However unlike Virtua Tennis 3, players don't dive for the ball and the movement of the players across the court has been much improved.
Therefore it leads to an overall impression that the gameplay is generally fun despite a low difficulty and a few bits left to finetune.
The graphics are great, the attention to detail on each player is one to merit SEGA for, the likes of Murray and Roddick in particular make
Virtua Tennis 2009 has also improved on the world tour mode. However it is far too long and a bit simplistic to begin with. I've lost count of how many games I've won and how many matches I've played. The idea that it is a LONG road to being number 1 (an idea greatly emphasised in this game). You can practice your skills with Tim Henman which is quite cool and you can customize the dresswear of your player.
Not only that but you can play minigames which are always fun to play but sometimes may be slightly frustrating. They offer something different to the style of playing tennis though compared to the TopSpin games and GrandSlamTennis.
Online is rather laggy and full of bugs and 'glitches'. I'd suggest giving this a miss and play with friends offline. When playing online you may find the ball and players stop and jitter a wee bit which will probably put the majority of you off.
All in all, this game will naturally appeal to all tennis fans as this is arguably the best for on court action and a realistic simulation of 'that sport Britain aren't good at'. Certainly worth a look at least.