Grand Slam Tennis 2 hits PS3, 360 in 2012

EA Sports is offering gamers a second serving of Grand Slam Tennis. The company today announced that Grand Slam Tennis 2 is in development for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, with an expected release in 2012.

As the name suggests, Grand Slam Tennis 2 will feature all four of the sport's biggest championships: the French Open, the Australian Open, the U.S. Open, and Wimbledon, which will be exclusive to EA Sports' game. Grand Slam Tennis 2 will also feature more than 20 past and present pros, including John McEnroe (also exclusive to the series), Bjorn Borg, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Maria Sharapova, and Serena and Venus Williams.

Building on that roster, the game will feature an ESPN Grand Slam Tournament Classics mode where players attempt to re-create 25 notable moments and storied matchups like Borg-McEnroe or Nadal-Federer. Grand Slam Tennis 2 will also feature a 10-year career mode for singles and doubles as well as online matches and EA Sports' Photo Game Face customization. In addition, the PS3 edition will support the motion-sensing Move peripheral.

While this will be the first appearance for the series on the Microsoft and Sony systems, its debut is long overdue. In 2009, EA Sports announced that the original Grand Slam Tennis would be released on the Xbox 360 and PS3 a few months after it surfaced on the Wii (where it accompanied the Wii Motion Plus launch alongside Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10). However, the Wii version of the game underperformed, the high-definition versions were delayed, and EA Sports went quiet on the series until today.

For more on the original Grand Slam Tennis for the Wii, check out GameSpot's review.