Tiebreak: Official Game of the ATP and WTA Review

After what felt like a decade long drought of Tennis games on consoles, there has been a sudden sprinkling of them. With Matchpoint Tennis, Top Spin 2K25 and even Tennis Elbow 4, it appears that Tennis titles are back with a bang. I wish other sports titles would contend with each other as competition is always great in the gaming industry. Big Ant Studios have plenty of experience in sports games having worked on Cricket, Australian Football and previously other Tennis offerings such as AO Tennis 2. Often their games are playable but don’t have the same shine as EA/2K Sports annual outings, obviously due to the size of their studio, team and probably a tighter budget. This doesn’t mean to say however that they don’t compete, because in some instances they absolutely do.

After seeing this in the upcoming games list several weeks ago, I was naturally intrigued as I’m a sucker for a Tennis game. Considering the stance and stature of the Top Spin IP, I genuinely didn’t take to the mechanics of the game and struggled against real life opponents. So therefore, my hunt for the perfect racket and yellow ball fix continues and I wasn’t going to let Tiebreak: Official Game of the ATP & WTA pass me by.

Mechanics Don’t Quite Hit The Mark

Tiebreak: Official Game of the ATP & WTA opts for a more simulation based approach rather than being completely arcadey. In some instances the gameplay was fun to engage with but I often felt more frustrated in moments, rather than enjoying myself. There are some handy and in depth tutorials that will take a good chunk of time to work through, but I recommend starting with these or you’ll get lost with the control scheme. Trying to play shots with precision became something I obsessed with to get right, but the controls wouldn’t place them where I wanted them to go. It almost felt as if there was a delay with what I was pressing to how it reacted on screen and if you’re playing AI on a tougher difficulty, they seemed to predict the shot you were about to play before you’d made contact with the ball.

What I also found difficult to master was sprinting to get to the ball, often I’d fall short and engaging with a button to run faster meant having to then release to swing for the ball. It just never feels smooth and I’m not sure if it was my own ability in the game letting me down but it wasn’t as natural as other tennis games. Serving was absolutely fine once I’d become accustomed to it and the movement aside from sprinting was OK, but it just needs a bit more work to become a free flowing organic tennis affair.

Career Mode Is A Bit Bare Bones

Career mode is the place where I spent most of the duration of my review, simply because my skill level online is akin to Gears Of War, I suck. Starting off your journey includes the usual features such as creating your own custom player, which has a satisfactory range of tools to tailor them how you feel. As with any professional sports persons career, you’re starting from the bottom and hoping to achieve the ultimate goal of playing on the best courts with the world class elite of Tennis. You can absolutely do this, and the roster is bloated out with fake players to compete with.

Progression isn’t really very well implemented and you’re supposed to utilise your earnings to invest in staff to assist with your travel fatigue and your adventure across the globe. It feels very pricey at the start and often I’d be sending my player out knackered. You can gain sponsors as you progress which will siphon more money into your bank account, but they didn’t seem to come along all that often. This mode didn’t really keep me entertained in all honesty and it felt more like just playing countless exhibitions just to climb the rankings.

Visuals & Audio

Without being disrespectful, some of Big Ant Studios earlier games had poor visuals and animations. But as they have become more experienced over time, they actually do a fantastic job across their range of games with authenticity. Here in Tiebreak: Official Game of the ATP & WTA they have an extremely fruitful roster of real Tennis superstars and they all look great from what I saw during my review. I was pleased with the atmosphere and intensity throughout the several arenas throughout the game. Something Top Spin 2k25 severely lacked in my opinion, has been nailed here.

When it comes to the audio, it does everything you’d expect from a Tennis game. The grunts, the robotic score updates and the thud of the ball as it makes contact with the tennis racket. It clicks into place with the great work done on the visuals throughout, both on the court and across the clear and concise menu system. If the gameplay loop could have complimented the visuals a bit better, then it would have been up there as the best Tennis game in over a decade.

Final Thoughts

On the surface Tiebreak: Official Game of the ATP & WTA is a well constructed and playable Tennis title, but often its mechanics had me feeling a bit frustrated. It felt more simplistic to get to grips with than Top Spin 2K25, but the mechanics and AI become infuriating to deal with at times. If you’re looking for a Tennis title though that has the largest roster available with accurate atmosphere and feel of the real sport though, this one might be for you. But in my opinion it does fall short in terms of gameplay and modes despite its excellent presentation. I do hope Big Ant Studios return next year though with some refreshed mechanics to compliment its sterling work everywhere else.