Oh, boy! Where am I to start on this one? Disappointment is definitely the word that comes to mind, but do I talk about the poor quality of the graphics or the sound's poor quality first?

I might as well get the sound out of the way. I'm going to jump right to the point. The only good aspect to the sound in this game is the sound of the tennis ball being hit back and forth and the sound of the commentator. Speaking of the commentator, doing the voice for this game must have been an easy task.

Tennis is not one of those sports where speaking is essential. Actually, if you attend a tennis match you will find out that for the most part, tennis is a silent game. The second a player is ready to serve, an almost eerie silence falls over the court. This game stays true to that and the commentator only reveals the score at the end of the point. "15 - Love, 15 - all, 15 - 30 ... advantage player 1," or "match point" are about the only spoken sounds that you will hear. Now, if you have the Xbox 360 headset you can communicate with other players from around the world as you play your multiplayer matches, but besides that, speech is a rare commodity in this game. The background music can be found only on the menu screens and while it is music, it also fails to impress much. I would have liked just a bit more out of a 50 dollar game; I would have liked for at least your coach to talk to you or for Nadal to say something, but I guess I was expecting too much.

Virtua Tennis 2009 was a big disappointment in the graphics department. One of the game's worst features is the rendered players. The created players especially, they look almost zombie like. The colors used for the skin tones have that leathery look to them. The paleness is too pale and the darker shades look more like something out of a Crayon box rather than actual realistic skin-like tones. If you look at Roger Federer, his rendered body, especially to color for the skin tone, makes him look sickly at best. Another thing that bugs me about the way that the characters are rendered is their forehead. I can't tell if the programmers at SEGA were going for the sweat look or the shadow look, but even if they were the character's faces, especially foreheads look warped. Also, the game does not have a perfect smoothness and flow when it comes to the visual aspects of the game. Even some of the courts look poorly rendered. For example, the red, hard-surfaced courts in Moscow have such a red tint to them that it actually hurts my eyes as I play and as I watch and follow the tennis ball around, I can't help but wonder if I'm about to experience my first seizure ever. The clay courts do look phenomenal though and the grass ones are not too shabby looking either. The tennis ball does look phenomenal and I like how the tracer effect is done on it, especially on the really hard hits. Another thing that really bugged me about the game was the fact that SEGA was too cheap to render a few different character for the ball-boys or the line judges or even for the chair umpire so in this video game, it looks like a bunch of clones are out on the field. SEGA did a poor job with the fans in the crowds as well. Another thing that the programmers did well was to create the cloud effects as the clouds travel over the outdoor tennis courts. Finally, I also want to complement the programmers for adding a wide variety of clothing and equipment that can be purchased with the prize money that your character has won.