The players

Virtua Tennis 2 has 8 tennis men and 8 tennis women. Every player has specific properties, so everyone is unique. That’s why we need to understand what makes each player special before our choice.

However, this game doesn’t allow man versus woman matches. Therefore if someone chooses a female player, the other person is forced to take a woman too. Besides, male characters are more balanced and stronger than female ones. That’s why most of the players use to play with male characters. So, let’s have a look to the properties of each male player. After that, you will see some tips to play with every character.

Patrick Rafter: great serve, amazing volley.

One of the best players of the game, his net play is devastating. He has a really good serve but the shot that makes the difference is his volley. If Rafter gets in the net, his rival must be accurate to solve the situation.

How to use Rafter: he has an awesome “A Plan”. After a good serve, he is able to get in the net and end the point with a short rally. However he has no “B Plan”, so if he’s at the baseline, he has almost no options. In that case, he should do a slice spin to calm the game and try to approach to the net.

How to face Rafter: It’s pretty hard to defend Rafter’s serve. If our first hit isn’t good enough, he will score the point easily. So we need to hit the serve back with a low ball in order to prevent a Rafter volley. Then we should push back Rafter as long as we can. He will suffer far from the net.

Tin Henman: great volley, amazing serve.

He is the closest player to Rafter’s style. He has a really good net play too but his main shot is the serve. It doesn’t take a lot of shots to get in the net.

How to use Henman: the game plan is the same of Rafter, with two differences: the british is slower but he has a better backhand than the Australian player.

How to face Henman: we should play against the british player the same way as we face Rafter.

Cédric Pioline: pretty good at everything.

How to play Pioline: the French player is really well-rounded, so he has no weakness, being able to adapt to any kind of play style. His serve is not so strong but his volley pays off. His baseline game is correct too. We can be offensive or defensive, according to the situation, the rival or the surface.

How to face Pioline: he has no weakness but nothing is perfect, so we should not be afraid of him. As his serve is not so strong, we could defend better, preventing Pioline to get fast in the net. His baseline is correct but not devastating. So, if we keep a long rally with a good baseline player, Pioline could suffer.

Yevgeny Kafelnikov: good at everything but better.

How to play Kafelnikov: probably the best player of the game, Kafelnikov is also well-rounded but some virtues are better than Pioline ones. His serve is stronger and his baseline game is awesome, sustained by a really good forehand and backhand strokes. However his volley is not the best, specially the forehand one, so our Russian player should stay at the baseline.

How to face Kafelnikov: like Pioline, he has no weakness. His serve is powerful but due to his rather normal volley, he will stay at the baseline, where he exploits his virtues. Our goal is to end the rally as soon as possible, because Kafelnikov will get stronger and stronger. If the rally keeps going, our best defensive option is a slice spin shot to restore the situation.

Tommy Haas: great forehand.

How to play Haas: His main shot is the forehand stroke, so we have to use it. In some situations we will need to place faster in order to don’t hit backhand, a clearly weaker shot. His serve is correct but maybe not enough if we try to get in the net really soon. So, a Haas player will usually be in the baseline, trying to dominate with his forehand strokes.

How to face Haas: if his main shot is the forehand, avoid it as much as you can. Send him back the ball to the left, his backhand side. Then Haas will not be able to impose his game.

Thomas Enqvist: great backhand.

How to play Enqvist: just like Haas, he has a main shot but in this case is the backhand. If we play Enqvist we have to exploit it, so we will place every time we can in this position. However, Enqvist has a pretty strong serve that could allow us to get in the net to end fast the rally, especially with a backhand volley. Anyway, his best place is the baseline, where he could prepare a backhand shot.

How to face Enqvist: if we send him back the ball to his right side, Enqvist will not be able to use his backhand hit and that cuts down the danger of a winner shot.

Magnus Norman: fast runner.

How to play Norman: Norman’s only strength is his speed. His shots are not really good, so he’s not able to handle the match as he want. However, due to his speed he can arrive to the ball in a better position than his rivals. That allows him prepare better his shots, balancing his strokes capabilities. He could also get easily in the net after his serve.

How to face Norman: We should dominate the game against Norman. If he doesn’t get in the net at the beginning, we will play the point as we want. But we don’t want a long rally, because Norman catches lots of hits and his options of a winner shot will increase.

Carlos Moyá: powerful strokes

How to play Moyá: his strokes can be really strong but not so accurate. That means we can’t open our hits as much as we would like. So we must focus on hard hitting to provoke a mistake from the opponent, such a high shot or a ball out. The serve and volley style fits well to Moyá but because of his power but it’s not the most effective because Moyá is really slow.

How to face Moyá: we must take advantage from his slowness and his shortage of precision. A long rally is a good option because we will make Moyá run and that would provoke errors. We shouldn’t send him an easy ball or allow him to get in the net. That could change everything.