The surfaces

The matches between human players can be played on four surfaces in the arcade version: France, Australia, England and United States. The eight tennis men and women available have advantage and disadvantage against the rest of players. However there aren’t match-ups like we can see in fighting games, because the qualities and defects of each player change in every surface. For example, Patrick Rafter is awesome in grass but weak in clay. Haas is strong at clay but weak in grass. So if two players at the same level play at Wimbledon with those characters, the one using Rafter will be in advantage. But the gap between players could completely switch if they play at Roland Garros, thanks to the clay that blow up Haas virtues.

PROPERTIES

Name	Surface	Ball speed	Properties	Best players	Worst players
France (Roland Garros)	Clay	Slow	The ball bounces hardly, so it takes more time to double bounce.	Kafelnik. Haas Enqvist Norman Pioline	Henman Rafter
Australia	Hard	Fast	A closer stage to the US one but the ball bounces lower, so it makes a faster gameplay.	Rafter Henman	Haas Moyá Enqvist Norman
England (Wimbledon)	Grass	Very fast	The grass court is faster and the ball bounces really low. So, the gameplay becomes very fast and the rallies are mostly short.	Henman Rafter	Norman Enqvist Haas Moyá
United States (US Open)	Hard	Medium	The most ‘balanced’ court: the ball bounces high but faster than Paris.	Pioline Kafelnik. Norman	Rafter Henman Haas Enqvist Moyá

TIPS

France: Baseline players used to have more time to react than net players. So they are able to prepare their best shots. Fast players have some advantage too. The player has to be really sure to get in the net. 

Both players stay at the baseline.

The rallies will use to be longer to score a point, due to the court properties. The players have to prepare their points little by little, because it's hard to get a winner shot. So, we need several good strokes to have a winner point possibility. That's why we need to handle all kind of shots: top spin, slice spin, lob, volley, etc.

However, serve players may get in the net with a good slow effect serve that will leave them some extra time to run and will get the rival out, needing some time to get back in the court.

Australia: As a faster surface with low bounce of the ball, serve and volley characters are the most interesting. Baseline players are in disadvantage because they are not always ready to prepare their best strokes.

The player at serve gets in the net to smash.

The rallies are shorter than the clay court ones. A single good stroke could change everything because of the higher speed of the ball. With a good shot from the baseline, we can force an error or a weak shot from our rival, which could allow us to put a end to the rally with a winner stroke, like a volley or a smash.

Wimbledon: Due to the gameplay speed and the short rallies, offensive characters have a lot of advantage. Serve and volley players don’t need several opportunities to make their best hits, while baseline players do.

The player at serve ends the point with a volley.

However, if an offensive player doesn’t finish the job soon and is pushed to the baseline, he will suffer more than a defensive player. It's pretty hard to stay in the baseline, not only because of the speed, but because of the low bounce of the ball. We must pay attention to the bounce: if it's too low we need to move fast in order to get a strong shot. If we hit close to the floor, our shot will be really weak and our rival will punish it. 

US: This court allows both play styles: net and baseline. The ball speed encourages offensive players to get in the net to volley.

One to players plays from the mid of the court while his rival stays at the baseline.

However, as the ball bounces high, baseline players can make their best shot too. This surface is really interesting for ‘all-round players’ as Pioline and Kafelnikov. A fast running player as Norman is well too, because he doesn’t really have super shots but he takes a lot of balls. Other characters will still have some weaknesses.