It would be convenient to regard 2K Sport's Top Spin 3 and SEGA's Virtua Tennis 3 as the Federer and Nadal of tennis videogames. Just as the Swiss and Spaniard are some distance ahead of their rivals on every surface, there's very little of a field to challenge the two games on both the lush green of the 360 and the black hard-court of the PS3. But while Federer's finesse belies his power, and vice-versa for Nadal, there's no apparent similarity between Virtua and Top Spin. The former is very much an arcade experience while the latter is all about realism - so perhaps the comparisons are misplaced (in any event, what would all this make Smash Court Tennis? Novak Djokovic?). Whether you want to draw parallels or not, Top Spin 3 is the best tennis simulator currently available, with the emphasis firmly on simulator - although its position in this camp isn't quite as staunch as it might initially seem.

On starting the game your first port of call should be the Top Spin School that, in fact, is a boot camp of such severity that it makes Nick Bollettieri's establishment look like a UNICEF outpost. Unlike in EA Sports' games there's no virtual buddy/coach equivalent to John Madden or Hank Heney to guide through your first tentative steps on court. Instead, all you get is a ball machine that you will take a quick and lasting dislike to, and a handful of boxes with green and red lights. You'll be seeing the red ones a lot because they're the marks of failure. The usual array of different components are available to practice, such as services, baseline shots and volleys, but after only a couple of 'find-your-feet' drills that introduce the button system - X always for standard shots, circle for top spin and square for slice - the tasks become so focused on hitting a specific square foot of court that they don't really help you get an appreciation for the control system as a whole; that only comes from playing matches. After an extended run of misfires you almost expect John or Hank to wander onto the court, put a sympathetic arm around you, take your racket and lead you off, with your head bowed in disgrace, to try something else that might be more your thing.

After graduating from, or flunking out of, Top Spin School, your route to the game's main career mode goes straight through the player creator. The general industry standard test for these now seems to be whether you can, with relative ease, make the finished product look more like you than the base model you started with - and with the range of male and female options in Top Spin 3's cosmetic surgery simulator you can, just about, (although mine looked more like Rodney from Only Fools and Horses than anyone else). You even get to decide certain personality features, such as whether your character favours a one or two-handed backhand and how emotional they get on court.

Successes in the initial Amateur and Challenge events establish that the way your character will develop through the career mode is via the often used quasi-RPG system of experience points. These can be assigned to any of the eight areas that your player's game is broken down into, such as forehand, service, power and speed. It's a system that's an especially good fit for Top Spin because tennis is a sport of such varying parts and the experience points allow you to develop each of these to make a character with a solid all-round game, or ignore some and focus on others to create, for example, a serve volleyer.

With the basics firmly grasped, the real meat of the career begins with your entry onto the Junior Tour. It's here that you'll be reminded of the frustrations of your boot camp days; the way drop shots and lobs, skills at completely opposite ends of the spectrum, have been squashed together on the triangle button with only varying movements of the left stick to distinguish between them; the fact that, if you fail to meet any of the game's exacting requirements for power, positioning and timing, you won't hit the shot you want and may even miss the ball altogether. It's sometimes embarrassing enough to make you think that the umpire's about to announce that he's going to drop the net for you and break out the plastic rackets and squidgy ball. You'll also be baffled by some of the inconsistencies in the CPU players; they'll regularly return your perfectly placed, 100mph plus serves but frequently fail to punish, or even offer a shot at, your poorer or more conservative efforts - and all of them seem to raise their game twofold for the bigger tournaments. Most of all, however, you'll be drawn in by the uncanny realism that Top Spin 3 creates.

During your time on the Junior Tour you really do feel like a not particularly special player on a satellite tennis circuit. From the sun cracked concrete of Seoul to playing under the glow of floodlights on Chicago's municipal courts, your early matches are witnessed by only a handful of spectators. Despite some obvious repetitions in character models and their slightly disjointed, vocal reactions, they seem much more like a living, breathing crowd than the cardboard masses you see in other sports games. There's no play-by-play commentary but this is a wise omission, as it would only drown out the different sounds the ball makes coming off a racket, which help you identify the type of shot your opponent has played. Apart from the odd moment of ball flicker, the animations are as sweet as strawberries and cream, and when they do appear ungainly it's normally down to the precision required from the control system rather than any graphical inaccuracies. As they tire in the heat, players' faces go red, their shirts become drenched in sweat and the small heart rate meter that appears next to each competitor before each point quickens. Initially it all seems inconsequential, but in Top Spin 3 stamina is a vital commodity and only a small part of the game's tactical side, which is often awe inspiring.

Before each match you need to study your opponent's attributes, searching for any obvious weaknesses. On court you have to decide whether to adopt a safe and tentative approach or force your hand, go for your shots and try to dominate. Control of a rally often passes back and forth across the net as quickly as a ball; at times it will seem like there's no way to defeat a particular adversary, but there always is - you just have to work to find it, and it won't be long before you're so engrossed that you, rather shamefully, start celebrating with a fist pump and a shout of "C'mon!" You'll come to appreciate the subtle differences that each surface, from clay to grass, has on the height and speed of the ball and the subtle differences each player has to their game. Finishing the Junior season ranked in the top three sees you promoted to the Pro Tour, where the real-life superstars top the standings. There are seventeen of these in total, with the likes of Federer, Nadal and Roddick to challenge if you created a male character, and Sharapova, Henin and Mauresmo waiting if you went for a female player. All of the likenesses are solid, although the women come off slightly better than the men, and their individual stylings are well captured, though some of their skill attributes could have been measured slightly better.

The Pro Tour certainly provides a grandiose set of tournaments, such as Madrid, Cincinnati and Rome, and a much more detailed examination of your skills and resilience. It's also the place where the L1 button, which gets you quickly back to the middle of the baseline, starts to become invaluable and, while the strategic depth remains, turning each point into a war of attrition becomes an increasingly attractive option, as the high skill power and accuracy shots are too risky. As a final act in your career, reaching number one in the world grants you access to the Legend level, which is made up of two challenges. The first of these sets you the task of winning all four Grand Slam events, with Dublin deputising for the once again absent Wimbledon, while in the other, Hall of Fame, you must take on a series of icons, including the likes of Borg and Seles on the surfaces of their choice.

While the career is no doubt compelling, its restriction to playing one singles match after another means that it does flirt dangerously with monotony. Doubles contests are relegated to the Exhibition and create-your-own-tournament modes, as well as the basic Quick and Custom online matches where up to four people can play - and there's nothing as alternative as the entertaining mini-games that litter Virtua Tennis 3. On closer inspection, however, Top Spin 3 does make some notable concessions to casual gamers, a few of which even SEGA's supposedly arcade title doesn't stretch to. Matches are short - even on the Pro Tour some only run to two sets of, maximum, seven games each followed by an extended tie break if necessary. The game also isn't afraid to flesh out its roster with a huge number of imaginary players, rather than making you repeatedly take on the licensed pros, and while many hardcore fans would surely have preferred a perpetual tour that accommodated the Grand Slam events the career is simplified by its linear nature. There's even a Mall where you can purchase equipment, clothes and even things as frivolous as new hairstyles and tattoos. Having said all this, each of these features has been constructed with the same exactness that's abundant in the game's dominant characteristics - its control and tactics systems.

The focus on precision means that Top Spin 3 certainly won't be for everyone, and not even for every fan of the sport, but if you have a serious thing for tennis then 2K Sports have a seriously good game for you.

Reviewed by James Hamblin for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).