Super Tennis, known as Great Tennis (グレートテニス) in Japan, is a sports game developed and published by Sega for the Sega Master System. It was released on a Sega Card internationally, and also on a cartridge in Europe.
The game is a tennis game that can be played by one player against a single computer opponent or by two players in a doubles match against two computer players. On the title screen, one-player games are started by pressing on the first control pad, and two-player games are started by pressing on the second control pad. There are five difficulty levels for the computer opponents. Players can also choose between three speed levels (A for slowest, C for fastest), three control levels (A for least accurate, C for most accurate), and three player types (A for balanced, B for good offense, and C for good defense).
The game is always played with the human players on the lower end and the computer players on the upper end; players do not switch sides of the court between sets. Singles matches use the inner court boundaries, and doubles matches use the other court boundaries. A match is divided into sets, and the player (or team) to win two out of three sets wins the match. A set is divided into games, and the player to win six games by at least a two-game lead wins the set. If the players tie with six points apiece, play continues until a player wins with a two-game lead. The winner of a game is the player to score four points with at least a two-point lead. If both players score three points, the game continues until one player has made two points consecutively. The first point scored in a game is shown as 15, the second point is shown as 30, and the third point is shown as 40.
Games start with a serve where a player tosses the ball in the air and hits it over the net to the diagonally opposite service box (one of the rectangular areas in the center of the court). The player must stand behind the baseline and can only move on one side of the court (right of the baseline on the first serve, then alternating for each serve after that). Each player (or team) takes turns serving on each game, and the ball is also served after a point is scored or an error is made. Before the ball is tossed, the player moves with or . The ball is tossed automatically after a short duration, then the player can hit it by pressing . If a fault occurs (such as hitting the net or failing to land the ball in the opposite service box), the player serves again. If a double fault occurs, the player serves again and the opponent is awarded a point.
Once the ball is in play, players take turns hitting the ball over the net to each other, with a point earned if the opposing player cannot return the ball. The other player gets a point if the player makes an error (such as hitting the ball out of bounds or letting the ball bounce more than once before returning it). The player can move anywhere behind the net using the D-Pad. There are four types of tennis swings that can be used depending on the position of the player and the ball. When the ball has not yet bounced on the court, the player can return it with a smash (an overhead hit) by pressing when the ball is high (typically near the net) or with a volley (a backswing) by pressing when the ball is low. After the ball has bounced on the court, the player can return it with a ground stroke (a underhand shot that hits the ball low) by pressing or a lob (an underhand shot that hits the ball high into the air) by pressing .