Tennis Manager 2022

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Tennis Manager 2022 review
Howie Howard

Review

Coaching the greats

Off court action


Tennis Manager 2022 is the newest iteration of a PC sports manager game that simulates management of tennis players as they attempt to become the next mega stars in the sport. Tennis Manager made its initial debut in 2021 when French developer and publisher Rebound CG released the game to much fanfare. The 2022 version comes with several great new additions and updates.

The game has a very familiar make-up when compared to other sports manager type games. Tennis Manager 2022 seems to be patterned after Football Manager and sports games of that ilk. In fact, it closely resembles the soccer management game with the usage of coach press conferences, management of player training schedules and tactics, hiring staff along with using some very in-depth athlete statistics to track their progress. There is a rather simplistic looking 3D depiction of match play-out which is also reminiscent of the graphics model that Football Manager uses in its game. With that said, you won't be controlling the tennis players yourself on the court, but you will be required to do everything else that is necessary to make a tennis academy and its athletes be as successful as possible.

It's all about the money


Starting a tennis management, or should I say coaching career is simple. There's a text pop up tutorial that can be left on or turned off, but the tutorial provides a pretty good explanation of how everything works in game and is well worth sitting through. The tutorial automatically turns off after all the various game screens have been accessed. Tutorials are nice for novice sports managers but once you get into the meat of the game so to speak everything intuitively falls in to place. Tennis Manager 2022 involves managing finances, recruitment, player training, setting tactics and keeping the big bosses and fans happy by completing objectives. In short, you over see the entire academy operation.

The mouse is used for doing everything in game with the keyboard being used only to type in the person’s name when coach and custom player are created. After customising a character, players decide the type of coach you want to be. Will you be the type of coach that can easily motivate their charge and advise them tactically? Or is it better to be a coach that is great at training their charges tennis playing attributes such as having a powerful serve or a great backhand. Custom player creation is basically the same as the coach with the difference being that the custom player will use the different skill sets in match play. If you chose not to create a custom player, you can pick an already created one from an extensive player data base. You can also choose to manage a pre-existing academy.

Am I a Coach, A Manager, Or a Coach That Manages Stuff?


Just like with most all sports manager games there is a lot to sift through in Tennis Manager 2022. I found it rather curious that the player character's title is coach and not manager. Being a coach infers that the person will only handle athletes on field or court training and performance. However, this is tennis and there isn't a full football squad of eleven players on the pitch. So, in that regard a coach managing his academy along with his charge’s physical well-being, skill building, motivation and tactical abilities is understandable. Even with that, the game allows for other staff trainers, physios, coaches, scouts, and office people to be hired and they are the ones that actually handle day to day academy operations. The human manager just over sees everything.



Basically, Tennis Manager involves the day-to-day operations of a tennis academy with emphasis on making your academy be the best in the tennis world. That involves developing or hiring the best players and staff possible. It also involves building academy infrastructure from the ground up and doing that is not easy. The game doesn't have traditional easy, medium, or hard difficulty levels. It is based more on career starting position choices. If the choice is to be a novice inexperienced coach with a young novice and inexperienced custom player, then the road to tennis glory will be a long and difficult one.

It's All About the New Stuff Too...


New for 2022 in Tennis Manager is the custom player creation option, meaning that you can now design your own starting tennis star instead of picking a game created one! There's a new academy financial infrastructure system that adds more realism to the various investment decisions. This adds more income streams for growing academies. Team management tools with a new player contract negotiating system have been added. This makes it easier to keep track of contract negotiations, player progression, equipment contracts and other vital information that is necessary to run a successful tennis academy. Last but not least, a round robin end of season finals tournament has been added so top players in the various divisions can play for the season’s championship. Unlike some other manager series games Tennis Manager 2022 appears to have a lot of new things for this year's edition.

Tennis Manager 2022 is an interesting and very well-done sports management game. There's a lot of depth to it with the only drawback being that it might be put into the niche or fan-boy category of PC sports games. If you aren't into tennis, then Tennis Manager might not be for you. However, for pure sports manager game enthusiasts like myself that enjoy learning about unfamiliar and different sports this title is a worthwhile addition to any manager game collection. The game contains many of the sport’s major equipment producers along with some tennis specific jargon and references that identify tennis as a unique sport. The major stars in the sport are present but due to possible trademark infringements the names aren't spelled like they are in real life. That's okay because I still give Tennis Manager 2022 two thumbs up.


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8.5

fun score

Pros

A very solid tennis manager game that is sure to keep the tennis and sports management enthusiast happy

Cons

Tennis Manager is more of a niche sports title that may not be of interest to the general PC gamer.