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On the rare occasions that England does get a bit of sunshine, there's nothing the Brits like better than to take racket in hand and get out there on the grass (or cement if you belong to a less reputable club) for a few sets. And what nicer than a glass or two of Barley water and a punnet of strawberries and cream to round off the day?

Even though the British invented the noble sport of tennis back in the 19th Century (although a primitive version of the game can be traced right back to 12th Century France), we seem to have failed to produce any decent champions of our own - the Americans, Swedes and West Germans have always been the real big names in tennis championship history.

Now's your chance to make amends - and you don't need to get out of your armchair. With Wimbledon fortnight a month or so away, the infamous Sensible Software duo's first fully-fledged 16-bit offering is well timed. Prepare to rewrite tennis history...

Ace is the hardest level to get to grips with, but it has an added bonus - Supaspin: the ability to apply top-spin or back-spin to the ball. A shot hit with top-spin bounces fast and low, while a back-spin shot bounces high and slow. Now you can drop the ball short or whizz it under your opponent's legs.

Tournaments are good for honing skills. All 72 of the world's real tennis tournaments are there to be entered - from the most famous to some of the less well-known, and real-life rules apply in all of them. The tougher the tournament, the bigger the prize money - for example, there's big money to be made at Wimbledon, but don't expect to waltz through to the final!

Alternatively, play a whole tennis season, comprising tournaments from around the world. The object is simply to make as much prize money as possible before the year is out.

Play takes place on one of four types of court - Clay, Cement, Carpet and Grass. Apart from the differences in colour, each surface has its own characteristics - Grass, for example is the fastest. However, unlike any other sports simulation, you can view the proceedings in 3D Tennis from any angle - no matter how extreme. You can zoom in close enough to stand right behind your player, zoom out far enough to play from a helicopter's eye-view, swivel the court round to play from the side, directly above, underneath...

A replica of the Wimbledon scoreboard crops up between games, with all the information you could need. Player names, games, sets and points won - even the length of the match so far.

Any level above Amateur allows you to influence your service. The problem is, serves need to be moderated - for example, a shot to the back of the service area played at full power is obviously going to go out, so it's wise to experiment before committing yourself.

The Umpire strikes back! All the scores and the status of play are read out during the game by John Relf, a real Wimbledon umpire. Judges call line and net faults, and there's even the famous Magic Eye 'beep' when a serve is just out. To add to the aural atmosphere, the crowd is constantly murmuring (even though you can't see them), and reward particularly good points with "ooh"s, "aah"s and thunderous applause.

Don't be put off by the ropey-looking vector graphics - it's impossible to realise just how well they work until you see them move. The animation is not particularly fluid, but the movement of the body and limbs is remarkably realistic, particularly when serving and playing certain shots.

Admittedly most of the almost unlimited number of viewpoints just aren't suitable for play (you can zoom out so far you can barely see the court), but the system's flexibility caters for all tastes.

And while the overall graphic effect isn't particularly atmospheric, a real sense of 'being there' is generated, thanks to the crowd murmuring and cheering, and the calls of the Umpire.

Not to mention the icing on the cake: a spot-on rendition of the BBC's Wimbledon theme tune! Perhaps International 3D Tennis' biggest innovation is the gameplay - no other simulation allows you to place shots so accurately and easily, let alone apply top-spin and back-spin. With much of the legwork handled for you automatically, there's even more time to concentrate on play itself.

The result is a tennis game that's far superior to all that's come before. In the words of Dan Maskell: "Oh, that's excellent!"

Work has only just begun on this one at the time of writing, but it won't take too long to complete. The graphics and gameplay will be identical, and Sensible is attempting to incorporate all the sampled speech heard on the Amiga.

No plans as yet, folks - but depending on the success of the ST and Amiga incarnations, there may be an IBM-compatible Tennis later in the year.