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What about some tennis puns here? No? Ok.

Far be it from the French to take defeat in one of their beloved sports lying down. Their great tennis hero Henri Leconte may once again have missed out in the major tournaments, but that doesn't stop them hitting back with Tennis Cup 2.

TC2 (as its best friends get to call it!) throws you straight into the atmosphere of the professional tennis circuit. You're represented by an animated tennis player who arrives at the tennis club armed with kitbag and rackets - it's very modern, very up market - you can almost smell it. Graphically it's top-notch, and throughout gameplay, animation is just as good. Consequently, my first impressions were good.

After your player has signed in at the reception desk, which also doubles up as the bar for refreshments, you have a number of choices. These options have been ingeniously drawn into the tennis club entrance hall - it's well laid-out and realistic. On the main screen above you is the announcement of your match. To go straight into the match, just walk your player through the doors and onto the court.

Alternatively, you can choose to watch a demon on the wall-mounted screen, or check out the opposite side of the tennis club foyer where you'll find the entrance doors to the training section. By walking your player through these doors you can choose to train with either a ball thrower or with a teacher.

In terms of content then, it seems that the game couldn't offer much more, but what about its mechanics, the essentials that make or break a good sports simulation? Your first introduction to the control system if you're wise, is the practice option. Tennis 2's control system is the game as Pro Tennis Tour - press the fire button to prepare a shot, then release it to hit the ball - but somehow, it's easier to get to grips with. The ball will be sent in a direction corresponding to that of the joystick. It sounds simple, but as any tennis player knows, it's all in the timing. Certainly you'll have to spend a lot of time in training before the correct system can be mastered for a match.

Once you've got the hang of play control, there's a chance to learn specific shots, with an on-screen animated teacher. The training system is comprehensive, but then it needs to be.

If you feel confident enough to go out and do battle on the court, the menu screen offers a wide variety of options for your game. Choose, for instance, the number of sets (one, three or five), the game speed (slow, medium, fast) and the court type (clay, quick, hard or grass). With a two player option you can play singles or doubles and go on to play international tournaments - eight are offered, plus four Davis Cups and the Masters.

So there's certainly a lot of scope, and once on court you'll find this a fairly realistic tennis simulation right down to line calls and authentic match sound effects. Where it does lose out is in the length of time, it takes to redraw and load again between points. This is frustrating and silly, and really gets in the way of the smoothness and fluidity of the gameplay.

Good animation and graphics combine with an above average control system and plenty of useful options, making this one of the better tennis simulations. The control system does, however, take time to master and the loading between points is slow and frustrating.