I personally enjoy playing the game as of now. Some changes in the gameplay need to be done though.
The first thing that bothers me the most is the physic of the ball, particularly the bounce of the ball (especially dropshots, as they don’t seem to depend on the surface, irl a dropshot on clay is way more efficient and the ball bounces closer to where it touches the ground). Another thing that kind of doesn’t make sense are the AI returns. Now the serve is way more balanced than it was when the game first launched but it’s still not enough. When you hit the first serve, if you time it perfectly (white circle shows) you’ll most likely hit an ace, and that’s good. But if you time it green (and also white sometimes), the opponent will return perfectly most of the times, and it doesn’t really feel like the 1st serve is that important in the game while in reality it’s all that matters to keep a service game. So, what I would do is just make it harder (ofc based on difficulty) to hit a perfect/green serve, and if you don’t it hit at least green, it’ll be a 2nd serve, and if you hit it perfectly it’s gonna be an ace or an “easy” return from the opponent that gives you an advantage as it is in real life. So that percentages are more realistic (a 60/70% of 1st serves in is a very good common percentage irl, while in the game I always get more than 90% of serves in and the AI does the same). Lobs are way better than in previous versions but now it’s almost impossible to hit a lob winner and the AI will almost always return with a smash and I mean, I like the animations and everything and I like the fact AI is hitting more smashes but it’s impossible to lob the AI. One thing that really bothers me though that I don’t see anybody addressing is the reactions system. Maybe it’s just me but I genuinely don’t like it at all. I like the possibility to react in a positive/negative way to some points and I know it’s something that has been going on throughout older big ant’s games and I like that, but the way it’s implemented just takes all the realism out of the game. I don’t like players reactions not matching how they’re moving on the court. There should be animations that blend the in-game movement with cutscenes and it’s the only thing that I feel Top Spin has gotten spot on. It’s just much more realistic and it doesn’t take away the realism you’re slowly reaching gameplay wise. Also, one last thing about reactions, I’d love the fact that they had an actual purpose on the game. For example, if you overuse the negative reaction and throw a racket, you’d have to get a warning and if you continue doing so you should get a violation. I really feel this game has immense potential and these are just some of the things that would elevate the game to a higher level. Also, I’ve not really played career mode because it wasn’t really captivating to me after a few hours, so I don’t have anything to say about it but I hope some new fresher changes will be done so that I’ll be more attracted to it but I guess that’s just me so maybe I’ll give it one more shot.