Tennis Stars Slot

The U.S. Open is on, and this time you’re the star of the center court thanks to yet another animated, interactive sports slot from leading game developer Playtech. Tennis Stars has all the elements you’d expect from a tennis-themed slot: physically fit tennis players, men and women, at the top of their game; all the equipment any tennis player could need to put in a winning performance; and opportunities to qualify for the Championship Bonus round and take home the trophy, namely, a massive jackpot (if you’re playing for real money that is).

Symbols

The symbols in Tennis Stars come with modest animations by Playtech’s standards. Those symbols which don’t feature something tennis-related consist of the trademark Playtech high-value playing cards from 9 to Ace. The highest paying special symbols are the male and female tennis players; land five of these on an active payline and you’ll win 5000 coins. Other special symbols include: tennis shoes, tennis balls, the tennis rackets scatter symbol, and the tennis trophy wild symbol.

Wagers and jackpots

As mentioned above the highest jackpot you can score on a regular spin is 5000 coins. The lowest jackpot is just five coins, which you receive for landing three playing cards of values nine or ten on an activated payline. You can wager on this slot in coin values ranging from 0.01 to 5 in whichever currency you’re playing in (once again this information matters only if you’re playing for real cash). You can also bet up to 10 times per line, thereby increasing your winnings if you get lucky, but increasing your losses if you don’t spin a winner. Tennis Stars is a typical recent release from Playtech in that it has five reels; however, somewhat unusually it has a whopping 40 different winning paylines.

Other ways to win

Even though it’s not a progressive jackpot game, Tennis Stars has numerous special features and bonus rounds offering additional ways to win:

• The Championship Bonus Game – this bonus game is the highlight of the Tennis Stars Slot. It’s triggered by three scatter symbols (the tennis rackets) landing anywhere on the reels after one spin. You’ll be taken to a second screen where you have to choose whether you wish to compete in men’s or women’s singles. Then you have to choose your serving method: flat or slice. Then you have to put your tennis skills to the test in a hard-fought match in which you can gain or lose points, but you, the player, always come out on top. Multipliers are up for grabs during this bonus round.
• Free Games – if you land three wild symbols (the tennis trophy) anywhere on reels 2, 3 and 4, the Free Games round will be triggered. This is basically a twist on Playtech’s trademark Free Spins feature. In this case, everything you win during the Free Games round is multiplied by three. If you land another three wilds during the Free Games feature you’ll also win 10 times your total bet and an extra 15 Free Games.
• The Gamble Feature – you’ll already be familiar with Playtech’s gamble feature from other Sports Slots such as Football Legends and World Football Stars. Basically, after any winning spin you can click on the gamble button at the bottom of the reels and choose whether you think the next card to be overturned in the pack will be red or black. Get it right and you double your winnings, get it wrong and you lose everything.

Music, audio and graphics

On the reels themselves, music, audio and graphics in Tennis Stars are a little underwhelming, given what we know Playtech is capable of. However, we’ll give the creators of this game some extra brownie points for its highly interactive and innovative bonus round.

The Last Word

Tennis stars is a decent, contemporary tennis slot. In our opinion, once you’ve played the Championship Bonus game, there’s not much to keep you spinning if you’re just playing for fun. This is a slot that will probably appeal most to tennis fans and to real money players.