Rackets & Rivals is a typical tennis game in which the player controls an athlete on the court. A variety of actions like volley or lob can be performed by pressing buttons with the correct timing in relation to the ball movement. Besides a tournament with several matches against more and more experienced opponents and the training mode, the player can also participate in a free match. Here the match parameters can be set beforehand, e.g. the court surface or the number of sets (one or best of three). One special feature is that the player can complain to the referee.