While Pete Sampras Tennis uses all three control pad buttons, the game play remains simple yet realistic, for its time.

The most usual tactic is to lure the opponent into the net (by making low shots), and then expect he bounces against a mid-height ball close to the net, or if he manages to return, call in a long lob, leaving the opponent with no chances of returning the ball.

Since it shares the same button as dives, and a good top spin shot requires additional power control (by either pressing up or down), Sega's 8-direction pads, if broken or dirty, or even simply if the user's finger slipped, top spin shots often ended up turning into a dive, the ball passing uselessly by the helpless player.

Although the surfaces are not sufficiently differentiated to impinge on AI or player tactics, the bounce of the ball is lowest on Grass and highest on Clay, with Hard intermediate.

There are several places where matches and tournaments in the Huge Tour take place, and they are accurate on the kind of surface that tournament actually uses: London (Wimbledon) is played on grass, Paris (Roland Garros) on clay, New York (Flushing Meadows) on hard court, etc.

By inserting the Zeppelin password, two extra modes are unlocked: Crazy Tennis and Huge Tour.

The single-player only game mode, called World Tour, is a one set only, composed by 18 rounds across the globe.

There are both men, women and mixed tournaments, for the highest rewarded a minimum place in the ranking is required.