I mean there's something here and the game is a lot of fun but the 1.10 AI aggressiveness is a joke. What do you mean France owns nearly all of the Netherlands just after the Bubonic Plague has finished ravaging Europe? What do you mean 100 years after that the HRE consists of 2 nations: Bohemia and France? Why is OPM Ratzeburg with 160 levies declaring war on 13,674 strong Denmark? Without a casus belli!

Releasing 1.10 as the stable version over the holidays must have been a cruel prank by Johan.

Do better.

When I bought this game, I didn't think I'd need to buy 100 euro worth of DLC for it.

The game is getting better from previous editions but one issue persists:
The memory leak.

Since the first edition of TM there has been a memory leak. It's not a massive issue but it does mean that you have to restart the game often. Ridiculously often. The longer you play in a save, the more you have to close and reopen the game.

How they haven't fixed this yet I do not know. I've changed PCs and played on my laptop ad yet no matter what there are constant memory leaks.

The game is honestly so much better than on release but...

The war system is still ass. I'm losing wars because my troops suddenly get teleported across the globe for no real reason.

Do you like management games? Do you like tennis simulations? Well boy do I have good news for you. Whether you're in it to play the tennis or just to manage it, this game is IT. With the recent merger of Tennis Elbow Manager 2 into Tennis Elbow 4, you can experience the fantastic simulation along with manage your own player. Frankly, I have no qualms about calling this the best tennis game out there.

Surprisingly worse than the 2021 version. The changes to shape are fundamentally game-breaking. If your character takes two weeks away from playing tournaments they turn into a vegetable. 3/10.

I've now played this game for roughly 150 hours and I'm pleased to say that I love it.

As far as tennis simulations go it's probably the best out there. Through both a real-time simulation and just quick simulation you truly feel immersed with whom you are coaching. And with plenty of difficulty levels you can either make the game as easy or as challenging as you'd like it to be. In particular I love the various time periods that you can play in. You aren't limited to just the current generation of players; you can play with even the older lads. But how good this game is on its own is not the main reason to like this game...

The main reason this game is so enjoyable is its developer. He's constantly updating the game and will answer any question in what seems like less than 24 hours. If you want to change anything or mod the game in any way he'll be right there to help you. Any bugs are quickly sorted and the contact is frankly incredible.

Comparison with Tennis Manager 2021/2022:
Elbow Manager 2 is honestly the far superior game. The interface isn't as sleek looking but it runs a lot more smoothly and with fewer (no) game-breaking bugs. After a few years Tennis Manager 2022's saves become unreasonably large and the game eats RAM for breakfast. This seems to be true no matter how good your PC is. By comparison, Tennis Elbow Manager 2 doesn't eat your RAM and runs well constantly.

The one area where TM 2021/2022 shines slightly brighter in is in the current roster of players. TM simply seems a little bit more on top off the current players and potential future stars than TEM. Too often I see random nobody's winning Grand Slams as if they were nothing past the 2020's. That being said, there are certain mods on the forums that have a more recent calendar with that works a bit better than the TEM basegame.

If you're struggling over which game to purchase I can boil it down to this:

If you want a good tennis game that runs smoothly and focuses more on the player than the actual managment of an academy - choose Tennis Elbow Manager 2.

If you want a decent tennis game that has a, very good, current calendar - choose Tennis Manager 2021/2022.

If you like tennis, this game is enjoyable. It has just enough content to keep you playing, and more importantly, to have a good experience while playing it.
If you don't like tennis, don't buy this game. It's not a great simulation and it's definitely not similar to other manager games like Football Manager. 39,99€ is vastly overpriced for the content that the game offers.

Edit: Have now played an additional 89 hours. My original review still stands. Game is great if you love tennis. If you don't, game is not great.

tl;dr
If you like tennis, it's enjoyable. If you don't, it's not.

I really like it. Small game with great music and fun gameplay. Worth every penny. Get some friends and you can easily get hours of fun.

Is good.