Virtua Tennis 2009 is a sports game in which players can compete with international tennis stars such as Roger Federer or Maria Sharapova. The main mode of the game is World Tour, where the player creates his own character from scratch and strives to achieve first place in the world ranking.

Like the previous part of the game, Virtua Tennis 3, Virtua Tennis 2009 is not a realistic tennis simulation. Three buttons are enough to perform all possible strokes. This is not a disadvantage of the game, but the player must devote time to training his character through training matches, training sessions at the Tennis Academy and 12 different mini-games.
Mini-games include: "Pirate Wars", the player must hit and sink moving pirate ships, and "Shopping Dash", the player must collect items on the tennis court while avoiding balls thrown at him.