For the last few mornings, I've been getting up early to log some time with Top Spin 2--mostly to unlock a few single player achievements that I haven't gotten to, but also because I think it's a really great game. I've really warmed to it in the weeks since its release; I suppose I didn't take to it at first because it played substantially different from the Virtua Tennis: World Tour, which was holding steady as my previous tennis fix. The controls, the slower pace, and those pain-in-the-butt risk shots were all obstacles after enjoying World Tour's easy grace. However, the more I play the game, the more I'm puzzled by it.

See, I think I see a pattern emerge in the single player game. It goes like this: In the first set, I'm unstoppable--letting loose with a virtual barrage of aces and cross-court volleys that leaves my opponent--be it Roger Federer or James Blake--a quivering mass of tennis defeat. Then the second set rolls around and, all of a sudden, that same puddle of failure reforms into the second coming of Pete Sampras, Martina Navratilova, and Björn Borg all wrapped up in one tightly wound shot-making tennis mage. They're deadly accurate at the line, aggressive at the net, and don't seem to make a mistake for the rest of the game. At this point, I've got to up my game considerably just to finish it out, sweating through break points, and multiple deuces in the hopes of getting a lucky shot past my opponent.

What's going on here? Is this some extremely frustrating form of catch-up AI, designed to keep the game close? Or is this actually some really sly AI programming by the folks at Indie Built and Pam, recreating the inevitable changes of fortune that seem to always crop up in pro tennis. We've all watched as pros like Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Maria Sharapova completely blow it in one set, only to storm back in the second and take the fight right back to their opponent. Could Top Spin 2's AI actually be emulating the sort of never-say-die spirit that is seemingly ingrained in the DNA of pro tennis players? And if this extremely focused AI was by design and developed--and not just me reading into things that aren't there--then how does this phenomenon differentiate from the so-called "cheap" catch-up AI tactics on display in so many bargain bin-bound racing games?

Certainly there are other possible explanations for why I inevitably blow it in the second set: Lack of concentration, my inability to play effective tennis when playing from the far court position, or just me getting cocky and thinking I've got the game wrapped up after a single set. Still, there seems to be something else going on in that game and, even if I can't exactly put my finger on it, I can't wait to get back to my 360 and see it on display some more.