Tennis Cup is a split-screen tennis game with the camera closely positioned at the athlete's back. The available playing modes are exhibition match (either single or double), training, the Davis Cup or the four Grand Slam tournaments. The player either controls one of the 32 available tennis athletes or creates a new one. Then there are 30 points to divide between abilities (e.g. forehand or volleys). This athlete can be saved to disk and further improved during the course of time. For exhibition matches, the opponent can be built the same way.

The game includes various hit types, depending on the player's position and timing. The direction of the ball can also be influenced when performing a shot. There are four different surfaces, influencing the gameplay, and three difficulty levels.