The matches here are short and vicious, built around impossible techniques that shouldn't work but feel earned because you've watched these characters develop for years. It's franchise fan service at its most comfortable, asking nothing of newcomers and everything of people who already live in this world. The pacing stumbles enough that momentum disappears for stretches, but when a point lands, it lands hard.

Ryouma and his friends remain at the Japan U-17 training camp, where the country's top young tennis players compete for national team positions. When a strong expedition team returns from abroad, the coaches pick twenty elite players for further training, all of them high schoolers. The middle schoolers respond by challenging the holders of the lower spots, then set their sights on the Genius 10, the nation's top ten. Unlikely partners join forces, and matches turn on wits, deception and skill, with a place at the U-17 World Cup at stake. The series mixes tennis action with comedy.