Atari, Inc formally announced the release date of it’s latest sports title, currently in development for the Xbox 360. This new game, dubbed Smash Court Tennis 3, will sport the likenesses of various major league tennis starts such as Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova; in addition to cutting edge graphics, improved gameplay augmentations, and the ability to complete online via Xbox Live.

In Smash Court Tennis 3 players will have their skills pitted against no less then sixteen of the best tennis players from around the world. These heavy hitters range from the current international champion, Roger Federer, to Mari Sharapova, Rafael Nadel, and Martina Hingis along with other famous competitors such as Andreas Seppi of Italy and Nicole Vaidisova from the Czech Republic. All of the opponents in Smash Court Tennis 3 will have individual abilities in order to create a well-rounded gameplay experience.

As befitting the first release in this series on a next-gen gaming console, Smash Court Tennis 3 for the Xbox 360 will sport drastically improved graphics along with high quality player animations, lifelike shadows, and skin tinting. In addition, High Dynamic Range rendering will result in a highly realistic and in-depth gaming experience. Smash Court Tennis 3 will also include a wide variety of customization choices which cover everything from type of tennis racket wielded to shoes, hairstyles, skin color, and clothing to allow players to make their own one of a kind tennis star.

Smash Court Tennis 3 also includes a number of newly created gameplay features that allow players, among other things, to have their character adapt to the high velocity serves and well developed skills of their competitors. Other play options for Smash Court Tennis 3 are Tutorial, Arcade, Pro-Tour, and Exhibition with the latter allowing a grand total of four players to compete offline. An online mode has also been implemented in order to give players the opportunity to play via Microsoft’s Xbox Live service in tournaments, matches, and even doubles.

Smash Court Tennis 3 will be released in North America in June of 2008.