What a pain in the ass this was!! After spending days scouring the internet trying to find out how to unlock King, and trying, what feels like hundreds of different theories, I finally found one that works for me and so hopefully will for everyone else too.
Great King Achievement -
Play Arcade Mode Singles on any difficulty with any character.
In order to play against King you must win every game in arcade mode without dropping a game or allowing a game to go to deuce. You also need to get a medal in 5 of the 6 categories. The medal can be any type, Gold, Silver or Bronze.
This will mean that you must score either an ace or a dropshot/lob at some point so try to do that early on. Once you have the ace or the dropshot/lob just rack up special shots, strokes, volleys and smashes. You only need 1 dropshot/lob or ace to get a bronze medal in that category.
This should put you in a Special Match with King instead of an exhibition with Courier or a Special Match with Duke at the end of the fourth game.
When playing King -
He is good - really good. He plays with the type Strong Backhand so whenever you can, try to hit the ball towards the left side of the court so he has to use his forehand. This will give you a better chance. Other than that, just persevere. It took me 5 attempts to defeat him but it can be done.
Good luck!
Also be careful, when he defeats you, to choose retry and not return to menu as the option or you will need to start the complete arcade mode again.
Hopefully this works for everyone else too.
Edit - Original achievement guide said to play on normal difficulty. I have now edited that to say any difficulty as taz 98 achieved this on easy difficulty.
Thanks to taz98 for this extra information.
25 Comments
I've beaten King on the Tour mode (haven't played arcade yet) this is how I beat him: Choose a player you can easily build a super shot with by repeatedly firing shots into Kings forehand side (I used a character with skid slice, but something like hard-hitter or ground strokes would work fine too), this prevents him from building a super shot of his own, once you've got a super shot available, be tactical with it, hopefully you can score a clean winner with it, but if not King will probably hit a weak return you can smash down for a winner. It's a slow way to win, but it works, I came from 1-3 down to win 4-3 by using this method.
If King hits a slice serve down the middle it means he's probably going to serve and volley, this is probably the only time you'd want to think about hitting the pass down his backhand side, although I found a cross-court slice often worked just as well.
By freedoms stain on 06 Jul 2011 19:26
Play Arcade on Hard difficulty, wins all sets, don´t conceed any deuce, and in the end, the king appears, good luck ;)
By Il Ron on 18 May 2011 18:15
You have to get 5 medals too Ron ...
By Regna777 on 23 May 2011 09:03
It does'nt have to be on normal or hard difficulty i just got it on May 25, 2011 on easy difficulty with Andy Roddick. I play the King 5 times out of 8 times and that was on the easy difficulity hope this helps.
By TAZ98 on 25 May 2011 06:27
Doesn't work on easy, you only end up playing Duke every time.
By WithTheDawn on 28 May 2011 06:13
Playing as Duke on easy works though, got to King that way ;)
By WithTheDawn on 28 May 2011 06:45
it worked on easy for me with del potro, my god was king annoying to beat!!!
By Willy Wet Wipes on 03 Jun 2011 00:51
I got a medal in each category on easy, never lost a game nor went to deuce and I was given a special match against Duke. The only thing out of the ordinary was a double fault during one of my matches.
Simply played again and got King the second time around.
By GamblorAU on 05 Jun 2011 23:16
your not guarenteed to play king even on normal if you succeed in getting everything needed, ive now done it 3 times in a row on normal and have gotten duke each time, and 4 times on easy and got duke each time
By IveABrownThumb on 12 Jun 2011 15:17
By DunderMifflin83 on 28 Jun 2011 19:05
i can confirm you can get it on easy aswell as done it on normal with Fed and faced Duke and then straight after put it on easy with Duke and got the King so finally got the achievement
By IveABrownThumb on 29 Jun 2011 15:48
i tried to do this twice with courier and got the duke then when i played with duke i got the king first time.
By AlonsoFive on 18 Jul 2011 18:56
@KEMO ZIED they are the online ranks.
When playing online you move through the ranking system of G5, G4, G3, G2, G1, F5, F4 etc....
Posted by UnholyDarklotus on 19 Jul 11 11:13:37
By UnholyDarklotus on 19 Jul 2011 11:15
It can't, you play online normally and it unlocks items that u can use in world tour mode
By UnholyDarklotus on 19 Jul 2011 12:36
@ Kemo Zied.
I think you are right about the MAX Serve in every match. When I didn't pull off a MAX Serve in one match, I faced Duke instead of King. Next try I got a MAX Serve in all 4 matches, and faced King. On easy.
Was very hard actually, I had picked my own character with Heavy Spin to build up a Powershot fast, and it still was hard, took about one and a half hour.
By Dr Tinus NL on 22 Jul 2011 12:40
I played on easy, got medals in all six categories, two of each before the final match. Only lost two points, but not games. Ended up facing Courier. Any idea what went wrong?
By Geoffistopheles on 17 Oct 2011 23:49
If there is a threshold on number of medals, it is not 5. Five medals on easy with my created player: Duke. 5 medals, easy, with Duke: Duke. 4 medals, normal, with created player: King.
By Zvetiki on 31 Dec 2011 15:47
Have tried 4 times, on Easy : 3 times exaclty the guide, and another time no point taken, at least 1 max serve per match, 6 medals (4 gold) -> always Duke (with Federer, custom player, Courier, Duke). On Normal first attempt : just 4 medals (no ace and only 1 special), no deuce, 1 max serve at least per match (with Federer) -> King.
By Gakman777 on 20 Mar 2012 00:59
Still trying to beat him but I just got to King on my second try with a created character. Played on Easy, got four silver medals (I just can't get the ace or the lobs), and never went to Deuce but got scored on quite a bit nonetheless. I hit several MAX serves in the first three matches but none in the fourth. It seemed my first time around that it was a Deuce in my third match that crapped on the whole thing. So if you're having trouble getting five medals, I'd just suggest trying to play as well as you can, maybe using a created character, and don't get too put out if you end up in an exhibition a couple times. I think there is definitely an element of randomness to getting this achievement.
By ScreenSingerX on 28 Sep 2012 21:40
I managed to get King to appear at my first time of trying. 5 medals on Easy difficulty (couldn't get lob/dropshot). Took me four attempts to beat him though.
Good solution.
By drabik on 13 Oct 2012 09:33
Thanks Shyning77. You should probably put that as a guide itself.
I did mention at the top of mine that I had encountered numerous methods, none of which worked for me so only that this was what worked for me and may work for others. It worked for me and a few others in the comments.
By UnholyDarklotus on 10 Aug 2013 10:16
The lobs medal is easy,just wait to play seppi,bring him to net and you can lob every point
By FanciestDragoon on 29 Jul 2014 02:48
Thanks Zalexzy, your tips helped me beat King on pc version.
By Zalexzy on 21 Jul 2015 17:55
Got it. Did play on easy, got at least point(s) for 5/6 category on each match. Played using my own player.
About king, before serve, move bit to middle, king moves too - towards miidle. Then move little bit back, search the spot and look that king doesn't move back. You can put usually ace on left corner on 1st game. On 3rd game he cheats so aces are very unlikely/impossible, I think I didn't get any there.
Used moving tehcnique 2nd serve too, I made ball hit top left corner (yes, in middle), I postioned my self bit to left from center line so that king moved little bit further, it usually gave me ball back on easy position, hit it right and run to net, even on 3rd game there was a chance it tried to lob me and I put it away easily.
I finally got this after maybe 30 tries. But I still want to burn this disk, I am so annoyed with king, in this arcade and world tour mode. If there is ever gonna be VT5, if cheating king is there, not gonna buy it.
By Zalexzy on 08 Apr 2012 18:58
Got to Duke on normal yesterday and beat him with Courier in second attempt despite his playstyle being very unconventional.
Today I beat Arcade mode with Courier again on normal difficulty and after a few tries went into a special match against King. Beat this m*f* 2:0 in 5-10 attempts
and the sweetest thing is that this achievement got me the gold medal in the April Sports Gamerscore Target
.
This is what I did in my run when King showed up:
- Won every match by 2:0
- Won only 1-2 love games. Finished other games intentionally on 40:15 or even 40:30 (I think this is somehow the key, too many love games and you face Duke)
- Never went do deuce
- Got medals in 4 categories, no medals for aces or dropshots/lobs
- Got a max serve in every match
I hope this still helps people!
By Orran Durai on 20 Apr 2022 05:35
UnholyDarklotus
TrueAchievements
and the sweetest thing is that this achievement got me the gold medal in the April Sports Gamerscore Target 
. 
DinoRoar
to prevent him from attacking, and rush to the net. The return games are much more difficult but fortunately you don't need to win by a break, so focus on your 2 service games. The game allows you to restart the match as many times as you want
stratege.ru