Summer is creeping up on us again and Mario and co are preparing their backhands, serves and tour bus as Nintendo are planning on to promote Mario Power Tennis all around the country!

After first wowing us with his tennis skills on the N64 (and since then doing just about every other sport) Mario is set to hit the courts again this summer. Even though the game hits stores next Friday Nintendo have teamed up with the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) to promote this game during the summer.

The Mario Power Tennis tour will hit Birmingham (6-12 June), Nottingham and Eastbourne (13-18 June) and Wimbledon (20 June � 3 July), the world's greatest tennis championship. The deal with the LTA means that during the events there will be Nintendo products advertised, Nintendo will be profiled in the brochures and on the websites and as of March they will be sampling at the top thirty tennis clubs.

In the run up to Wimbledon Nintendo will be teaming up with the LTA during the Nottingham 10tele.com Open. During the event there will be a 10m x 10m branded gaming tent, large Nintendo banners and gaming pods for all to play on. In a somewhat more camp fashion, Nintendo characters (which presumably means people dressed up as them) will be on hand during the queuing, to cheer people up.

The situation will be similar during the Hastings Direct International Championships and the Birmingham DFS Classic.

'ACE Magazine', a LTA publication, will be advertising the game and offering competitions to win Nintendo hardware and software in the upcoming months.