How does doubles tennis work

Typically, the receiver positions behind the baseline to receive serves and the teammate positions in or along with the adjacent service court. Communication is essential in doubles tennis. As the tennis ball travels from one end of the court to the other end of the court, only one competitor on that team can strike, smash, slice, lob, volley … the ball each time it is returned over the net. For instance, if you and your teammate attempt to return the same ball and both of your racquets touch the ball, the point is awarded to the other team.

However, if only one of the racquets touches the ball, game play continues until a team wins that point. The game is doubles, but that does not imply that competitors must take turns striking the ball. In fact, after the serve a competitor for a team may decide to cover the entire court and execute every return in an effort to win a point. With the exception of returning serves, that is well within the rules and guidelines in regards to doubles tennis.

Every now and then that may be necessary, but if this competitor habitually covers the entire court — expect an aggravated response from his or her teammate.

Basically, singles tie-breaker scoring and guidelines are maintained in the doubles tie-breaker, but there is an exception.

Similar to singles, the two-point rotation starts after the initial point is played out and the serving rotation is maintained. The difference is that instead of two, there are four players participating in the two-point serving rotation.

The serving rotation is maintained above and Player X next in line to serve. This rotation continues until a team wins the tie-breaker. To win the tie-breaker and finalize the set, a team must score a minimum of seven points combined with a two-point advantage. Possible tie-breaker scoring results for the winning team could be , , , , , etc. The rules and guidelines remain intact as stated, but there is a condition.

One male and one female are the conditional members on each team. Canadian Doubles — This alternative of doubles requires three players. This is a two-on-one competition.

In other words, this is doubles vs. One side of the court has two players and the other side of the court has one player. Three sets are played and each player must play singles in at least one set. Team A will serve the first point if it is their turn to serve their team served at After the first point, teams will switch off serving 2 points at a time.

This gets a bit more complicated in doubles. In doubles, teammates must alternate who serves each set of two points. Unlike starting a new set, the order from the set must be followed heading into a tiebreaker. However, if a 10 point tiebreaker is played in lieu of a third set, teams can choose who they want to serve first, as it counts as a new set.

This section will tell you everything you need to know about where to stand in doubles. There are two factors to this: where you should stand and where you are allowed to stand. In general, the serving team in doubles has an advantage. They will be standing on the opposite side of the court from their serving partner. You can see this below:. Although it is uncommon, the rules allow for them to stand on the baseline with their partner if they want. The servers partner can also, by the rules, stand on the same side as their partner.

Both of these options are highlighted below:. There are, however, a couple of rules on where you are allowed to stand when returning serve in doubles. When returning, you must stand in the court that you are receiving serve from.

Your partner must stand in the opposite court. This is seen as an obstruction and is against the rules. This rule is shown in the image below. After the return is hit, teams can do whatever they want. They can switch sides as they please, as long as it is during a point. This typically only happens when it is necessary by defense.

This question comes up a lot. Are you allowed to switch with him? Yes, you can, but it has to be in between sets. The rules state that you must stay on the same side that you start on from the first point for the entirety of a set. This rule is put into effect because it prevents partners from switching sides every point. Think of it this way. If my partner was Roger Federer, I would want him returning on every point.

This rule assures both players each return on roughly half of the points in a set. As I mentioned above, you can switch sides during a point. Once the return is struck, players are allowed to move freely however they please.

And there you have it: all of the basic rules of doubles. This will make them miss often, and will get you involved in the point as a net player. The alley is open on two of these three options when my partner is serving all but the fake. The key to all of these tennis doubles strategies is to stay active at the net and make your opponent hit uncomfortable shots. Between every shot, we should be creating some movement to force the opponent to think about where to hit.

Test different strategies out, and work with your partner to see what works best for your team. Will Boucek. He has played and coached tennis for over two decades. Awesome tips! When does one start to move? The purpose of the pinch is to make the returner feel the pressure to hit a good return. The timing and aggressiveness of the pinch will vary depending on how good your partners serve is, where they hit their serve, and how good the returner is at hitting down the line.

Generally, you want to start moving forward as the serve crosses the net, then move a little towards the center net strap as the returner swings. Great tips and very clearly described and well structured approach.

Excited to give this a go next dubs outing! I have a big league match coming up so this is very helpful I have never done any of the above. Really appreciate your informative lessons. Thanks, Roge Australia. Who has the forehand volley in the middle? How good is the other team? I like to think about it by answering this question… which shot is the higher percentage shot for our team? Usually balls down the middle, for example, should be taken by the player with the forehand volley in the middle since forehand volleys are higher percentage shots.

Lateral movement at the net can force a lot of misses from the opponent. Thanks for the tips. My question has to do with determining duece or ad court preferences. My backhand is so much better than forehand.

People keep asking if I want forehand or backhand? What are they asking? Very practical and feasible to start using next time I play. Nicely done. Really enjoyed reading these and will review with my partner as we try to hone our doubles play. Will, seeing poachable balls go right by me where I lack the confidence to go for it is problem. Good partners, however, make it easier in all regards. I recommend trying some I-formation. This will force you to stand in the middle and be in a position to take any volley around the center net strap area.

You can also try poaching early and making the opponent change direction. This will force a lot of errors from the opponent. Thanks Janie! You made no comment about encouraging each other. I sometimes play with a partner who has absolutely no emotion on good plays and and on errors stares gloomy. Any tips there? Difficult getting lower level partners to do this without sounding like a boss or know it all.

Great tips, well presented, orderly, what-when-where and how with whys. Passing it along as a web site worth signing up for. Glen, Tampa, FL. Thank you for the great read, I will try to use them this weekend … stay safe Johan Scheepers. I am a low grade player playing times a week. I find that by me constantly moving, opponents change their shots and make errors.

I jump up and down and pretend to move to the centre then come back to the side to cut off the pass. These two things get me points per set. Love the tips especially about not defending the line and faking. Good stuff. Going to look for more. Please log in again. The login page will open in a new tab. After logging in you can close it and return to this page. August 27, Share 0.