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Which side to stand on?
Returning serve is where you opposition can gain an advantage over your weaker shot, which for many tennis players is their backhand. Backhand strength is prioritized as a doubles tennis fundamental strategy for choosing which side you play on.
The basic recommendations for a doubles team are:
Two right handed players – the person with the stronger backhand should always play the ad court (the left side of your court)
A left handed and right handed player combination – the left handed player plays the ad court so wide shots on both side can be returned by a forehand.
Two left handed players – the person with the strongest backhand plays the deuce court (the right side of your court)
The reason backhand strength is important in teams that aren’t a left-right combination is because the easiest shot for most tennis players to hit are cross-court shots. Hitting down the line can be more of a challenging shot to hit and when under pressure many players automatically hit cross court, it feels more natural.
In doubles, cross court rallies often dominate when players stay at the baseline, so if you have a player with a weak backhand there is a high chance they will loose cross-court rallies. Be sure to set yourself up in a winning position from the beginning.
Returning
When you return serve, the fundamental and most common place you should return the ball in doubles is cross-court, back to the server’s side of the court.
Returning cross-court prevents (in most cases) the net player from poaching your return for an easy winner. Poaching is when the net player moves to the middle or other side of the court in doubles and hits a shot intended for the player at the baseline.
If you notice the net player creeping across to the middle of the court waiting and attempting to poach your returns what you can do is aim to hit one of your returns down the line where the net player isn’t. Don’t use this tactic too often and become predictable though, but do it just enough times to let that player know that you can hit your return anywhere. Most the time returning down the line only once is enough to stop an over eager poacher, use your own discretion as to how often you should play this tactic.
If you are playing in a tournament, or in a serious competitive environment and you play an opposition team who has a weak player at net, forget the above rule and pass them, lob them, volley to them, a down the line return will work well for you. But if any tactic becomes used too often you can become predicable and it can fail, so use your own judgment.
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Source by Lillian Haase