Doubles takes your game onto another level!

I've confessed elsewhere that doubles was my first love. Part of this is to do with the fact that in Britain that is all we played. It was social doubles at that. I don't remember getting that excited about winning matches. It was just a good laugh win or lose!
 

To be a competent doubles player you must like speed, risk and precision. There may be more categories to consider than this, but when you have these three you are well on the way.
 

Pressure means risk time!

Speed is of course asking you to move very very fast, faster than you would do on a singles court, but the real cause of it is the ball travelling not only faster, but in a wider range of places on the court than in singles. You will often be at net, and you'll be contacting the ball half the time after it leaves the opponent's racket than if it had been in singles. You must love the challenge of this speed, the urgency, the reactivity, the anticipation of speed all the time.
 

Are you the doubles type?

With all of this speed, playing against opponents who love speed too, you will have to take risks on every shot. For example, a standard strategy on return of serve is to hit the ball as hard as you can. Even if you don't get the ball back cross court, you're not going to give an easy volley to the net player. If you float the ball back, as you might do in singles, the net player will surely kill the ball, making you unpopular with your partner. When you are serving, you know that your return player is thinking exactly that, so you MUST hit the ball in an area that he cannot hit freely from. That is definitely a higher risk than in singles, where the ball manouevring on serve is more reasonable.
 

With all this speed and risk, there is plenty of need for precision. On the serve we've already said that first, and indeed second, balls must be hit in an awkward place for the returner. That serve must be placed on a sixpence. You aren't just going to roll it in and watch the opponent float if back.

In doubles the court is a little bit bigger, but covered by two players. The players must run shorter distances to get to the ball. That means you know that your opponent is going to get his racket on the ball most times. You must hit so precisely that an opponent will be dealing with balls threaded through needles, impossible shots one after another. The margins are tiny.
 

Empowerment through teamwork

So that is the tennis side of doubles. Of course the best reason for playing doubles is that suddenly it becomes a team game. The BIG error in tennis education is treating tennis purely, essentially, as a singles game, an individual game. The media has taught us to worship the Singles Champions of the world, and the Doubles Champions are almost unknown and unseen.
 

Goalset for the team, not just for yourself

The doubles pros are married to each other for 35 weeks a year, experiencing all the highs and lows, but doing it as a team. It is much more fun, much easier doing it as a team. Of course the top singles players compensate for this by creating a team around them - coaches, trainers, mentors, parents, girlfriends. The team ethic is essential for a top tennis player.

In a club situation we get club matches. When we win a doubles match, is it because we have won for the club, or because you have won with your partner? I think you'll find that the latter is more important. You'll want to play with him again! The thrill of winning doubles, together, is stronger than in singles. You have taken responsibility for not only yourself, but your partner too. You chat together and work it out together.

Does your club deliver singles only?

This year for the first time I played some senior doubles tournaments with my son. Before his game had been too junior, too fragile, for doubles. Playing with my son brings the greatest joy imaginable, not just because we know each other's tennis inside out, but because we trust each other, and know that we're on a journey together. Wow!
 

Not everyone is a born, "team" player. But even my dedicated singles players in squad tennis must learn to play the team card. They must support their squad colleagues, and they will be supported back. It's not artificial, it's human.

Being in a team is the best.

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