The Lesson Lounge - Tennis Warrior

Your Link to Professional Thinking!

Receiver’s partner, does what?

When your partner is returning serve in doubles, where should you stand and what is your task? Let’s say your partner is returning serve from the deuce side and you are on the service line on the ad side. Make sure you are about a foot or two away from the self line while positioned on the service line. Your first function is to call the line to see if the serve is in or out. Then, if the serve is in and your partner returns PAST the net opponent, move up to net position.

ALERT:
DO NOT MOVE UP TO THE NET POSITION UNTIL YOUR PARTNER HAS HIT THE BALL AWAY FROM OR PAST THE NET-MAN.

If you move too soon and your partner accidentally hits to the net-man you will leave a big uncontested gap between you and your partner...not good! Your opponent can easily put the ball away between this gap. This is one of the reasons you are standing close to the self line when your partner is returning serve. You must be in position to cover that gap if your partner accidently hits to the net-man. If your partner hits the ball away from or past the net-man then you are free to move up to the net. It’s amazing how many times players run up to the net BEFORE their partner has cleared the ball by the net-man.

The next time you play doubles remember this simple technique and you will save points you would otherwise have lost. If your partner hits the ball past the net-man, MOVE UP TO THE NET. If your partner hits the ball to the net-man, STAY RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE!

Tom Veneziano