Tennis Brainfood- Issue 43
Are there times you are on the returning side of doubles and feel like your opponents are holding serve easily? Does it feel like your opponents are on top of the net and putting consistent pressure on you during your return games?
When you feel like you are having a hard time breaking your opponent’s serve in doubles and they are putting away a lot of volleys into the open spaces, it’s time for a change. Too many doubles players spend too much time in a traditional 1up/1back formation, regardless of what is actually happening in the match.
Being in a 1up/1back return formation certainly has its advantages when you can put some pressure on a weaker serving team, but if you are hoping to break the serve of stronger teams, making the change to a 2 back formation can give you that slight advantage you need.
Returning in a two back formation means both the returner and returners partner are back on the baseline to start the point. There are variations where the returner's partner can be standing in between the baseline and service line, but for this post I am just going to focus on the traditional two back return formation.
This will put you in a more defensive position to start the point, but starting in a defensive position doesn’t mean you have to remain in that defensive position. By returning two back you open up more options for yourself and take away some options from your opponents.
One option is to lob the return of serve. Even if it’s not a great lob, since the returner's partner is already starting back on the baseline, you have a higher percentage chance of being able to return an overhead. One overlooked aspect with this strategy is that at a lot of levels of tennis, players do not like hitting overheads. So you might be able to take advantage of an opposing team that struggles with overheads.
Another great benefit of the two back return formation is that the serving team will have a harder time putting away a volley. When the returning team has one player up on the service line, it is much easier for volleys to be hit into open portions of the court or just directly at the toes of the returners partner. By being 2 back you have more time to react to anything the serving team does during a point.
But just because the purpose of the 2 back return formation is to start on the defense, it doesn’t mean you have to stay on the defense. You can also use great strategies like lobbing during the point and then coming to the net to take control of the point. Also if the server stays back on the baseline during points, you can wait for a shorter ball then attack and move forward as a team to get the advantage and have both you and your partner at net.
There are so many options and varieties of strategies you can use when starting in the two back return formation. So next time you are struggling to break serve against a strong serving team, switch things up and start playing two back.
What’s the worst that could happen?
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