Tips for Playing Tennis Doubles

Series Summary

People have been playing tennis as recreation and sport since ancient times. The term “lawn tennis” was coined in 1874 by Major Walter Clopton Wingfield and the game was devised from royal tennis which was played in 12th century France. The game has many rules and has been played different ways over the centuries. Tennis games consist of one to five sets, the winner has to meet a certain requirement (ex. one set or three out of five). Most matches consist of three sets, the winner being the player who wins two out of three sets. To win a set, the player has to win the majority of games within the set, ending with six. Each game is made up of points. The winner of the game has to win at least four points and has to have at least two points difference between their score and the other player’s score.

While many people think that doubles tennis is simply adding a person to each side of the court, this version of the game requires distinct skills which make it fun and exciting. Net play is key, as is working with your partner to plan shots and prepare for returns. In this free video tennis lesson, a professional coach will describe in detail the skills necessary to play doubles tennis, then demonstrate them for your benefit.

Video Transcript

"How are you doing, it's Jason Gerardo in Phoenix Arizona, Gold Key Racquet Club on behalf of Expert Village. What we're going to do today is we're going to talk to you about some doubles strategies and to help you play a little better doubles, a little more aggressive doubles, and kind of help you out, bring your game up to the next level. What we're going to talk to you about is some different strategies to help your doubles game. For example, learning how to read the player a little bit, learning what kind of shot's going to come to you, how to react to those different shots, and also to where to place yourself at the net so you can have that strong, powerful positioning at the net in your doubles play. Secondly, we're going to get into your positioning and your shot selection. So once you start thinking about what you're going to do before a point starts, you have that in your mind, we start telling you what you want to do with your shot, and you go forth with that. In the next clip, we're going to get started."