corbind
Professional
Over the years I'm sure everyone has played both sides of the coin: singles and doubles. Hard to admit but I used to think that tennis is tennis (singles, doubles, whatever). Early in my life I played singles and absolutely hated doubles (who'd want to stand around half the time playing doubles?). Fast forward two decades and now I play doubles most of the time (who'd want to run constantly playing singles?).
Yet now that I've played doubles a ton it's obvious there's a pretty marked difference in the requisite skills to play either side of the coin well. Not slight -- a lot! The court is different. Strategy is different. Skills used, developed, and eventually honed to play well in either game are (at times) opposite of one another! Sure, I know, tennis is tennis and whatever. Yet to play well or be some of the top performers at singles or top doubles performer, well, to me they are most often two different players.
We all have limited time. We can't spend half the time playing doubles and half singles. Or we could and be decent at both. Or simply spend the vast majority of playing either singles or doubles and fine-tune the skills needed to win. Usually I play with guys who are 3.5 to 4.5 so here is what I see in our rec play and on the adjacent courts. Might not be what you see, but hey, your mileage may vary (insert some sort of disclaimer here).
DOUBLES
Skills
Skills
I play a lot of doubles and it's quickly revealed if there is a singles players trying to play doubles. Often I can tell in the warm-up. Similarly, taking a doubles player and putting him on a singles court can often expose him/her to a totally different game and it can be dicey. So imagine you have 3 doubles players and a guy who plays singles all the time (rarely doubles and hates doubles).
Singles guy playing doubles (with 3 doubles players), singles guy...
Doubles guy playing singles player, doubles guy...
Yet now that I've played doubles a ton it's obvious there's a pretty marked difference in the requisite skills to play either side of the coin well. Not slight -- a lot! The court is different. Strategy is different. Skills used, developed, and eventually honed to play well in either game are (at times) opposite of one another! Sure, I know, tennis is tennis and whatever. Yet to play well or be some of the top performers at singles or top doubles performer, well, to me they are most often two different players.
We all have limited time. We can't spend half the time playing doubles and half singles. Or we could and be decent at both. Or simply spend the vast majority of playing either singles or doubles and fine-tune the skills needed to win. Usually I play with guys who are 3.5 to 4.5 so here is what I see in our rec play and on the adjacent courts. Might not be what you see, but hey, your mileage may vary (insert some sort of disclaimer here).
DOUBLES
Skills
- great net play
- great half-volleys
- quick action from the net to the service line
- serving to the middle
- hitting to the middle
- consistently getting serves and returns in (usually at lower speed)
- coming to the net all the time
- lot of drop shots/lobs
- often Eastern to SW for baseline switching to Conti from service line to net
- mediocre ground strokes
- not big spin or loopy shots
- not huge, powerful serves
Skills
- cannon first and second serves
- cannon baseline strokes
- super SW FW loopy, spinny strokes
- going for broke on serves and returns
- power to pound it out with other baseliners
- not a lot of drop shots/lobs
- often using SW to Western grip for all shots (even when they come to the net)
- mediocre lob at best
- mediocre smash
- rotten net skills
I play a lot of doubles and it's quickly revealed if there is a singles players trying to play doubles. Often I can tell in the warm-up. Similarly, taking a doubles player and putting him on a singles court can often expose him/her to a totally different game and it can be dicey. So imagine you have 3 doubles players and a guy who plays singles all the time (rarely doubles and hates doubles).
Singles guy playing doubles (with 3 doubles players), singles guy...
- warms-up by crushing the hell out of the ball and will take only a few volleys if any
- after his partner serves, he begins immediately retreating to the baseline (where he's comfy)
- after his partner returns serve, he begins immediately retreating to the baseline (where he's comfy)
- if he's actually knows he sucks at the net he'll simply play baseline the entire time (and often more effective than even trying at the net)
- serves rocket first (and second) serves (rather than slowing the speed and getting the first serve in)
- make no consideration to serve down the middle to capitalize on his netman's poaching prowess
- never Serves & vollies
- even when both opponets at net he would rather crush a ball for UE rather than simply lobbing
- loopy service returns get smashed by opponent net man
- way too many low-percentage shots (when other available for typical doubles player)
- poor volley skills make him the target of every possible ball until he gets to the baseline
Doubles guy playing singles player, doubles guy...
- has a mediocre baseline game at best (it may even suck)
- serves second serves like doubles (slower) only to find singles man has a field day crushing them for winners
- used to covering half of 36' doubles = 18' but now has to cover 27'
- that extra 9' makes the "alleys" twice as big and he gets passed a ton by the singles player smoking them DTL or CC
- serves and comes to net but, again, with the bigger alleys the singles guy just passes Mr. Doubles guy all day long
- baseline exchanges are short because singles guy is looping/spinning the ball like mad with nice pace and Doubles guy is not used to that
- doubles guy can't seem to get to the net because singles guy's pinning 'em to the baseline -- so who's gonna win?
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