Do you ‘like’ many of your doubles partners?

[socallefty]

Amongst the players who play a lot of doubles, I was wondering if you like playing with a majority of your partners typically or only with a few of them? I’ve always felt that I like playing only with 20% of my doubles partners. This year I played 101 doubles matches with 42 different partners and ‘like’ playing with only 6 or 7 of them. The good news is that my favorite partner is my wife and I typically play mixed doubles (or against two guys) only with her - most of my matches are men’s doubles.

My winning % is about 68% in doubles for the 15 years I’ve been keeping track and it doesn’t vary much from year to year - so not ‘liking’ playing with most of my partners is not because I’m losing matches with a lot of them. Some of the reasons I don’t like many of my partners is because:

#1 reason is making easy volley errors, easy overhead errors and/or not being able to put away most of their putaway volleys for winners. I hate the service games where my partners botch 2-3 easy volleys I set them up for.
#2 reason is having no ability to adapt to opponent strengths/weakneses, changing conditions, older balls etc. and often being completely unaware of what is happening. Even if I talk to them about what I see happening, there are some who have no ability to adapt their game or tactics.
#3 reason is players who don’t care about winning and seem to give up without a fight if we lose a set or if they feel they are not playing well or if they start feeling like the worst player on the court.

Other reasons are there of course like not liking their personality, those who don’t like to communicate a lot with me, those who cheat (rare) and need their linecalls changed, those who make a lot of mental/shot selection errors, those who play a low-% game including a low serve-% and many return errors, those who drink beer during play and play worse in long matches, those who alley-guard and leave the middle wide open, those who prefer finesse to power, those who always choke at the end of close sets etc. I don’t mind if they don’t poach much or make execution errors on difficult shots although it is a pleasure to play with aggressive net players who don’t make too many unforced errors and serve a high-%.

I am much happier playing singles, but can’t play more than 3 singles matches a week physically and play doubles on the days when I’m not playing singles or practicing. Doubles is still more enjoyable than working out in some other manner! I like a lot of these players when we socialize after matches and the ‘dislike’ I talk about is only related to their doubles play.

I often wonder how many of them like playing with me also. I don’t show any negative emotions or body language during matches and am usually very positive towards my partners as I know that we can win only if my partner is motivated to play well. But sometimes I feel lIke guys who make a lot of unforced errors and bad decisions prefer playing with someone who is similar to them and not a high-% player like me as often they feel the pressure of being the one on the team making most of the errors even if I try to be positive. I think I would like more of my doubles partners if I played with more partners who are better than me, but unfortunately the guys in my social group are mostly worser than me and that is the main problem. Every year, I wish that I could recruit better players to my group, but the young ex-college player types prefer to hang out with their own age group typically and so it is an ongoing challenge to get solid 4.5s who are young to play regularly with an older group of guys. My wife says she likes about 50% of her doubles partners, but she is often playing ladies doubles with women who are as good or better than her.

Just an end-of-year rant while looking at my match record/notes from the past year - more to let off steam rather than get a response. But I wonder if others like a lot of their partners or if my comments resonate.

 

[tennis3]

I can’t believe you found 6 or 7 that you like

 

[Rosstour]

This is why I don't play doubles a lot lol

 

[kevin qmto]

I don’t think I’ve ever liked any of my doubles partners. Probably why I never play doubles unless it’s the only option.

 

[johnmccabe]

I have much lower expectations and like probably half of them. If I find two things I like about my partner, it's a lucky day. Partner messing up put away volley repeatedly during my service game pisses me off the most.

 

[mixtape]

I appreciate the rant. I like about half of the people I get paired with. I'm usually thinking too much if they will like me... lol

 

[Jono123]

Amongst the players who play a lot of doubles, I was wondering if you like playing with a majority of your partners typically or only with a few of them? I’ve always felt that I like playing only with 20% of my doubles partners. This year I played 101 doubles matches with 42 different partners and ‘like’ playing with only 6 or 7 of them. The good news is that my favorite partner is my wife and I typically play mixed doubles (or against two guys) only with her - most of my matches are men’s doubles.

My winning % is about 68% in doubles for the 15 years I’ve been keeping track and it doesn’t vary much from year to year - so not ‘liking’ playing with most of my partners is not because I’m losing matches with a lot of them. Some of the reasons I don’t like many of my partners is because:

#1 reason is making easy volley errors, easy overhead errors and/or not being able to put away most of their putaway volleys for winners. I hate the service games where my partners botch 2-3 easy volleys I set them up for.
#2 reason is having no ability to adapt to opponent strengths/weakneses, changing conditions, older balls etc. and often being completely unaware of what is happening. Even if I talk to them about what I see happening, there are some who have no ability to adapt their game or tactics.
#3 reason is players who don’t care about winning and seem to give up without a fight if we lose a set or if they feel they are not playing well or if they start feeling like the worst player on the court.

Other reasons are there of course like not liking their personality, those who don’t like to communicate a lot with me, those who cheat (rare) and need their linecalls changed, those who make a lot of mental/shot selection errors, those who play a low-% game including a low serve-% and many return errors, those who drink beer during play and play worse in long matches, those who alley-guard and leave the middle wide open, those who prefer finesse to power, those who always choke at the end of close sets etc.. I don’t mind if they don’t poach much or make execution errors on difficult shots although it is a pleasure to play with aggressive net players who don’t make too many unforced errors and serve a high-%.

I am much happier playing singles, but can’t play more than 3 singles matches a week physically and play doubles on the days when I’m not playing singles or practicing. Doubles is still more enjoyable than working out in some other manner! I like a lot of these players when we socialize after matches and the ‘dislike’ I talk about is only related to their doubles play.

I often wonder how many of them like playing with me also! I don’t show any negative emotions or body language during matches and am usually very positive towards my partners as I know that we can win only if my partner is motivated to play well. But sometimes I feel lIke guys who make a lot of unforced errors and bad decisions prefer playing with someone who is similar to them and not a high-% player like me as often they feel the pressure of being the one on the team making most of the errors even if I try to be positive. I think I would like more of my doubles partners if I played with more partners who are better than me, but unfortunately the guys in my social group are mostly worser than me and that is the main problem. Every year, I wish that I could recruit better players to my group, but the young ex-college player types prefer to hang out with their own age group typically and so it is an ongoing challenge to get solid 4.5s to play regularly with an older group of guys. My wife says she likes about 50% of her doubles partners, but she is often playing ladies doubles with women who are as good or better than her.

Just an end-of-year rant while looking at my match record/notes from the past year - more to let off steam rather than get a response. But I wonder if others like a lot of their partners or if my comments resonate.

I play dubs in quite a large pool of players for a number of years. I know all their games and can usually adjust mine if need be. So if Im playing with a blaster, I'll be more conservative etc.

The only people I find slightly annoying are those who like to 'coach' their partners whilst conveniently overlooking their own flaws.

 

[MaxTennis]

I generally like the partners I play with since we’re friends outside of tennis and I have an overall plug and play game that’s suited to doubles.

Whether they like me because of my trolling or antics, that’s a different story

 

[socallefty]

I generally like the partners I play with since we’re friends outside of tennis and I have an overall plug and play game that’s suited to doubles.

How many partners do you have in a year?

 

[MaxTennis]

How many partners do you have in a year?

Across mixed, 18+, and combo, maybe 10?

I will say my mixed partners like me the least because I screw around the most in mixed and hit dumb shots lol

 

[ey039524]

My son is my favorite partner, but other than for the most obvious reason, he's lefty, has good volleys/overhead, and poaches often. When he plays w anyone other than me, he knows how to be a good partner by using positive talk/high fiving after points, never negative criticism. However, when we play together, it's always the highest order of shvt talk to the point where outsiders that don't know us have commented (haha).

For anyone else I play w, I'm the most aggressive net player almost every time. Even though I try every time I play, it's always about having fun. I don't care about winning, but I do care about playing badly.

In high school, he's had a hard time finding a partner at his level. Very few kids know how to play high level doubles. This year, he has a decent partner that should be a good upgrade from his first 3 years.

 

[socallefty]

Across mixed, 18+, and combo, maybe 10?

I will say my mixed partners like me the least because I screw around the most in mixed and hit dumb shots lol

It gets a little harder when you play with 30-50 players every year to find good doubles partners as often you are playing with them just once or twice a year and there is a much broader variance of levels. Generally we have 3 or 4 courts of doubles twice a week and I always try to set up competitive matches on every court in our group. I will pair myself with 3.5 and 4.0s often to keep matches from becoming one-sided on multiple courts depending on how many 4.5s, 4.0s and 3.5s sign up.

 

[FuzzyYellowBalls]

I like all of them I see it as a challenge and a puzzle to 1. figure out their personality and 2. maximize their ability or minimize their weakness.
If it's serious usta team tennis I am counted on to carry 1 doubles lines with whatever strange partner my captains place me with.

I'd love to have your volume of matches, but I still managed maybe 18 different partners this past year.

Most partners love me who are below my level because I am dragging them to the win column, all those better than me love me because I go into setup mode catering to their better strokes, I don't mess up, and my serve is lefty and reliable so we aren't losing serve.

Some below my level don't like when I do trick shots or silly moves because it looks like showing off, but that's when playing like 2 levels down in social mixed, so I had one partner laughably say to me really that no one will want to play with you if you keep doing that. I almost showed her some texts from my at level partners who are all positive after a match. Admittedly though I do get a little cheeky if I'm playing down and the other team is cussing and challenging line calls and just too serious because to me it's a joke.

 

[Jono123]

Ive had many partners as we typically rotate over a couple of hours, I also play at different local clubs so variety is never an issue.

Ive learnt to focus on my own game rather than worry about my partners.

 

[FuzzyYellowBalls]

Ive had many partners as we typically rotate over a couple of hours, I also play at different local clubs so variety is never an issue.

Ive learnt to focus on my own game rather than worry about my partners.

That's the mentally healthy way to do things, but I like to trick it up a little and when a team is counting on me to win a line I have to manage the whole court, all of the other 3 minds on the court, some examples.....

Partner is a hard swinger, hard serve hitter, not ideal for doubles, but I know if he or she stops swinging hard the whole game will probably fall apart. So I have to constantly say keep swinging hard, that was a great swing you'll get it next time, etc, don't slow down, keep going for it blah blah

If they are nervous, I have to do small talk to get their mind off the magnitude of the insignificant rec match they have built up in their minds.

If they are a talker, I have to shut up and let them talk, let them lead.

If the other team has a gung ho person who is really intense and super focused, I have to small talk that opponent's partner to annoy the gung ho person, I have to let the gung ho person see that I am relaxed and pretend to show I don't care about winning or losing, remove the satisfaction of competition from their mind, throw them off.

My game will be fine no matter what, so the fun is maximizing everything to my partner's and mine advantage.

 

[TTMR]

Amongst the players who play a lot of doubles, I was wondering if you like playing with a majority of your partners typically or only with a few of them? I’ve always felt that I like playing only with 20% of my doubles partners. This year I played 101 doubles matches with 42 different partners and ‘like’ playing with only 6 or 7 of them. The good news is that my favorite partner is my wife and I typically play mixed doubles (or against two guys) only with her - most of my matches are men’s doubles.

My winning % is about 68% in doubles for the 15 years I’ve been keeping track and it doesn’t vary much from year to year - so not ‘liking’ playing with most of my partners is not because I’m losing matches with a lot of them. Some of the reasons I don’t like many of my partners is because:

#1 reason is making easy volley errors, easy overhead errors and/or not being able to put away most of their putaway volleys for winners. I hate the service games where my partners botch 2-3 easy volleys I set them up for.
#2 reason is having no ability to adapt to opponent strengths/weakneses, changing conditions, older balls etc. and often being completely unaware of what is happening. Even if I talk to them about what I see happening, there are some who have no ability to adapt their game or tactics.
#3 reason is players who don’t care about winning and seem to give up without a fight if we lose a set or if they feel they are not playing well or if they start feeling like the worst player on the court.

Other reasons are there of course like not liking their personality, those who don’t like to communicate a lot with me, those who cheat (rare) and need their linecalls changed, those who make a lot of mental/shot selection errors, those who play a low-% game including a low serve-% and many return errors, those who drink beer during play and play worse in long matches, those who alley-guard and leave the middle wide open, those who prefer finesse to power, those who always choke at the end of close sets etc. I don’t mind if they don’t poach much or make execution errors on difficult shots although it is a pleasure to play with aggressive net players who don’t make too many unforced errors and serve a high-%.

I am much happier playing singles, but can’t play more than 3 singles matches a week physically and play doubles on the days when I’m not playing singles or practicing. Doubles is still more enjoyable than working out in some other manner! I like a lot of these players when we socialize after matches and the ‘dislike’ I talk about is only related to their doubles play.

I often wonder how many of them like playing with me also. I don’t show any negative emotions or body language during matches and am usually very positive towards my partners as I know that we can win only if my partner is motivated to play well. But sometimes I feel lIke guys who make a lot of unforced errors and bad decisions prefer playing with someone who is similar to them and not a high-% player like me as often they feel the pressure of being the one on the team making most of the errors even if I try to be positive. I think I would like more of my doubles partners if I played with more partners who are better than me, but unfortunately the guys in my social group are mostly worser than me and that is the main problem. Every year, I wish that I could recruit better players to my group, but the young ex-college player types prefer to hang out with their own age group typically and so it is an ongoing challenge to get solid 4.5s who are young to play regularly with an older group of guys. My wife says she likes about 50% of her doubles partners, but she is often playing ladies doubles with women who are as good or better than her.

Just an end-of-year rant while looking at my match record/notes from the past year - more to let off steam rather than get a response. But I wonder if others like a lot of their partners or if my comments resonate.

But this is the only reason any rational person would play doubles.

 

[puppybutts]

My winning % is about 68% in doubles for the 15 years I’ve been keeping track and it doesn’t vary much from year to year - so not ‘liking’ playing with most of my partners is not because I’m losing matches with a lot of them. Some of the reasons I don’t like many of my partners is because:

#1 reason is making easy volley errors, easy overhead errors and/or not being able to put away most of their putaway volleys for winners. I hate the service games where my partners botch 2-3 easy volleys I set them up for.
#2 reason is having no ability to adapt to opponent strengths/weakneses, changing conditions, older balls etc. and often being completely unaware of what is happening. Even if I talk to them about what I see happening, there are some who have no ability to adapt their game or tactics.

Are you trying to move up in level or are you happy where you are? 68% win rate is a hard place to be because you're probably going to be slightly better than everyone else and naturally have more things to get frustrated about but maybe aren't quite good enough to play at the next rating. If your goal is to move I can only suggest try finding a steady partner to grow with. If your goal is to stay, you're just going to have to accept the mistakes you see at your level and enjoy being on court.

I don't play a lot of doubles but have generally liked all my doubles partners. They usually have at least one strong shot for which I can wait for an opportunity to close on. They are friendly and keep things light, not being too serious neither when I am not playing well nor when they are not playing well.

 

[socallefty]

Are you trying to move up in level or are you happy where you are?

I play in a private tennis club with a lot of members and try to play with the best players I can get to play with me - as I said in the OP, it’s an ongoing struggle to get better players for doubles. I haven’t played USTA in a long while if that’s what you mean by moving up in level. I take 1-1 lessons every week and practice at least once a week in addition to playing singles and doubles matches - so, I am still trying to improve or at least maintain my level in my mid-fifties.

 

[Roforot]

For me, I focus on the league and tournament partners. I played mixed w/ 12 partners; I really liked playing w/ 5 of the girls; was neutral with 4 and disliked the experience with 3. For men, I played with 3 that I really liked, and 5 that I'd describe as neutral. It is not just winning or losing that colors the experience but also in how the partner handles adversity. One girl started getting passive-aggressive after a loss saying to the other team that she thought they were sandbagging ("I've never seen a 3.5 or 4.0 woman with such a great backhand...") After wards she rooted against the "cheaters." Another girl was chill and fun during our practice matches, but turned into a seething mess of nerves during our match. I could not reach her or talk about what was going on or what to do? She literally walked off and away turning her back. Then I had a self-defeating partner where I started to feel like I was playing against 3 not two opponents. We win an easy set 6-0, and she then starts double faulting and missing returns in the net or a foot out on a dink serve where all she needed to do was bunt it in and let them miss or let me poach their return. We won our matches but I felt it was in spite of her.

Most partners I'm neutral on and I can adjust my game or play.
The partners I look forward to playing with have a great attitude where even if we lose the first set, neither of us worry. They also tend to comfortable and good at the net to put away any balls I set them up with. Finally, they provide useful feedback. Now worthless feedback is something like "It's break point, we need to get this return in." ***** I know the score! Useful feedback is, "It's breakpoint, I've noticed he tends to poach on these situations, try going down the line or lobbing." A lot of times I get locked in my game plan and when it's pointed out to me, I can see these patterns.

Social play is much too varied to count and tennis is often secondary. However I'm realizing that it's better to play with partners I like/enjoy playing with when the matches "count." Now in league play, a lot of times we have to fill players based on availability. Sometimes we also have to play w/ weaker players which makes for a neutral experience (fortunately we don't have delusional divas who are weak at tennis but think their partners are letting them down). A fair # of the players I really liked teaming up with also happened to be players I first faced off against as opponents.

 

[Moon Shooter]

I don’t mind when my partner lacks skills. But I don’t like when they don’t try their best (don’t hustle) or choose start a match with injury with me as their partner when they could have let the captain know before hand. I always give my best effort. Sometimes I play poorly but that is to be expected with my rating. I am happy to hear advice or strategy but don’t really want to hear how I can try to change my forehand stroke mechanics mid match. Especially from players not clearly better than I am.

I also am not a fan partners telling me “we need to win this point [or game]!” It is either obvious, or simply not true and for whatever reason such nattering annoys me when I am trying to focus.

 

[esgee48]

Depends. I get along with many good and bad male partners. If they want to talk, I am ok with it. If not, ok with that too. In mixed, I generally have good female partners to choose from since I try to be laid back. In match play, intensity is much higher. Don’t know if I ever liked my partner (excluding Da GF). All those years and I find that I dislike playing with people that don’t try. I know who those people are and don’t play with them. Rather play against them.

 

[Alcawrath]

But I wonder if others like a lot of their partners or if my comments resonate.

I definitely like and get along with some partners more than others, but I have had exactly one partner ever I dislike so much that I'll never play with him again. In addition to playing terribly, he was overly critical and made me feel like crap. For me it comes down to support and confidence. Tennis is hard enough, and no one ever is actively trying to miss a shot. The one type of person I can't play with is one that actively criticizes or erodes my confidence mid match. I don't mind getting strategy help or even an observation on my technique, but it's got to be positive and uplifting.

 

[RaulRamirez]

At this point, I'm not in a league, and somewhat reduced by health concerns, 95% of my tennis play is doubles, and with a loose group where we switch teams after each set.

Generally, outside of winning considerations ( There's not much at stake, as competitive as I naturally am),
I like partners who understand that you try to complement your partner's game. Play hard, don't try to do it all themselves, be positive. Maybe, 60% within this informal group meet that standard.

 

[Hurting Elbow]

A partner in their own time zone is the worst. I'd like to hear professional doubles players answer this question.

 

[Purestriker]

Amongst the players who play a lot of doubles, I was wondering if you like playing with a majority of your partners typically or only with a few of them? I’ve always felt that I like playing only with 20% of my doubles partners. This year I played 101 doubles matches with 42 different partners and ‘like’ playing with only 6 or 7 of them. The good news is that my favorite partner is my wife and I typically play mixed doubles (or against two guys) only with her - most of my matches are men’s doubles.

My winning % is about 68% in doubles for the 15 years I’ve been keeping track and it doesn’t vary much from year to year - so not ‘liking’ playing with most of my partners is not because I’m losing matches with a lot of them. Some of the reasons I don’t like many of my partners is because:

#1 reason is making easy volley errors, easy overhead errors and/or not being able to put away most of their putaway volleys for winners. I hate the service games where my partners botch 2-3 easy volleys I set them up for.
#2 reason is having no ability to adapt to opponent strengths/weakneses, changing conditions, older balls etc. and often being completely unaware of what is happening. Even if I talk to them about what I see happening, there are some who have no ability to adapt their game or tactics.
#3 reason is players who don’t care about winning and seem to give up without a fight if we lose a set or if they feel they are not playing well or if they start feeling like the worst player on the court.

Other reasons are there of course like not liking their personality, those who don’t like to communicate a lot with me, those who cheat (rare) and need their linecalls changed, those who make a lot of mental/shot selection errors, those who play a low-% game including a low serve-% and many return errors, those who drink beer during play and play worse in long matches, those who alley-guard and leave the middle wide open, those who prefer finesse to power, those who always choke at the end of close sets etc. I don’t mind if they don’t poach much or make execution errors on difficult shots although it is a pleasure to play with aggressive net players who don’t make too many unforced errors and serve a high-%.

I am much happier playing singles, but can’t play more than 3 singles matches a week physically and play doubles on the days when I’m not playing singles or practicing. Doubles is still more enjoyable than working out in some other manner! I like a lot of these players when we socialize after matches and the ‘dislike’ I talk about is only related to their doubles play.

I often wonder how many of them like playing with me also. I don’t show any negative emotions or body language during matches and am usually very positive towards my partners as I know that we can win only if my partner is motivated to play well. But sometimes I feel lIke guys who make a lot of unforced errors and bad decisions prefer playing with someone who is similar to them and not a high-% player like me as often they feel the pressure of being the one on the team making most of the errors even if I try to be positive. I think I would like more of my doubles partners if I played with more partners who are better than me, but unfortunately the guys in my social group are mostly worser than me and that is the main problem. Every year, I wish that I could recruit better players to my group, but the young ex-college player types prefer to hang out with their own age group typically and so it is an ongoing challenge to get solid 4.5s who are young to play regularly with an older group of guys. My wife says she likes about 50% of her doubles partners, but she is often playing ladies doubles with women who are as good or better than her.

Just an end-of-year rant while looking at my match record/notes from the past year - more to let off steam rather than get a response. But I wonder if others like a lot of their partners or if my comments resonate.

As a captain, I like to keep doubles partners together and it does take some time to figure out who works well together. But once you do figure it out, the dividends are huge. Some people just don't fit together (its you not me, similar playing styles, weaknesses, etc.) and I find that great singles players don't always make good doubles players.

I have been fortunate to have had three players that I played with over the last few years in doubles. Now two have been promoted, so I am down to one and maybe a second that compliments my game.

 

[socallefty]

maybe a second that compliments my game.

He just gives you a lot of compliments or do you mean ‘complement’?

 

[Purestriker]

He just gives you a lot of compliments or do you mean ‘complement’?

Both! I work better with positive energy. I over analyze as it is and as a perfectionist the last thing I need is someone else beating me up.

 

[RaulRamirez]

He just gives you a lot of compliments or do you mean ‘complement’?

I made sure...I hope ...to spell it right, although both are nice!

 

[ChaelAZ]

For leagues and matches that counted I definitely have preferred partners that match my play and energy, or that we compliment each others play and have better success together. That said, I've also won with a huge variety of partners over the years as well. But I am the 'can play with anyone' guy on the team, where there are some players that have much stronger opinions.

 

[nyta2]

Amongst the players who play a lot of doubles, I was wondering if you like playing with a majority of your partners typically or only with a few of them? I’ve always felt that I like playing only with 20% of my doubles partners. This year I played 101 doubles matches with 42 different partners and ‘like’ playing with only 6 or 7 of them. The good news is that my favorite partner is my wife and I typically play mixed doubles (or against two guys) only with her - most of my matches are men’s doubles.

My winning % is about 68% in doubles for the 15 years I’ve been keeping track and it doesn’t vary much from year to year - so not ‘liking’ playing with most of my partners is not because I’m losing matches with a lot of them. Some of the reasons I don’t like many of my partners is because:

#1 reason is making easy volley errors, easy overhead errors and/or not being able to put away most of their putaway volleys for winners. I hate the service games where my partners botch 2-3 easy volleys I set them up for.
#2 reason is having no ability to adapt to opponent strengths/weakneses, changing conditions, older balls etc. and often being completely unaware of what is happening. Even if I talk to them about what I see happening, there are some who have no ability to adapt their game or tactics.
#3 reason is players who don’t care about winning and seem to give up without a fight if we lose a set or if they feel they are not playing well or if they start feeling like the worst player on the court.

i guess i'm lucky i don't play with anyone these days that fall into any of these categories.. but feels like 4.0'ish territory of dubs players (or mixed 4.5 and lower)... lol you need to find folks your own level!

main reasons i don't gel with players from a technical standpoint...
1. don't want/like to poach
2. not receptive to change (they do x,y,z well, and don't want to deviate)
3. go for really dumb low percentage shots, over and over and over again... like they go down the line 10x... winner 2x and miss 4x, and net person volleys 4x (winning 3 of the 4)

Other reasons are there of course like not liking their personality,

i won't even go on the court with them

those who don’t like to communicate a lot with me,

eh, i give a pass here.

those who cheat (rare) and need their linecalls changed,

usually very rare at 4.5+ i imagine... my 3.0 dad on the otherhand, i need to hit the ball 12in inside the lines to have a chance...

those who make a lot of mental/shot selection errors, those who play a low-% game including a low serve-% and many return errors,

for me... only if they are not even trying to make adjustments...
everyone has bad days though

those who drink beer during play

that's a fun day i'd think, no pressure...
but year if you're drinking at a match i care about winning (eg. usta, tournament, etc...), that's the last time i'm asking you to play

and play worse in long matches, those who alley-guard and leave the middle wide open,

same

those who prefer finesse to power,

i dunno, i've played with alot of really good finesse players... they are a nightmare to play against and they usually make me look really good at net when i'm playing with them...
inspired me to work on my finesse game... chip&charge, dink&lob, sharp angle touch volleys, etc...

those who always choke at the end of close sets etc. I don’t mind if they don’t poach much

i'm the opposite... doubles == poaching!

or make execution errors on difficult shots although it is a pleasure to play with aggressive net players who don’t make too many unforced errors and serve a high-%


I am much happier playing singles, but can’t play more than 3 singles matches a week physically and play doubles on the days when I’m not playing singles or practicing. Doubles is still more enjoyable than working out in some other manner! I like a lot of these players when we socialize after matches and the ‘dislike’ I talk about is only related to their doubles play.

I often wonder how many of them like playing with me also.

lol i wonder the same about me.

I don’t show any negative emotions or body language during matches and am usually very positive towards my partners as I know that we can win only if my partner is motivated to play well. But sometimes I feel lIke guys who make a lot of unforced errors and bad decisions prefer playing with someone who is similar to them and not a high-% player like me as often they feel the pressure of being the one on the team making most of the errors even if I try to be positive. I think I would like more of my doubles partners if I played with more partners who are better than me, but unfortunately the guys in my social group are mostly worser than me and that is the main problem. Every year, I wish that I could recruit better players to my group, but the young ex-college player types prefer to hang out with their own age group typically and so it is an ongoing challenge to get solid 4.5s who are young to play regularly with an older group of guys. My wife says she likes about 50% of her doubles partners, but she is often playing ladies doubles with women who are as good or better than her.

guessing the older guys that are good are all on clay (private clubs)? at least by me, that's where i find them... most/all >50 avoid hard courts - myself included.

Just an end-of-year rant while looking at my match record/notes from the past year - more to let off steam rather than get a response. But I wonder if others like a lot of their partners or if my comments resonate.

 

[toth]

I have about 6-7 or even more doubles tennis friend.
I would not play with them if i would dislike them, as i dropped 2-3 (they thought to much of himself i think)

 

[socallefty]

i dunno, i've played with alot of really good finesse players... they are a nightmare to play against and they usually make me look really good at net when i'm playing with them...
inspired me to work on my finesse game... chip&charge, dink&lob, sharp angle touch volleys, etc...

There are many good finesse players who are easy to win with or tough to play against. But this thread is about who I like playing with. I’m a power doubles player who is very aggressive at net and also comes to net quickly rather than staying back and rallying. When my partner plays like that, we have a united identity as a power team that I enjoy. When my partner loves drop volleys, dinks, slices, slower serves, lobs or moonballs etc., it can be effective if they are good, but there is some part of me which doesn’t like my team playing like that as I don’t identify with that style. So, the team identity becomes split and I have to work harder to bond and be enthusiastic with those guys. I also like guys who pound their overheads with a lot of power - gives a visceral thrill to our team.

Regarding the not requiring them to poach part, I’ll be at the net soon after my serve, return or +1 shots anyway and as long as they hold up their side without making bad net errors, I will be the aggressive net player. When they serve or return, I move aggressively with my feet at the net and poach a lot also. I also signal intentional poaches when my partner serves, but some players are not comfortable wanting to do it when I serve and I’m OK with that. Of course I prefer a partner who poaches well.

 

[socallefty]

For leagues and matches that counted I definitely have preferred partners that match my play and energy, or that we compliment each others play and have better success together. That said, I've also won with a huge variety of partners over the years as well. But I am the 'can play with anyone' guy on the team, where there are some players that have much stronger opinions.

In my case, I make the lineups for 90% of the doubles matches I play as I organize doubles on 3-4 courts twice a week. But if I picked only the best players whom I like as my partners all the time, our matches will be blowouts often on my court and that is not fun for the opponents. Then those players may sign up with club-organized doubles rather than with my group regularly. So, I mix it up and also I get more thrills or feel more challenged by beating the best players who sign up and often want them as my opponents. When I played USTA for a decade before the pandemic, I was mostly the captain also.

 

[stapletonj]

I have only "disliked" one or two random partners in my life.
Once was a 3.5 MXD team and the woman was a clear 2.5, if that.... I was assigned to her for a match. I was pleasant and all, but it was ugly. She had intentionally overrated herself, I found out later
One other time was a Dr. who won a hard fought match to get to the semis of a big local tourney, then told me afterward we had to default because he had to work.
(I knew he knew his schedule a week in advance and could manipulate it, he just didn't wanna lose in the semis against a good team)

Even random partners who have "bad eyesight" and call opponents shots out when they are well in I can tolerate.
My default is to quietly tell them to just watch the ball for stroke purposes only and not worry about if it is in or out, that I'll do that so they can hit the ball better....
Works every time.

 

[socallefty]

Even random partners who have "bad eyesight" and call opponents shots out when they are well in I can tolerate.
My default is to quietly tell them to just watch the ball for stroke purposes only and not worry about if it is in or out, that I'll do that so they can hit the ball better....

If you saw the ball clearly in, aren’t you supposed to make the call in favor of your opponents and concede the point? Your partner’s ‘vision’ will suddenly improve if you do it once or twice. If you have some doubt but are not sure that the ball was in, it is a different story.

 

[nyta2]

In my case, I make the lineups for 90% of the doubles matches I play as I organize doubles on 3-4 courts twice a week. But if I picked only the best players whom I like as my partners all the time, our matches will be blowouts often on my court and that is not fun for the opponents. Then those players may sign up with club-organized doubles rather than with my group regularly. So, I mix it up and also I get more thrills or feel more challenged by beating the best players who sign up and often want them as my opponents. When I played USTA for a decade before the pandemic, I was mostly the captain also.

Kudos for being the organizer/captain! (Thankless job )

One idea we used to do is to randomly assign partners on 3-4 courts (or random by order time people show up)…

Play 1 set no-ad, winners split and move up… best players typically moved up and ended up on the top court. No hard feelings, no favoritism, just everyone competing to move up… and a decent mixup of playing different folks.

 

[socallefty]

Kudos for being the organizer/captain! (Thankless job )

One idea we used to do is to randomly assign partners on 3-4 courts (or random by order time people show up)…

Play 1 set no-ad, winners split and move up… best players typically moved up and ended up on the top court. No hard feelings, no favoritism, just everyone competing to move up… and a decent mixup of playing different folks.

That is the common format of club-organized open doubles which people are fleeing when they join my group. My group is comprised of players who like to play full matches with one partner and want an organizer who will give them competitive matches on most days where it is not a blowout win or loss.

With the club format, there is some waiting around between sets, you play a non-traditional format (no-ad, TB at 5-5) to quicken sets and make them uniform in length, it is not really a team sport as you switch partners every set and are keeping track of your individual games won rather than being part of one team winning or losing a match, you don’t learn how to win Best-of-3 matches etc. Some players prefer it and others don’t - I organize my own group because I don’t.

 

[am1899]

I’m picky, basically won’t play with people I don’t like. So. It’s a relatively short list, all of which I do like. Some of them I actually socialize with outside of tennis.

Probably the most problematic partner is my wife. She gets nervous that she’ll do the wrong thing and I’ll get pissed off (probably some truth to that lol). Fortunately our ratings aren’t conducive to playing together in mixed league play, so we don’t pair up much.

 

[TTMR]

I only partner with people willing to play two back. It really limits my options, but I can't have a loose cannon for a partner.

 

[stapletonj]

If you saw the ball clearly in, aren’t you supposed to make the call in favor of your opponents and concede the point? Your partner’s ‘vision’ will suddenly improve if you do it once or twice. If you have some doubt but are not sure that the ball was in, it is a different story.

true, but less than diplomatic.... normally you don't see it "clearly in", but you can tell.....

 

[Hey Moe!]

I Haven't posted in quite a while. I've been watching this thread, and I finally felt compelled to reply. I'm way older than most everyone here (71). Years ago, I was a solid 4.5, but now, I am happy to play doubles a couple times a week with friends.
Back when I was playing tournaments (some USTA, a lot of local tournaments then), I met someone in the singles final of an obscure local tournament. He won in three sets, and after we shook hands, the first words out of our mouths was, "Do you want a beer?" It turned out that we both had coolers in the trunk, and we enjoyed a few cold ones, and talked tennis for a while. Soon, we began to play doubles together.

The part that I didn't know that day, and didn't find out till much later on, was that my friend had served two tours in Vietnam, volunteering for the second one. Also, he was an Army Ranger. He stayed in Army Reserves after Vietnam, and eventually retired as a full colonel. Given his background, and fact that he liked to hit backhands, he played the ad-side. No one tougher on any game-point! In addition, I learned to serve and volley, because he did so. We had a lot of success in our region for a good 20 years, once defeating the state HS runners-up when we were 47 and 54 years old.

Additionally, we became good friends. At his suggestion, we vacationed together (Outer Banks), and did so for a number of years. Nowadays, his body has given out, so his tennis is over. I still visit him periodically (it helps that one of the college teams I officiate is located where he lives), and we sit on his deck after I'm done working, have a few more cold ones, and talk about most anything.

That experience has taught me to be accommodate anyone I play doubles with. At this point in my life, just getting on court and playing is a bonus, and I don't want to ignore the fun of playing tennis, 55 years after I started. To me, that's what it's all about. Complaining about something on the tennis court just ruins the fun.

Just my two cents.

 

[sovertennis]

Amongst the players who play a lot of doubles, I was wondering if you like playing with a majority of your partners typically or only with a few of them? I’ve always felt that I like playing only with 20% of my doubles partners. This year I played 101 doubles matches with 42 different partners and ‘like’ playing with only 6 or 7 of them. The good news is that my favorite partner is my wife and I typically play mixed doubles (or against two guys) only with her - most of my matches are men’s doubles.

My winning % is about 68% in doubles for the 15 years I’ve been keeping track and it doesn’t vary much from year to year - so not ‘liking’ playing with most of my partners is not because I’m losing matches with a lot of them. Some of the reasons I don’t like many of my partners is because:

#1 reason is making easy volley errors, easy overhead errors and/or not being able to put away most of their putaway volleys for winners. I hate the service games where my partners botch 2-3 easy volleys I set them up for.
#2 reason is having no ability to adapt to opponent strengths/weakneses, changing conditions, older balls etc. and often being completely unaware of what is happening. Even if I talk to them about what I see happening, there are some who have no ability to adapt their game or tactics.
#3 reason is players who don’t care about winning and seem to give up without a fight if we lose a set or if they feel they are not playing well or if they start feeling like the worst player on the court.

Other reasons are there of course like not liking their personality, those who don’t like to communicate a lot with me, those who cheat (rare) and need their linecalls changed, those who make a lot of mental/shot selection errors, those who play a low-% game including a low serve-% and many return errors, those who drink beer during play and play worse in long matches, those who alley-guard and leave the middle wide open, those who prefer finesse to power, those who always choke at the end of close sets etc. I don’t mind if they don’t poach much or make execution errors on difficult shots although it is a pleasure to play with aggressive net players who don’t make too many unforced errors and serve a high-%.

I am much happier playing singles, but can’t play more than 3 singles matches a week physically and play doubles on the days when I’m not playing singles or practicing. Doubles is still more enjoyable than working out in some other manner! I like a lot of these players when we socialize after matches and the ‘dislike’ I talk about is only related to their doubles play.

I often wonder how many of them like playing with me also. I don’t show any negative emotions or body language during matches and am usually very positive towards my partners as I know that we can win only if my partner is motivated to play well. But sometimes I feel lIke guys who make a lot of unforced errors and bad decisions prefer playing with someone who is similar to them and not a high-% player like me as often they feel the pressure of being the one on the team making most of the errors even if I try to be positive. I think I would like more of my doubles partners if I played with more partners who are better than me, but unfortunately the guys in my social group are mostly worser than me and that is the main problem. Every year, I wish that I could recruit better players to my group, but the young ex-college player types prefer to hang out with their own age group typically and so it is an ongoing challenge to get solid 4.5s who are young to play regularly with an older group of guys. My wife says she likes about 50% of her doubles partners, but she is often playing ladies doubles with women who are as good or better than her.

Just an end-of-year rant while looking at my match record/notes from the past year - more to let off steam rather than get a response. But I wonder if others like a lot of their partners or if my comments resonate.

Based on this report, I wonder how many of your dubs partners would say they enjoy playing with you (note: your wife's vote doesn't count)?

 

[Purestriker]

I only partner with people willing to play two back. It really limits my options, but I can't have a loose cannon for a partner.

Did the GOAT play two back?

 

[FuzzyYellowBalls]

I was tested this weekend, but true to my word I tried to like my partner. He was new to me and did one thing I find so strange, and I've seen it twice before in my lifetime. If we were ahead in the score, he would call out the score regardless of whether he was the server , returner, etc. If we were behind he would remain silent. How goofy are these people and who gave them this idea?

 

[Purestriker]

I was tested this weekend, but true to my word I tried to like my partner. He was new to me and did one thing I find so strange, and I've seen it twice before in my lifetime. If we were ahead in the score, he would call out the score regardless of whether he was the server , returner, etc. If we were behind he would remain silent. How goofy are these people and who gave them this idea?

Ha! Sounds like nerves.

 

[Thiemster]

Depends on the team, I m on multiple teams that range from "always gets to sectionals" to "gets eliminated in first playoff round" to "social mixed"......

So I adjust my expectations from my partners accordingly, on the fun teams where I just try to be very happy and in a great mood regardless of the score/outcome, so you can say it doesn't affect me at all. On the serious teams, the captains only pair me up with ones that are complimentary

 

[socallefty]

Now two have been promoted, so I am down to one and maybe a second that compliments my game.

On the serious teams, the captains only pair me up with ones that are complimentary

'Complement' vs. 'Compliment'

The distinction between the two is clear (now).

www.merriam-webster.com

 

[socallefty]

Based on this report, I wonder how many of your dubs partners would say they enjoy playing with you (note: your wife's vote doesn't count)?

From my self-diagnosis of how my partners inter-acted with me on court, 14 of 42 partners don‘t like playing with me which is about 33%. I could be wrong but I don’t think the estimate would be wrong by a lot. Even though I don’t like playing with 80% of my partners, I am pretty good about not showing it and being positive with body language and words as I love winning and that’s the only way to win in doubles. About half of these 14 were players I played just once with while we were getting our a#s kicked and we didn’t figure out how to communicate to influence each other’s play positively - I didn’t play with them as my partner after that.

 

[Purestriker]

'Complement' vs. 'Compliment'

The distinction between the two is clear (now).

www.merriam-webster.com

I see why they don't like you.

 

[bobbybob14]

What I realized recently that I try to think about is everyone sees a match through their own point of view. Most of the time a lot of people are going to see only their own good shots and fewer of their mistakes. That applies to ourselves as well. I agree with people in the thread is that the most frustrating are those that don't put away easy volleys or don't move at all on your serve and then complain about how you always get broke. These usually are the same people that you are creating either put away volleys or return errors for on their serve because of your net presence. Overall, I try not to get into the complaining about partners game. It is a no win battle.