Do you like to return in doubles on deuce or ad?

Do you prefer to return on ad or deuce in doubles?

  • Ad

    Votes: 51 55.4%
  • Deuce

    Votes: 18 19.6%
  • No strong preference

    Votes: 23 25.0%

  • Total voters
    92
  • Poll closed .

pedrogcr

Semi-Pro
Ah, but if you played deuce, you’d never have to hit a bh on a 2nd serve return. :)

Kick serve to the backhand (real kick, not the top-slice which for me is just a badly executed kick serve that doesn`t bounce as high, and removes the advantage of the low bounce of a good slice serve).

At 3.5 and lower: NEVER
At 4.0: Extremely rare
At 4.5+: Much more common

Then again, if you're a 4.5+ player, you should be able to return kick serves to your backhand.
 

travlerajm

Talk Tennis Guru
Kick serve to the backhand (real kick, not the top-slice which for me is just a badly executed kick serve that doesn`t bounce as high, and removes the advantage of the low bounce of a good slice serve).

At 3.5 and lower: NEVER
At 4.0: Extremely rare
At 4.5+: Much more common

Then again, if you're a 4.5+ player, you should be able to return kick serves to your backhand.
I’ve played a lot of guys at 4.5-5.0 level where if they know you are going to kick the 2nd serve to the T, they will line up in the center and just dare you to slice your 2nd out wide. A soft slice out wide they can still get to with their hero forehand that I want to avoid. But it takes guts to go for a hard slice on 2nd serve. So it’s pretty effective return strategy.

When they try to do it in ad side by lining up in alley, it doesn’t bother me as much as a server. Seems less risky to go for the T and less chance that they can hurt me with inside out fh if they have to run to right to hit it.
 

Mungo

Rookie
Ad, because I like my inside out forehand, and my cross court backhands. Both better than deuce side versions as a righty. Discrepancy on the BH side is most significan.
 

nyta2

Legend
(righty) i'm probably better play ad side, but have gotten decent at deuce side because so many partners prefer ad side.
adSide:
  • same return direction as singles (bh cc, fh io)
  • righty poachers forced to make a (usually) harder poach (bh volley) at net
  • bh cc gives me more angle/court to hit without fear of being poached (poacher has to leave earlier/move faster to cover the cc angle)
deuceSide:
  • most partners prefer ad side because of the above advantages, but more importantly, they aren't good at hitting an inside out bh, and most good doubles teams will be hitting mostly Tee&body serves, with an extremely active net player
  • (righty) net player is hitting an "easier" fh volley when poaching
all things being equal, i defer the better player on the adSide (more pressure/game points) - or at least let them choose.
 
This thread inspired me to play deuce side yesterday. Seems like everyone (myself included) prefers ad side, so I think it would be valuable for me to learn deuce side instead.

Went pretty well. The hardest to handle is a good serve down the T that makes me hit an inside-out backhand, but it was only the good serves that gave me a problem, bad serves I could either run around or hit inside-out.
 

Creighton

Professional
This thread inspired me to play deuce side yesterday. Seems like everyone (myself included) prefers ad side, so I think it would be valuable for me to learn deuce side instead.

Went pretty well. The hardest to handle is a good serve down the T that makes me hit an inside-out backhand, but it was only the good serves that gave me a problem, bad serves I could either run around or hit inside-out.

If a server is good enough to hit that spot routinely, they're going to be good enough to pick on your weaker side no matter which side you play.
 
Yep, that's what I kind of thought too. Look, I'm more comfortable returning a good serve to my backhand crosscourt instead of inside-out... but honestly, if I'm facing a real good server, I'll probably lob it half the time anyway on the ad side or the deuce side, and a lot of players at my level aren't that great servers anyway, that kick down the T or flat down the T spot is pretty hard to hit routinely for most of them.
 

Moveforwardalways

Hall of Fame
(righty) i'm probably better play ad side, but have gotten decent at deuce side because so many partners prefer ad side.
adSide:
  • same return direction as singles (bh cc, fh io)
  • righty poachers forced to make a (usually) harder poach (bh volley) at net
  • bh cc gives me more angle/court to hit without fear of being poached (poacher has to leave earlier/move faster to cover the cc angle)
deuceSide:
  • most partners prefer ad side because of the above advantages, but more importantly, they aren't good at hitting an inside out bh, and most good doubles teams will be hitting mostly Tee&body serves, with an extremely active net player
  • (righty) net player is hitting an "easier" fh volley when poaching
all things being equal, i defer the better player on the adSide (more pressure/game points) - or at least let them choose.
These are common sentiments, and I understand where you’re coming from. I just think it’s interesting that a list like this makes returning deuce side seem more difficult, but the conclusion is that the better player should play ad side.
 

socallefty

G.O.A.T.
Doubles only players start returning on ad all the time and after a few years, they are so rusty playing on deuce that they have a mental block against playing there. I play deuce only about 20% of the time in doubles and I always feel less mentally confident even though when I look at my deuce returns and game, there is not much fall-off from returning on ad. In my case, I play a lot of singles also and so, I still get a lot of practice returning on deuce - I can imagine that it must be worse mentally for those who play only doubles on ad.

When I captained USTA teams, it was a problem to matchup players together when 2/3rds of the team claimed to be ad court specialists!
 

Fintft

G.O.A.T.
This thread inspired me to play deuce side yesterday. Seems like everyone (myself included) prefers ad side, so I think it would be valuable for me to learn deuce side instead.

Went pretty well. The hardest to handle is a good serve down the T that makes me hit an inside-out backhand, but it was only the good serves that gave me a problem, bad serves I could either run around or hit inside-out.
Or a drop shot BH ROS?
 

Fintft

G.O.A.T.
Doubles only players start returning on ad all the time and after a few years, they are so rusty playing on deuce that they have a mental block against playing there. I play deuce only about 20% of the time in doubles and I always feel less mentally confident even though when I look at my deuce returns and game, there is not much fall-off from returning on ad. In my case, I play a lot of singles also and so, I still get a lot of practice returning on deuce - I can imagine that it must be worse mentally for those who play only doubles on ad.

When I captained USTA teams, it was a problem to matchup players together when 2/3rds of the team claimed to be ad court specialists!
Even if your FH is the biggest weapon?
 

Fintft

G.O.A.T.
I’ve played a lot of guys at 4.5-5.0 level where if they know you are going to kick the 2nd serve to the T, they will line up in the center and just dare you to slice your 2nd out wide. A soft slice out wide they can still get to with their hero forehand that I want to avoid. But it takes guts to go for a hard slice on 2nd serve. So it’s pretty effective return strategy.

When they try to do it in ad side by lining up in alley, it doesn’t bother me as much as a server. Seems less risky to go for the T and less chance that they can hurt me with inside out fh if they have to run to right to hit it.
B/c your slice Down the T curves away from them.
Plus you could alternate with using your 1st serve twice, flat wide, keeping them honest defending their BH.
 

socallefty

G.O.A.T.
Even if your FH is the biggest weapon?
I’m a lefty, but my point is that if doubles players play only one side all the time, they lack confidence on the other side and it affects the match outcome adversely even if their game technique-wise might not be bad returning on that side. After a few years retuning only on one side, people really become specialists on one side and can’t play the other side well at all. If they periodically played the other side in social matches, this might not happen.
 
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Fintft

G.O.A.T.
I’m a lefty, but my point is that if doubles players play only one side all the time, they lack confidence on the other side even if their game might not be bad returning on that side.
Like Roger I prefer to practice the things I do well foremost, so that I don't forget how to do them. I this case FH returns, rather than BHs.
 

Chalkdust

Professional
These are common sentiments, and I understand where you’re coming from. I just think it’s interesting that a list like this makes returning deuce side seem more difficult, but the conclusion is that the better player should play ad side.
My strategy in dubs has always been to try to accentuate the strength of the stronger player rather than try hide the weakness of the weaker one.
This is in same level / same level gender dubs - maybe it's different in mixed.

Anyway, when it comes to choosing return side, I think the stronger returner should choose the side he prefers, unless he is equally comfortable with either side, or the weaker player absolutely can't play one side.
Usually but not always this ends up such that the stronger returner is on the ad side.
 

ichaseballs

Hall of Fame
if the opponents have a strong slice (for a righty) you should put the stronger player on the deuce side. that generally will be the harder side to return serves from.
 
if the opponents have a strong slice (for a righty) you should put the stronger player on the deuce side. that generally will be the harder side to return serves from.
It's a good strategy, I actually have a good eye for that as I used to play someone a lot that had a great slice serve I could read. Probably a good 4.0 serve with a 3.0 backhand.
 

badmice2

Professional
For me it depends on who I’m partner with and their preferred shot - ie inside out backhand vs cross court backhand etc. As someone who can play both sides I tend to give my partner their stronger stroke to maximize their strength. This holds true even with lefty many of them tends to favor forehand cross court instead of inside out backhand.

If the notion that ad court is the most important and everyone should choose side base in this, then most people won’t or can’t play dubs since no one knows how to function in deuce side. The argument is irrational.

Playing certain strategy like forehand up the middle with lefty/righty combo is exactly that…a strategy. Both partner needs to be comfortable in those strategic position in order to work. They can’t just pick it up for the sake of what sounds good.
 

derick232

Rookie
Depends a lot on my partner. I think whoever has the better return going ad side holds up especially if you know you're not going to get many break points. For that reason I usually play ad side and will default to it if I don't know my partners game well enough. My return is one of my biggest weapons and is only behind my serve.

Also kind of shocked by the results so far. I was always under the impression I was doing my partners a solid by letting them play deuce side and giving them the crosscourt forehand.
 

Vicious49

Legend
I often find righty guys with good fh, bad bh, who prefer deuce.
My FH is better than my BH but I prefer deuce side because on 2nd serves I can hit sharp angles with my FH that runs the server out wide and opens up the court. My partners usually can't hit that angle so it makes more sense for me to be on that side.
 

socallefty

G.O.A.T.
Also kind of shocked by the results so far. I was always under the impression I was doing my partners a solid by letting them play deuce side and giving them the crosscourt forehand.
Maybe it is because more shots and volleys are hit down the middle rather than very wide in doubles. So, many players prefer to have their stronger FH on the inside. When the serve quality is not high, ad players can hit a lot of BH lob returns and not have to hit good crosscourt BHs all the time.

Quicker players run around their inside shot and prefer to return with their FH on the outside as they will hit 80% FHs anyway. The average slow-as-molasses rec player doesn’t run around any shot and wants his stronger shot on the inside.
 

Fintft

G.O.A.T.
Maybe it is because more shots and volleys are hit down the middle rather than very wide in doubles. So, many players prefer to have their stronger FH on the inside. When the serve quality is not high, ad players can hit a lot of BH lob returns and not have to hit good crosscourt BHs all the time.

Quicker players run around their inside shot and prefer to return with their FH on the outside as they will hit 80% FHs anyway. The average slow-as-molasses rec player doesn’t run around any shot and wants his stronger shot on the inside.
Yay I'm quick.
 

Vicious49

Legend
Maybe it is because more shots and volleys are hit down the middle rather than very wide in doubles. So, many players prefer to have their stronger FH on the inside. When the serve quality is not high, ad players can hit a lot of BH lob returns and not have to hit good crosscourt BHs all the time.

Quicker players run around their inside shot and prefer to return with their FH on the outside as they will hit 80% FHs anyway. The average slow-as-molasses rec player doesn’t run around any shot and wants his stronger shot on the inside.
I'm much more comfortable with my BH volley than my FH (I attribute it to me being a OHBH) so I'd prefer my BH on the inside.
 

jhick

Hall of Fame
Left hander here and I prefer the ad side. This is mainly because the right hander out wide serve is to my forehand. Getting pulled off the court on my backhand (deuce side) usually results in a weak backhand return. Whereas down the middle on the ad side I'm in a better position. Also, I'm used to returning ad so I'm just more comfortable.
 

jhick

Hall of Fame
“Stronger player returns as side” is a myth that will not die.
Well more game points are decided on the ad side so I'm not sure why this is a myth?

Re-reading through the rest of this thread and I'm now seeing this was debated ad nauseam already, so disregard my post.
 
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Yamin

Hall of Fame
I usually have to carry and play up simultaneously...

Have a 1hbh and extreme grip on both sides, I take whichever side I see less of in warmups:

1.) Strong kick on AD to bh
2.) Strong flat to deuce bh

I generally let my partner choose what they prefer.
 
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Moon Shooter

Hall of Fame
If we are both right handed then all else being equal the person with the better overhead plays ad side. That way they have a forehead overhead for a floater over the middle.
 

socallefty

G.O.A.T.
If we are both right handed then all else being equal the person with the better overhead plays ad side. That way they have a forehead overhead for a floater over the middle.
If you are quick with good footwork, you should be able to hit a FH overhead on 90% of overheads irrespective of which side you play. I am a lefty who plays ad and I rarely ever hit BH OHs. I am always appalled when I get net partners who hit weak high BH volleys or BH overheads on sitter balls where they had ample time (in my opinion) to move and hit stronger FH volleys or OHs.

I rarely hit BH rally balls on return games also if I have a decent net partner who covers the middle well.
 

socallefty

G.O.A.T.
Do 1HBH players prefer to return on the FH side - ad for lefties and deuce for righties? Not easy to hit wide kick serves back crosscourt with a 1HBH especially if opponents have high bouncing kick serves although you see those serves only at 4.5+ levels. So, maybe it is an issue only for advanced levels.
 

Moon Shooter

Hall of Fame
If you are quick with good footwork, you should be able to hit a FH overhead on 90% of overheads irrespective of which side you play. I am a lefty who plays ad and I rarely ever hit BH OHs. I am always appalled when I get net partners who hit weak high BH volleys or BH overheads on sitter balls where they had ample time (in my opinion) to move and hit stronger FH volleys or OHs.

I rarely hit BH rally balls on return games also if I have a decent net partner who covers the middle well.
At my level half of the concern is not colliding into my partner as we both are looking up ready to smash an overhead.
 
Do 1HBH players prefer to return on the FH side - ad for lefties and deuce for righties? Not easy to hit wide kick serves back crosscourt with a 1HBH especially if opponents have high bouncing kick serves although you see those serves only at 4.5+ levels. So, maybe it is an issue only for advanced levels.
I have a 1hbh and I chose deuce but not because of serve return. For me it was about ability to trade outside ground strokes when playing at or more to the point above my level.

1. Most people play in there own level so stroke difficulty is relative

2. If your not a net rusher with a partner who plays back and want the reach of a fh poach or don't play 2 up as often as possible in a lefty righty combo where forehands in the middle can help then I think been able to trade outside groundstrokes when there's the potential of an intercept matters more than the return part. (My reason)

3. Weirdly a good kicker opens up options to a return player, you can take it early and take time off the poacher or go back and have room to topspin over the net player or just lob it.

4. In doubles t or body serves tend to bring your net player into play more and that tends to be the best way to finish points.

5. Wide serves are generally used to exploit a weakness such as 1hbh could be which I don't think the kicker does that well compared to other serves mentioned above or even a different wide serve that wouldn't give the returner as much height or space to get that ball over or past the net player.

I do think wide serves can be more effective against 1hbh than 2hbh but the kicker less so than others.
if you're playing below your level or your serve is why you are at your level then kickers may work well against wesker returners.
 

Flootoo

Semi-Pro
I did a sweet return from the deuce side yesterday where I moved out wide to my right to hit a backhand and return a dropshot that barely went over the net and dropped into the service box, on the line.

It wasn't a doubles match, but I won, and I just wanted to say that.
 

mmk

Hall of Fame
Right handed and my partners prefer me to be on the ad side, due to my inside-out forehand service returns.
 

Thiemster

Rookie
Do 1HBH players prefer to return on the FH side - ad for lefties and deuce for righties? Not easy to hit wide kick serves back crosscourt with a 1HBH especially if opponents have high bouncing kick serves although you see those serves only at 4.5+ levels. So, maybe it is an issue only for advanced levels.
I prefer the ad-side with 1HBH even when playing against 4.5 guys, cause its easier to catch the outside of the ball and drive it cross-court with bh, i m not too tall(6ft) but can comfortably drive/bunt anything at my head height and below, on the contrary its not as easy to do that when you have to catch the inside of the ball on duece side and go inside-out
 

socallefty

G.O.A.T.
I prefer the ad-side with 1HBH even when playing against 4.5 guys, cause its easier to catch the outside of the ball and drive it cross-court with bh, i m not too tall(6ft) but can comfortably drive/bunt anything at my head height and below, on the contrary its not as easy to do that when you have to catch the inside of the ball on duece side and go inside-out
Interesting. For those who play singles a lot, I wonder if it plays a factor in how comfortable the returner is with the inside-out return. I’m a lefty and so I hit inside returns on ad mostly to the righty BH crosscourt in singles. On deuce, I return inside serves DTL a lot to the righty BH. So the ad inside return works well for doubles while my preferred inside singles return on deuce does not work for doubles unless I blast it hard at the net guy. I’m very comfortable with my inside out ad returns in doubles as a result. If a righty singles player doesn’t hit too many inside-out BH deuce returns to the righty FH, they might not get much practice with this shot and it might be uncomfortable in doubles.

I wonder if this is part of why so many righties here are not liking their inside-out BH returns on deuce - they don’t hit it much in singles. If they are doubles specialists, it should not be an issue.
 
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PRS

Professional
I'll play whatever these days, but when I played competitively, I pretty much always played the ad side for 2 main reasons:

1) With a one hand backhand (which I use), it is more difficult (compared to a two-hander) to get the ball cross court away from the net player going inside out on the deuce side, particularly when facing a good kick serve. It's definitely easier on the ad side.

2) One coach I knew for a while in college said that the more steady player should go deuce side to put consistent pressure on the even, particularly 30-30/deuce, scores, with the more aggressive, hit or miss, harder hitting player on the ad side. Consistent pressure on even scores gives you a lot of break point opportunities, and a lot of opportunities gives the ad player more freedom to be aggressive. Not always my style of play, but many of my partners were definitely much more consistent and not as hard of hitters compared to me.

Just to be clear, I'm not saying the above is necessarily the best way to handle choosing sides, but that's the way the coach operated so we went with it.
 

Dartagnan64

G.O.A.T.
Ad side here for the following reasons:
1) I play a lot of mixed and prefer having the stronger player with FH in the middle
2) I don't love my inside out BH return preferring to hit those DTL in singles. But in doubles the DTL BH return is problematic with a net guy there.
3) Did I say I like having a FH in the middle
 

Fintft

G.O.A.T.
I did a sweet return from the deuce side yesterday where I moved out wide to my right to hit a backhand and return a dropshot that barely went over the net and dropped into the service box, on the line.

It wasn't a doubles match, but I won, and I just wanted to say that.
I do that in doubles all the time, in the alley, especially if they serve from the T, DTM, targeting my 1HBH.
 

dlam

Semi-Pro
Deuce side. Not because I’m better at return from the deuce side. I’m equally bad from both
But I much better at the net on the deuce side and can put away the volley and quicker to react on my BH volley. I’m righty. Feel I can win more points off the volley from that side than the other side
 
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