Help with Doubles scenario

[86golf]

This week in a 4.0 league match, me and my partner fubar'd on a critical point. Break point, set point and I was receiving on the ad side and we were playing two back for first serve returns bc the server had a hard swinging lefty serve. He swings it out wide and I hit a sharp topspin crosscourt angled backhand and move in behind it assuming my partner would do the same. The server gets a racquet on it and rolls it right in between us (my partner stayed back) cross court down the middle of the court.

Should I have stayed back and let my partner work himself in, or should he have been aware enough to move in on my quality return? We created a nice hole in the court for the server to hit into. Oops.

 

[spot]

Regardless of whether your partner came in or not, once you hit crosscourt wide then its your partner's job to cover the line and its your job to cover the middle. If your partner thought your return was good enough to come in on thats great- his job is still to slide over and cover the line when you go sharply crosscourt. If he stays back he still needs to cover the line. Thats your ball either way from the description you gave.

 

[LeeD]

First, if he's a regular partner, establish a line of COMMUNICATION between the two of you. Tell him what you expect of him.
Any softie ball down the middle should be covered by BOTH players, the one forward having priority.
Possibly your partner was having a walkabout, or deferred to you because he thought you have a stronger shot from up the middle.
TALK TO HIM!

 

[blakesq]

Don't forget, that sometimes your opponents can hit a great shot that there is nothing you can do about. But I do agree that your partner's job was to guard the alley, and you had the harder job of trying to protect all of the middle and your side of the court.

This week in a 4.0 league match, me and my partner fubar'd on a critical point. Break point, set point and I was receiving on the ad side and we were playing two back for first serve returns bc the server had a hard swinging lefty serve. He swings it out wide and I hit a sharp topspin crosscourt angled backhand and move in behind it assuming my partner would do the same. The server gets a racquet on it and rolls it right in between us (my partner stayed back) cross court down the middle of the court.

Should I have stayed back and let my partner work himself in, or should he have been aware enough to move in on my quality return? We created a nice hole in the court for the server to hit into. Oops.

 

[Cindysphinx]

Yes, I think your partner should have been alert enough to approach with you. Then again, you know whether you'd hit a good shot the instant the ball leaves your racket, whereas your partner does not get that feedback. So he might be late moving in with you. That's the way it goes.

 

[larry10s]

its your job to cover the middle. i once had a pro suggest in that situation (when pulled very wide) instead of going in a diagonal towards where you should be head more to the middle first as you go foward.

 

[LuckyR]

Regardless of whether your partner came in or not, once you hit crosscourt wide then its your partner's job to cover the line and its your job to cover the middle. If your partner thought your return was godo enough to come in on thats great- his job is still to slide over and cover the line when you go sharply crosscourt. If he stays back he still needs to cover the line. Thats your ball either way from the description you gave.

Best post in the thread.

 

[larry10s]

i thoughtg my post was pretty good

 

[Off The Wall]

This week in a 4.0 league match, me and my partner fubar'd on a critical point. Break point, set point and I was receiving on the ad side and we were playing two back for first serve returns bc the server had a hard swinging lefty serve. He swings it out wide and I hit a sharp topspin crosscourt angled backhand and move in behind it assuming my partner would do the same. The server gets a racquet on it and rolls it right in between us (my partner stayed back) cross court down the middle of the court.

Should I have stayed back and let my partner work himself in, or should he have been aware enough to move in on my quality return? We created a nice hole in the court for the server to hit into. Oops.

You don't say whether the server played serve and volley.

Anyway, your partner would have to wait to see if your return passed the netman. Then he would have to determine whether your return was going to cause the server a problem. It would have to be a big problem if your partner was going to move forward against an on-coming volleyer.

Even so, if once you hit the ball and start to follow your great shot in, but you see your partner didn't see your return that way and stayed back, the safest thing to do would be to abort and fall back.

 

[tennis tom]

Your partner needs to be moving with you--backward, forward and side to side--to minimize avaiable angles to your opponent--elementary geometry Watson.

P.S. Your partner should be looking back at you to judge the quality of your return to know whether your team will be advancing or retreating.

 

[86golf]

You don't say whether the server played serve and volley.

I returned the ball from the alley and my ball bounced in the servers alley crosscourt so he had to go out wide to intercept my return. Honestly, I never noticed my partners movement, I had just assumed we were moving in together. I think he hesitated bc it was a backhand for him, but I really didn't have a play on it based on my position.
Lesson learned.

I agree with others that this was my ball, however it would have been an easy volley winner if my partner had taken two steps forward.

 

[jrod]

I returned the ball from the alley and my ball bounced in the servers alley crosscourt so he had to go out wide to intercept my return. Honestly, I never noticed my partners movement, I had just assumed we were moving in together. I think he hesitated bc it was a backhand for him, but I really didn't have a play on it based on my position.
Lesson learned.

I agree with others that this was my ball, however it would have been an easy volley winner if my partner had taken two steps forward.

Yep, it was your ball. Spot is spot-on in his post. Sounds like the return was well placed though. Regardless, you need to approach by following the line of your ball to provide the best percentage coverage.

Regarding your partner, he probably should have approached with you. At a minimum, it would have increased the pressure on the returner and provided less real estate for him to hit into. Some movement is always better than no movement in dubs. Coordinated movement is what good dubs teams practice and coordinated movement requires good communication, as LeeD has already suggested.

 

[Cindysphinx]

I disagree that it was definitely OPs ball.

Some folks are very reluctant to hit a BH volley. If this particular ball went one inch past the partner's racket and he didn't play it because he doesn't like to hit a BH volley . . . well, OP can't be expected to cover the whole court while partner lets everything to his left go untouched.

OP's responsibility to cover "the middle" doesn't mean every single ball up the middle is automatically his, IMHO. If OP followed the ball and positioned well, then . . . some shots are just Too Good.

 

[spot]

Cindy- his partner was back at the baseline. This doesn't have anything to do with people being reluctant to hit a backhand volley

 

[jrod]

I disagree that it was definitely OPs ball.

With such a wide return, the OP's partner had no choice but to cover the line, taking him out of contention for covering the middle. The geometry is quite clear here. My sense is the partner could have come in with the OP to try and increase pressure on the returner and possibly cut down the angles available. On the other hand, if the returner hit the seam, then it's quite possible it was "Too Good".

 

[alb1]

With the sharp angle (short) crosscourt return to the lefty's forehand your partner has to stay. If your partner moves in the server would roll it up the line just as easy or easier with no net in the way. You stay back, he rolls it sharply crosscourt. Unless your sharp backhand crosscourt is a clean winner you really open up the court since the guy was a lefty. The server had many options and made the shot based on your team's positioning. So the placement of the return really worked to the server's advantage and you guys were in trouble from the start.

 

[spot]

You stay back, he rolls it sharply crosscourt.

To me thats the shot that you have to let your opponent try and hit. And if he can set up and attack a ball that much then your return simply wasn't strong enough and save that return for when you are facing a righty.

 

[Racer41c]

Anyway you look at it, if you were the server what would you see? A big gapping hole in the middle and a ball hit to my forehand. Point over. Question for you, did you follow the ball in? or move forward to the net?

In general, I would view this as playing too passive and just hoping to get into the point. I hate it when my partner plays back, no matter what the situation.

 

[LuckyR]

i thoughtg my post was pretty good

No worries, you were correct, spot explained why, though.

 

[Off The Wall]

I returned the ball from the alley and my ball bounced in the servers alley crosscourt so he had to go out wide to intercept my return. Honestly, I never noticed my partners movement, I had just assumed we were moving in together. I think he hesitated bc it was a backhand for him, but I really didn't have a play on it based on my position.
Lesson learned.

I agree with others that this was my ball, however it would have been an easy volley winner if my partner had taken two steps forward.

The point I was making in a roundabout way is, if the server stayed back after serving, then by all means you and your partner should have approached.

If the server was coming in and had to abort to go sideways, that should have been a signal that he was in trouble and both of you should have gone forward.

Since, your partner did not go forward, and you did, you opened up a gap for the opponent to hit through. Therefore, in this instance, I advised retreating to a spot on the court that would allow you and your partner to move up to a weak shot that your good return made possible.

Remember you are a team. Even if you are making all the right moves, consider your partner. If what you are doing presents an opportunity for your opponents, that's not good doubles, even though you did the "correct" thing. IOW, if it has a bad effect on the team....don't do it.

 

[Off The Wall]

For further consideration, did your partner take the point off? I mean, you had played a set. Did he routinely move forward on your good first serve returns until that point?

 

[TK6]

I disagree with most of the replies so far. If you were pulled wide, a good partner will try to cover the middle for you even if that means leaving the alley open. Too many doubles partners worry about the down-the-line shot way too much - most points are won through the middle of the court. One way to think about doubles positioning is to imaging there is a constant length string connecting the two partners - if one of them gets pulled wide, the other moves more towards the center.

Besides - changing direction of a "sharp cross-court shot" to hit down the line is a difficult, low percentage shot at any level in the game. At lower levels, you simply don't have the skills. At higher levels, that cross-court shot is going to have more pace and spin which makes making that down-the-line shot more difficult. (But again, this being the internet, everybody can anecdotally make this shot all the time)

Your partner, knowing exactly where you stood at the net should basically have covered the easiest, most effective shot that the opponent had, which was a shot down the middle that you could not reach. It is still questionable whether you should have moved into the net at that point, but if I were your partner, I would have leaned a bit towards the middle (70% of my focus) - and still watch out for that down the line shot, but if the opponent can hit it close to the doubles line down the line where I could not reach, then I applaud the opponent for a good shot.

 

[gameboy]

Nope, doesn't matter what the previous shot was, if you hit a sharp crosscourt, you need to cover the middle.

You need to look at it from the person who is returning that shot. He really only has two choices, just chip block (which is easier since it was not a deep shot) that shoot down the line or hit a regular shot to the middle. That person can try another really sharp cross court, but that is a very low percentage shot.

This means that there was no reason for OP to cover the left half of the court and should have been down the middle for the returning shot.

We run these kind of drills all the time in the clinic. The pro always says "don't worry about the low percentage shots. If they hit it, great, play the next point. But more likely than not, you are going to win that point. Cover the easy shots".

 

[86golf]

Cindy- his partner was back at the baseline. This doesn't have anything to do with people being reluctant to hit a backhand volley

Just for clarity, my partner was camped in no-mans land at the time of the serve. I still call this two back even though he was inside the baseline.

I ran this scenario by my pro and he felt that my partner should have approached in with me once the ball went past the net man. He said my partner should have squeezed towards the middle when I was swung wide and once my return went past the net man he should have moved in. Sure, we give up the "around the net post" winner in the alley but we covered the more high percentage shot.

Thanks for all the feedback and a good lesson learned for both of us.