Mixed doubles strategy

[johndagolfer]

We barely lossed a mixed match yesterday.

The teams:

team one had the stonger guy with a good serve and ground strokes, above average volleys

The girl was decent. Consistent serve, good ground strokes, but a weak volley and return.

team two had a decent guy, with a decent serve, good volley,

The girl had an ok serve, but had really good groundstrokes and vollied pretty well.


During this match, If i got a chance to hit groundstrokes I generally won the point by setting up my partner with a really weak shot or forcing a ton of errors. My winners,forced to unforced errors was probably somewhere in the area of 4 or 5 to 1.

The problem is after the first set, which we won, I didn't get to touch nearly as many balls and I made a few more errors. The points would generally end with my partner making an error or feeding the other man down the middle (at least 15 balls). This was because the woman on the other side had such solid ground strokes and I really couldn't find a place to poach any of the balls before my opposing man did.

I really think we should have won this match we were up in both the 2nd set and tie breaker.

My question is. When you run into a situation where the opposing woman generally can control the point against the woman on the other side(where the man on the other side will get fed too often), do you have to take more chances. I feel I probably could have poached if I moved a little early, but I would have left the line wide open.

What do you guys think?

thanks

 

[sphinx780]

My inclination in that situation is to take a few more chances and try to change the composition of the point.

Yes, you're going to have a few more errors and leave the line open but you will also have your opponent thinking a little more on those ground strokes and keeping her from feeling as comfortable continuing the pattern.

With a match that close, those little changes can yield big results on the pressure points in many cases.

 

[sphinx780]

Duplicate post, sorry.

 

[5263]

did you woman do better at net or back?

 

[johndagolfer]

She played better in the back. She didnt' seem super comfortable at net especially with the faster balls. The problem with her staying back though is when she got into cross court rallies the other woman was more consistent and powerful(which is why I couldn't poach) and this would lead to a setup ball against us

 

[5263]

Maybe worth consideration would be to stay back with her in certain situations, like when she was returning and serving to the man,
so that you could cover some extra court for her and get something to attack to come in and try to finish.
In mixed you don't have to be as concerned about them taking the net as you can usually lob the lady worse case and turn that to a pretty big advantage.
just a thought based on the limited info

 

[Nellie]

I think that in doubles, in general, the key points are the first couple of hits. If you can take control in the first two shots, than you can dictate the point. If you cannot, the opponent can move the ball away from the stronger player and you won't be able to force yourself to receive the ball without taking a big risk (i.e., leaving the court open).

So if you can poach/switch, plan a serve/return, etc. to put yourself into the point, do it fast.

 

[MyFearHand]

If you're not worried about making friends hit your shots hard at the woman when she is at net.