Beginner's guide
Beginner doubles tips for playing with your friends
If you’re new to tennis and want to start playing doubles down the park with your friends, it can be tough to know where to start.
Luckily, our expert coach Matt Smith is on hand with some beginner’s doubles tips to get you started playing with your mates.
Where do you stand?
First things first, where do you stand? There’s four of you on court – two either side of the net.
With your partner, decide who wants to play on the forehand side and who wants to play backhand. Generally, you will then look after your side of the court during the match when returning.
Here’s a handy guide on where to stand before a point starts:
Serving team
- Server – behind the baseline at the back of the court, either to the right or left side (depending on the score), ready to serve
- Servers partner – on the other half of the court to the server, up near the net, just inside from the tramlines, ready to volley and be a wall at the net
Returning team
- Returner – opposite side of the court and diagonal from the server, at or behind the baseline, ready to hit the ball back
- Returners partner – on the other half of the court to the returner, standing on the line of the service box, ready to move forward or back depending on the quality of the return (and being able to call the serve in or out)
Decide how you want to play
You might want to start just by rallying between each other but if you want to play points there are a couple of different ways you can do it.
You could play tie-breaks (first to seven points, or a match tie-break to 10), traditional games and sets (up to four or six games) or you could play whoever wins the most points in a set period of time.
If you aren’t confident with your serve, you can try playing with an overarm throw, an underarm feed and even just remove doubles faults, so you can’t lose the point off of the serve.
Check out our guide to scoring
It’s all about consistency
If you want just one tactic for when you start playing doubles, the best thing you can do is play consistently.
More points are lost by mistakes than won by winners at a recreational level, so just keeping the ball back and in court is an effective strategy for picking up more points.
How do you play more consistent? One useful tip is to hit cross court when you’re rallying, the longest distance of the court, and keep the ball going over the middle of the net – where it’s at its lowest.
Don’t be afraid to come to the net
Closing in at the net puts pressure on your opponents, even if you don’t feel the most confident in your volleys.
Even if you aren’t too comfortable at the net, just by being there it can force your opponents to play a tricky shot that they don’t want to hit and they might make more errors. Top tip: keep your racket chest high and in front of you, ready to block or ‘punch’ the ball.
Either way, being up at the net is a more attacking position in doubles and if a nice shot comes your way, you can put away a volley for a winner!
Keep the ball away from the net player
On the other side, you want to try and keep the ball away from the opposing net player if you can.
If you are the returner, try to hit back cross court to the server to prevent the net player from intercepting.
You can also use the lob – especially if both players are at the net. Top tip for your lobs – use your legs to help you get down and under the ball. Angle your racket head slightly facing up so you can make the ball raise up over your opponent’s head.
Remember if you hit it too lightly, they will have an easy smash – but too hard and it will likely go long. It’s all about control.
Have fun with your partner
Doubles is a social game and it’s all about having fun.
That means bringing the energy, lots of high fives and chatting with your partner after every point.