Doubles Only Tennis Podcast

Mixed Doubles Strategy: Advice for Ladies & Guys, Formations, Tactics, & Stories

• Will Boucek • Episode 265

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Mixed doubles isn't actually much different from men's or women's doubles when it comes to developing a strategy. However, several things happen more often in mixed. It's good to know what those are and how to handle them.

This episode will help you think about mixed doubles with clear rules for serve order, return sides, and court position that help you win.

  • The differences between the girl and the guy in mixed
  • How girls can deal with faster pace
  • How guys can deal with slower pace and lobs
  • Who should serve first? Not always the guy
  • Who should play the ad side?
  • When to adjust your return positioning
  • Using lobs to neutralize opponents
  • When to play two back
  • When to target the girl
  • Why guys need to STOP COACHING!
  • Stories from my own mixed doubles matches

If you have more questions about mixed doubles, send them my way!

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**Other Free Doubles Content**

Framing Mixed Doubles Assumptions

Key Differences Between Men And Women

Practical Advice For Women Players

Guidance For Men: Be Active, Not Ego

Net Poaching When Pace Increases

Team Dynamics And Responsibility

Mixed Doubles Myths Debunked

Return Position And Lob Priorities

Targeting, Matchups, And Weakness Hunting

Case Study: 9-0 Tactics And Adjustments

Beating The Lob With Two-Back

SPEAKER_00

Today I'm going to talk about mixed doubles. It is a topic that I haven't covered in a while, and recently I've had several questions from some of you surrounding mixed doubles. So I wanted to dedicate this podcast episode entirely to that. So I'll cover some advice for the ladies, advice for the guys, some general kind of strategy and tactics that tend to work on the mixed doubles court. And then at the end, I'll share some stories from my own mixed doubles matches, scenarios where my partner and I made some adjustments to kind of turn some matches around. And I think by the end of this, you'll have a good sense of kind of what to look for on the mixed doubles court and some different uh ideas on things you can do with your mixed doubles partner to win more matches. Before we dive into all that, uh a couple of quick announcements. So, number one, shout out to all the new tennis tribe members. Thank you so much for signing up. That again continues to enable me to create this free content and not rely on paid ads, which I'm trying to avoid, as I've mentioned in the past. So thank you for that. If you're not a Tennis Tribe member and you want to learn more, I'll link to it in the show notes. Uh we recently did a webinar that was about 40 minutes long on the Australian formation. So I dove really deep into that. Um there was recently an AMA podcast episode, which you heard the first part of if you're listening to the free version of the podcast. Uh and then this past week I did a um point analysis from a mixed doubles match actually that I played earlier this year. Um, it was a really fun kind of nine-ball, nine-tenball rally. Um, and I analyzed a lot of all the different shots that um happened. There was like some switches, there was uh both players getting to the net, there were some lobs involved. So there was a lot going on during that point, and I kind of broke it down over the course of about five to ten minutes in the recent member lesson. Uh announcement number two, the surf strategy course. It has been delayed and delayed and delayed. Uh, with all the content that I'm creating for the membership and then the free content I'm creating for the podcast and the Instagram and YouTube and the newsletter, uh, it's just been really overwhelming to have to create even more content. Um, but I am making progress. So I'm a little over halfway done with the Serve Strategy course. I'm thinking at this point it's going to be released around Christmas time. It's going to be free for club level members. And then if you don't want to sign up for a membership, but you want the course, uh, I'll sell it for um a one-time fee as well. So uh keep an eye out for that. I'll have more announcements coming soon, but um, it is going to be a very uh big deep dive into mostly regular formation in terms of serve strategy. I may do uh some different uh courses or content or maybe some webinars on uh other formations like like I did last month for the Australian formation. So we we may do that in the future for iFormation as well. Um and then announcement number three, this is the last one, uh the rally trip in Indian Wells. Um we have spots available still. If you sign up during December, you get$100 off uh per person. Um we are gonna spend three nights at the La Quinta Resort and Tennis Club, which is the premier tennis club uh in the Indian Wells area. A lot of the top pros play there and practice there or stay there and practice there. Um, so you'll probably see some of the top pro players uh at the hotel. Um we're gonna have six hours of tennis clinics. Uh, we're gonna do a one and a half hour clinic with me, um, a couple of 90-minute clinics with the La Kinta coaches where I'll be on the court with them. Um so I'll be kind of walking around, giving you personalized advice. And then, of course, we'll go to the tennis tournament each day. Uh, one day we actually have courtside seats uh down low on Stadium One. So we'll be watching uh from up close as well. So it's gonna be a fun three days. We'll get to hang out, talk doubles, um, have some meals, have some drinks. It'll be a ton of fun. So if you're interested in that, I'll link to it in the show notes as well. So let's dive into mixed doubles. Um, so for the purpose of this podcast, there was a few different ways I could do this, right? There's um I'm familiar with USTA mixed doubles. So in USTA mixed doubles, you have to combine for a certain level. Um, so there might be 8-0 mixed, which means you can have a 3-5 girl and a 3-5 guy, or you can have a 4-0 girl and a 3-0 guy, or a 4-0 guy and a 3-0 girl. For the purpose of this podcast, I'm gonna assume you and your partner are the same USTA rating. But what that means is the guy is typically a little stronger. So, two 4-0s at the USTA level, if you translate that over to UTR, usually the guy is a little bit stronger because USTA ratings are a little bit different than UTR. So, as I talk through all these strategies, I want you to keep in mind that the guy is going to be a little bit stronger player in um each of these. We can maybe do another podcast episode in the future on scenarios where the girl's the stronger player. I've certainly played mixed matches at the open level where I'm playing with a girl who is better than me. Um, and it definitely uh can throw the opponents off as it did in the match that I played. But again, for the the purpose of this episode, we're gonna um assume the guy is a slightly stronger player. So to start out, we have to talk about what what is the difference in mixed versus men's and women's doubles? Um, what is the difference between the the lady and the guy on the court? So typically the girls are a little bit shorter, so we have to keep that in mind, especially when both players get to the net. Typically, the girl is not quite as fast. So if we're going to drop shot one of the players, we're probably better off drop shotting the girl. Um, typically the girl has a little bit slower serve. However, a lot of uh girls' serves can give the guys fits because they try to go for too much on those returns, or a lot of the girls can hit a really slow serve that kind of skids through the court that gives guys a lot of difficulty. Um but typically the serves are slower. Um, and then girls are also can be more consistent and have better lobs. So a lot of ladies at the 3-0 to 4-0 level are really good at lobbing. A lot of guys at the 3-0 to 4-0 level never use the lob. They don't hit lobs because they like to hit with pace. So the flip side of that, the guys are typically a bit taller, they're a little bit faster, their serves are bigger, uh, and they can be more erratic, especially if they don't utilize the lob and don't play very smart, which you'll definitely run into at the USTA level. So I'm gonna start with some advice for the girls, just some kind of common things that I see on the mixed doubles court that girls struggle with. Um, maybe you typically play women's doubles and you're playing mixed for the first time, or you just don't play a lot of mixed and and you don't recognize that you need to make some of these adjustments. So the first one is to back up when you're returning to buy yourself time, especially on the guy's first serve. So I've seen this a lot where the girl continues to, you know, in ladies' doubles, maybe she returns from inside the baseline, but then all of a sudden she's on the mixed court and she's inside the baseline, and that serve is coming at her with an extra 10, 20, 25 miles an hour, and she doesn't have as much time. So recognize that, girls, and back up if the guy has a really powerful, uh, high-paced first serve. Um, number two, what I would recommend before your match, if you can, is practice some reaction volleys against pace. So if you can get your doubles partner or ball machine or your coach, um, if you've got a match next weekend and you have a lesson coming up, um, go up to the net, play pretty close to the net, and have them hit some really fast uh balls at you and practice some of those reaction volleys. Because a lot of times when you're at the net in your ladies' league or a women's tournament, um, the volleys are a little bit easier because the forehands or the backhands aren't being hit with as much pace. So you want to get used to that if you can before your match. Um, number three, don't be afraid to back up to the baseline. Um, so if you're struggling against that pace, maybe you didn't have time to work on those reaction volleys, or maybe you're just not that good at them, you're more comfortable at the baseline. That's okay. It's okay to move back to the baseline. I've played mixed doubles matches where I've pulled my partner back to the baseline, even on my own serve. So don't be afraid to do that if you're not being helpful at the net. Uh, number four, use the lob against aggressive net players, especially against guys. So I mentioned earlier that guys are a bit taller, they're a bit faster and kind of more explosive at the net. This also means that it means that generally they have a bigger wingspan so they can cover more area at the net. So it's hard to get the ball by them in a lot of cases. Um, it's definitely true when I play mixed doubles, I like to be very aggressive at the net. I'm about six feet tall, so I've got a pretty decent wingspan. Um, and when I play a lot of ladies, it really frustrates them because they're not used to that. So the way to neutralize me when I'm at the net is to lob. And that is a great way to kind of get rid of that or take out that factor of the guy being super aggressive at the net. So don't be afraid to use the lob. Um when the guy is back at the baseline. Let's assume the guy is really good from the baseline. He hits the ball harder than you, he hits the ball with more spin. Um don't give him a rhythm. Don't try to hit the ball hard and outpace him. Junk it up. Uh use a lot of slice, use a lot of lobs, change direction. Um, don't let him get into a rhythm. Now that this won't be the case against all guys. Um, certainly for um some guys, they're a lot better at the net, they're not that good at the baseline, but sometimes you'll face a guy who's good at the baseline, he hits the ball harder with more pace and is still consistent. You don't want to get him into a rhythm and hit hit the same ball to him every time. So if you can try to redirect, try to uh create some different spins and give him a different look every single time. And then you should also be asking your partner for help in that scenario. Uh and then last, the there was a question on the podcast uh a couple of episodes ago on the the AMA podcast. Um, and I'm not sure that if this was in the member section or the uh free section, but the question was about when the girl's at the net and two guys are hitting really hard cross-court, what do you do? And I wanted to answer that here real briefly. Um, the move here is to move earlier. So when the ball is moving faster cross-court than you're used to. So if you're in the ladies league, the ball's moving pretty slow cross-court. When you want to poach, you've got kind of your timing down. Because the ball is moving faster, you have to move faster. And you're not going to be able to move forward and backwards as much because that ball is moving too quickly. So I would move uh earlier on your poach and then stay closer to the net because that's going to make the volley a bit easier. Um, go back to that AMA episode if you want more on that, because I dove a little bit deeper into the answer to that question. But um, that's how I would think about that when you're at the net and the two guys are hitting cross-court. You know, how can you help them out, especially if the guy on your side, if your partner is not in a great cross-court matchup, but he's still hitting with a lot of pace with the opponent, you're going to need to help him out sometime, some somehow. Um, so let's move on to some advice for the guys. Uh, number one is uh don't show off. Um, this is kind of a funny one, but I see a lot of guys trying to hit the ball really hard or go for these ridiculous baseline shots and trying to overpower the girl or overpower the other guy and they get into this ego battle. Um, this is not a good idea. Don't overhit from the baseline, especially. Number two, stay very active at the net. This alone has won me tons of mixed matches against more consistent, um, theoretically, I guess better players or players who would beat me probably on the singles court. Just staying active at the net is going to really frustrate uh both the guy and the girl on the other side of the net. So you really want to be active, especially when your partner is rallying against the opposing guy. If she's not as good at from the baseline as the opposing guy, then you want to help her out as much as possible. So you need to be poaching and faking and uh just be really active to help her out when she's back at the baseline. Number four, uh, this is one I've talked about before. I actually um did a webinar on teamwork. I think it was back in April of this year. So if you're a member, definitely go back and check that out if um this is important to you. But number four is don't coach your partner. Um, this is true of girls too. I would say if there's like an 8-0 match and it's a 4-0 girl and a 3-0 guy, sometimes the girl will coach the guy. Uh, but generally, especially if the guy is a slightly better or significantly better player than the girl, sometimes I see the guy coaching the girl. And I even talk to some of the girls after the matches, and they say, you know, I can't play with him. He just coaches me the whole time. Um, don't coach your partner. You want to encourage them, you want to make them feel comfortable. They probably know that they're one of the weaker players on the court already. So you don't want to put pressure, put more pressure on them. Um, so ask yourself, you know, where how can you make them comfortable on the court? If my partner hates her backhand volley, I'm gonna use formations and different tactics to hide her backhand volley so that she can be comfortable and hit more forehand volleys. So figure out ways to make her comfortable and do not coach your partner or tell them what to do. And then related to that, um, the fifth piece of advice is just kind of take responsibility when you can. So, um, like I said, they know if they are the weaker player on the court. And really, with all this advice, it doesn't just apply to girls or guys, it can apply to men's or women's doubles too, if you uh if you are the better player. Um, you really want to be taking responsibility when you can. So if your partner double faults and loses the their service game, for example, it's obviously their fault that they double faulted. You can't really do a whole lot about that. But what you can do is say, you know, that game wasn't your fault. I missed that volley at 15 all. And if I had made that, we still would have been in that game. So that's my bad. Let's move on, let's get the next one. So that lets them know that you've got their back. You're not going to, you know, kind of blame them. And it takes the pressure off of them a little bit as well, so that they can play with a bit more freedom and and not feel um feel like that the the match is on their racket being the weaker player. So let's move to kind of general mixed-double strategy. Um, a couple of common myths and uh rules that you potentially play by that uh I may um disagree with a little bit. So number one is the guy should serve first. Uh, this is just simply not true. Um, I've played plenty of mixed matches where my partner and I win the match, 6'4, 6'4, for example, and I get broken twice, and my partner never gets broken once. Um, the reality is the player that serves first should be the player that's most likely to hold serve. And that not only includes who has the better serve, but who is the better server's partner. So when I've played mixed matches in the past, there are some matches where I objectively have a better serve than my partner. My serve has more power, it has more accuracy, it has more spin, I double fought less. I definitely have a better serve. But I get broken more because I am so active at the net on her serve. So, in that scenario, even though I have a better serve, I want her serving first. Uh, especially if she's a good baseline player. Because even if she's not hitting uh uh getting a bunch of return errors, which she probably will because I'm active at the net, but even if she's not, she's solid from the baseline and I'm more comfortable at the net. So we're getting into kind of our ideal positions in that scenario. So don't assume the guy should serve first. In a lot of cases, the guy should serve first, but not in every case. So you want to consider uh some of those factors before deciding on that. Uh, number two, the guy should play in the ad court. This is a common kind of myth, or the stronger player should play in the ad court. Uh, again, just not always true. Um, if the guy is the stronger player and he really likes his forehand and the girl likes the deuce court, of course, the guy should play in the ad court. Um, with the guy's forehand in the middle, he can kind of cover a bit more of the court over onto her side. But there's tons of scenarios where the guy should not play in the ad court. Um, one good argument for this is that the deuce court returner gets more return points. So at the end of the match, if the guy's the slightly better player, I'd rather the guy have 30 return points and the girl only have 27 than vice versa, right? So to do that, you put the guy in the deuce court because the deuce court gets more return points throughout the course of the match. Um, it also applies a little bit more pressure on the opposing uh team when they're serving. So if the girl's in the deuce court, just for the sake of argument, assuming like she's the worst returner, um, or the team is a little bit worse on her returns, then you're gonna be down level 15, then it's 15 all, then you're down 1530, versus if the guy's in the deuce court, you have a little bit of scoreboard pressure in each game, assuming the team is better with him returning. So the idea that the stronger player or the idea that the guy should play in the ad court is really just not true. Um, there was a 9-0 mixed match where I was captaining this team a couple of years ago, and the guy played in the ad court because he really liked his backhand. And this was two, four, five players. The girl played in the deuce court because she was more comfortable rallying from there, and she liked her forehand cross court. And I talked to them before the match and I said, Hey, have y'all thought about putting your strengths in the middle and having the guy play in the deuce court? And they were like, Well, we we like returning from this side, so we're just gonna do this. And I was like, Okay, you know, whatever whatever y'all want to do. And they lose the first set and then they went and flipped it. And the guy put returned from deuce, had his backhand in the middle, which is a big strength. The girl returned from ad in the second set, had her forehand in the middle, which she preferred, and they turned the match around and ended up coming back and winning that second set. So So there's tons of examples of this of flipping return sides, but again, just don't assume the guy or the stronger player should play in the ad court. If the guy is better at the baseline, again, and it's four hands in the middle, then it is a little bit easier for him to cover more of the middle of the court. The next one, adjust your return position based on the pace of the server. This is something I mentioned earlier. You want to adjust it not only for the guy's first serve, but also for any weak second serve. So if the girl hits a really slow second serve, you've got to move up. So you probably between all four serves, so the opponents, uh the guy's first serve, the guy's second serve, the girls first serve, the girls' second serve, you might have a slightly different uh position in terms of depth for all four of those. So you want to really be aware of the pace of each of those serves and adjust your return position accordingly. Um, another thing to keep in mind when both players get up to the net, it's generally better to lob the girl. The girl is typically the shorter player. Um, and girls, because they have a little bit less pace on their serves, they also have a little bit less pace on their overheads. So it's a little bit easier to defend if you leave that lob short. So when both players get to the net, uh lobbying the girl is generally a better strategy. Um, the faster player on your team may need to cover the lob, which again is typically going to be the guy. So you want to kind of strategize around that. Um, I've talked in the past about when you and your partner both get to the net, you want to use this kind of staggered formation where the person on the ball side is a little bit closer to the net and the person cross-court from the ball is a little bit further back. But in mixed doubles, that doesn't always uh that's not always the best way to go about it. Because if the guy is significantly faster than the girl, he needs to be responsible for covering the lobs. And you can, um, if you're the guy, you can give the girl the freedom to play as close as she wants to the net. And you have to be a little bit more um aware of the opponent's probability of lobbing. So keep that in mind. Um, if there's a significant gap in terms of player speed and um ability to cover that lob, then the faster player may want to cover the lob. Um, on neutral balls, go at the girl. Um if the girl is a slightly weaker player, which in this example, um, like I talked about at the beginning, she is, then on any neutral balls, when they both get to the net, or if they're playing two back and they're both at the baseline, just go at the slightly weaker player. Um again, this is something that applies to women's doubles, men's doubles, whatever. Um, if you have an approach shot and both opponents are up, just go at the girl. So neutral balls, you want to go at the slightly weaker player. And then another thing you want to keep in mind is to find a weakness for the guy. So this is really important because a lot of mixed doubles matches that I've seen in the past, um, where the guy has like a really strong, say, forehand from the deuce court or is a really strong net player, like me, for example. I'm really good at the net, I'm not so good at the baseline. So if you were to play me, you should find that weakness and lob me a lot and force me to start playing from the baseline. If the opponent is really good from the baseline and has a great forehand, try lobbying them over to the ad court and see if he can hit his forehand from there. Um, move the guy around and figure out what area of the court he's a little bit weaker from, even though he, in this example, is the stronger player, because that's going to pay dividends. Because you can't always go at the girl. That's certainly not going to work, um, especially if if it's only a slight difference in terms of skill level. So, last I want to go over a couple of stories. So, this first one is a story from uh from 9-0. Um, so when I used to play 9-0, I was playing with a 4-0 partner. I was the 5-0 guy. Um, on again, this is this is a little different example than you know, 4-5-4-5, but uh still wanted to share this with you. So, on my serve and return games, what I would do, I don't have the strongest serve. Um, so I don't get a lot of free points just off of hitting really good serves. So, what I had her do is she would play super close to the net, and I would just try to win the point from the baseline. So, as the 5-0 guy, typically we're playing two, four, five players, and I can kind of win that cross-court rally, whether it's with the guy or with the girl. And since she's playing super close to the net, they want to go at her since she's the 4-0 girl, I'm a 5-0 guy. But since she's playing so close to the net, they struggled to get her to miss. She would just get her racket on it and it would go over for a volley winner. And of course, to execute this, you really want to work on those reaction volleys if you are the girl. But that was a tactic that worked really well for us. And it was just basically taking advantage of matchups, right? I'm the 5-0 guy, they're both 4-5 players, I can win from the baseline. There's not a whole lot they can do about it. Um, and having my partner play really close to the net allowed uh or basically forced them to continue to go back at me from the baseline. On her serve and return games, I would be super active at the net and I would get beat down the line a lot, but I would force tons of return errors and then return plus one errors. So that would allow my partner to win her service games and then also a lot of her return points. Um, if she hit a good return cross-court, I was poaching on almost every one of them. Eventually, you know, after poaching for the first two, three, four return games, I would start to fake a bit as well because I knew they were trying to come down the line. But just creating that doubt in their mind is huge. And again, we're thinking about matchups here. So in this scenario, I'm at the net. My partner's a 4-0 girl at the baseline. She's having to rally against two 4-5 players. That's not a good matchup for us. So I've got to do something to uh to help her out. Now, there was one team that we faced where the guy he returned from the deuce court. So um, I'm gonna try to create this visual for you. So the 4-0 girl, my partner, is serving to the deuce court to a 4-5 guy. I'm being very active, the net. What he figured out is he can just lob me every time, and he had a very, very good lob off of her serve. They were landing within three to five feet of the baseline every time. And we won the first set, anyways, 7-6. Um, it was a very close set, but we didn't hold her service game once. So eventually I realized I'm just not helping at all. He is able to lob me down the line. I'm having to switch, and he's winning a down-the-line rally with her, and I'm not able to help. So on her service games, when she served this guy in the Deuce court in the second set, I stepped all the way back to the baseline. I played two back, and it actually worked really well. Um the first few returns, he actually missed, even though there's no net player, because he didn't really have a target. He was trying to hit out on it after lobbying those returns for most of the first set, and he missed some of them. And any return he got in the middle of the court, I was able to take with my forehand, and then we were able to kind of dictate from there. And in the second set, we won, I think it was 6-1 or 6-2, and she held uh both of her service games. So that was a great adjustment that we were able to make that you need to keep in mind as well. So again, we're we're trying to create these positive matchups uh in these mixed doubles matches. Uh, there was another match I played at an open level. Um, I played with a 4-5 player. She is a very strong player from the baseline, not super comfortable at the net. Um, so what we did on my returns and my service games is I had her play back at the baseline with me. So imagine I'm serving on my first serves. I think I kept her up at the net in case we got our weaker turn. But if I miss my first serve, I would have her come back to the baseline with me and I would hit a second serve and try to serve and volley, or maybe serve, hit the next shot, and then get forward as soon as I can. So that would get us into kind of our ideal positions. She, I'm keeping her comfortable by keeping her back at the baseline. And then I'm in a comfortable spot by getting to the net as soon as possible. On all of my return points, whether it was first or second, she stayed back at the baseline with me. I would hit the return and try to get forward as soon as I could. So again, we're trying to get uh our partner into a more comfortable position. And then the times I've played open with another 5-0 player, typically I play pretty straight up in that scenario. Um, a lot of the 5-0 girls are just as skilled as me, if not uh better than me, um, because uh a lot of them played, you know, high-level D1. Um I did play college tennis, but it was Division III. And uh typically we can play pretty straight up because when you're playing it at that level, um the players are very, very skilled and there's not a whole lot of weaknesses in terms of um just massive holes in their game that you can take advantage of. So usually it was pretty straight up, but hopefully a lot of these principles you can kind of take away and apply to some of your own mixed doubles matches. Um if there's anything I haven't covered or you have follow up questions on, uh definitely reach out to me. Um if you are a tennis tribe member, um, I'm gonna try to do some more point analysis and some of those mixed doubles points as well. So um keep an eye out for those coming soon. But thank you all again for listening to this episode, and I will talk to you all soon.