The fol­low­ing arti­cle is by guest con­trib­u­tor, Steve Tourdo.

What can you do when your part­ner won’t come to the net?

Dou­bles brings a com­po­nent to the game that can often be very chal­leng­ing. In fact, your partner’s tac­ti­cal approach may be so dif­fer­ent from yours that you swear they’re really on the opponent’s team!

It’s com­mon that two play­ers have dif­fer­ent tac­ti­cal ideas on how to win a dou­bles match because there are so many dif­fer­ent styles of play. What we’re talk­ing about today is a polar oppo­site team: one player is very aggres­sive and likes the net, but his part­ner only comes for­ward to shake hands at the end of the match.

This can be one of the most frus­trat­ing matches to play for the aggres­sive player. As he advances, his part­ner typ­i­cally backs up. He wants to keep the balls low and move for­ward but his is part­ner wants to stay back and put balls up in the air. When the aggres­sive player takes a stand at the net, every­thing goes to the deep part­ner so he gets no action at the net. It’s easy for a player who’s expe­ri­enc­ing this type of match to learn to hate dou­bles and pre­fer sin­gles. At least in sin­gles he gets to hit the ball! Read more