How to Defeat Offensive Doubles Teams

In tennis some doubles teams prefer to play very aggressive tennis and go for early winners. These types of teams aim to play as short points as possible, so to beat them, the focus is to extend the rallies and force them to play "one more shot".

 Its important to remember while they may have a few nice points or "highlight" shots, they will probably get tired pretty soon due to the constant hard-hitting.

To beat a team like that, deep lobs and soft close to the net drop shots are key. Moving them around the court with shots that constantly get them out of position will affect their ability to go for winners all the time.

There are a few more things you can try:

1. Use a Two-Back Doubles Formation

With your partner, you can try the two-back formation, meaning that you both stay at the baseline instead of one starting at the net.

Staying at the baseline as the point starts will have you in a better position to defend against fast balls coming your way, and its also safer since if you are close to the net the opponents might try to hit you.

2. Hit Down the Middle

Its always good advice to hit down the middle in doubles, it limits the available angle for your opponents to move you with their shots and since we want the rally to last as long as possible, it does so by reducing the chance of missing wide since you're hitting down the middle.

It can also be trouble for the opponents that don't communicate well and get confused about which one of them will take the shot in the middle, forcing them to hit low quality shots due to rush or even completely miss.