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	Everything that I have said up to now about strokes, tactics, and so forth has had to do with playing singles. The singles game is the acme of tennis skill because it allows the widest range of attack and defence, strokes, tactics, and psychology, but the doubles and mixed doubles games have their own charm and fascination. Many people enjoy doubles more than singles, probably because they have to do less work, have a partner to blame for defeat and someone to listen to their gripes as they play. It fills their social need far better than singles. The mixed doubles game, while a completely unbalanced and, in many ways, uninteresting game, still brings sex and beauty on the court-that is, if you're lucky enough to have Gertrude Moran or someone like her, if there are any, as your partner. Just why I should write of either doubles or mixed doubles will probably remain a mystery, since during my long career I successfully defended the title of "the world's worst doubles player" over all comers throughout that time. The title was wished on me by Harold H. Hackett, a great doubles player of the past, who added the potent comment that I "parked my intelligence outside the stadium" because I dared to disagree with Mr. Hackett's idea of how doubles should be played in a Davis Cup match against Australia. The fact that R. N. Williams, II, and I won that Davis Cup doubles match, and that I won the United States Doubles Championship five times with three different partners, did nothing to change Mr. Hackett's views or deprive me of my title. Personally, I disagree completely with Mr. Hackett's valuation of my doubles, and, without fear, I am going to attempt to give an idea of the doubles and mixed doubles games. Doubles and singles are quite different games in the manner in which you use the shots of tennis. Singles is essentially a baseline game, with occasional net attacks. Doubles is a net game, with as little back-court play as possible. Singles is a game of ground strokes; doubles is service, volley, and smash, with the ground stroke an added necessity in returning service. Singles is the game of moderation, average pace, with peaks of great power or subtle finesse. Doubles is a game of extremes. It is all terrific attack, or slow, delicate finesse, with practically no average-pace shots. This is largely because there are smaller openings on a doubles court; two men are covering very little more territory in doubles than one does in singles. So you must take greater chances to get shots past them. In the old days, doubles found one team at the net with the other on the baseline, attempting to force them back and advance themselves. But they did not do so until they had forced the other team back. Today all four men are in at the net most of the time. The server's partner naturally stands in, and the server naturally follows his service in. That has been standard for years. Today the receiver's partner stands in, and the receiver attempts to follow his service return to the net, thus bringing all four men to close quarters on practically every point. It certainly breeds brilliant, sensational tennis, which thrills the gallery, sets a tremendous pace, eliminates long rallies, and piles up amazing numbers of errors and some incredible placements. But i wonder what would happen to this type of doubles against such great doubles teams of the past as William M. Johnston and C. J. Griffin, the Kinsey brothers, R. N. Williams, II, and Vincent Richards, George Lott and Lester Stoefen, Wilmer Allison and John Van Ryn, Ellsworth Vines and Keith Gledhill, Donald Budge and Gene Mako, to say nothing of such foreign pairs as Henri Cochet and Jacques Brugnon, Jean Borotra and Jacques Brugnon, Gottfried von Cramm and H. Henkel, F.J. Perry and G. P. Hughes,Jack Crawford and Harry Hopman, or Gerald Patterson and Norman E. Brookes. Somehow I feel that these teams of former days would have too much combined attack and defence for the modern game, and it would show up again that, even in doubles, the attack is overemphasized today. Doubles always is, or should be, a service battle. Service gives the attack and the net to the team serving, and that advantage should win them the game. One break through service usually settles a set in doubles. Once that is recognized, then obviously the most important shot in doubles becomes the service return: I am absolutely certain that any team that will put every service in play will win any doubles match. The average team today tries to do too much with the service return, and to follow in behind it, with the result that something like 50 per cent of their service returns are missed in the great majority of games. If they are lucky and happen to get a streak of good shots in one game, they may get a break, but most of the time the server wins so easily that it puts no pressure on him at all. The most effective service return in doubles requires little more than control. All you should set out to do is hit the ball cross-court hard enough and sharp enough so that the net man can't "poach" and reach it, but that is all. Let the server make his volley if he can. Do not try for a clean winner, or for such terrific speed that the server can't handle it, because if you do your percentage of errors will be much too high. The first great rule of good doubles is "Make 'em play it," which means, put your service return in and start the point, put the burden back on the server. Once the service is in play, then you should go out to win at the earliest moment. Second only to the importance of the return of the service is the use of the lob. This shot, which today is almost extinct in singles, is the favourite and, in fact, almost the only defence in doubles. Even off service you will find the lob of ten played. It should usually be tossed with a general cross-court tendency to the deep middle of the opponents' court in defence. This type of lob may have a tendency to make the other team uncertain which of the two players should handle it, whereas the straight shot should always be handled by the man over whose head the toss is made. The lob should always be smashed in the air if it is possible to reach. Do not drop it, and smash it off the bounce, since, 1. It is harder to time. 2. It drives you farther back into your court. 3. It gives you less angle. 4. It gives your opponents the chance to take the net away from you. 5. It leaves your partner alone at the net. In doubles, the lob-volley, made when all four men are close in at the net, is a very valuable variation of the volley. It should be played sparingly, sine e it must have a surprise element to win, and unless it wins outright it is fatal, since it is just a setup for a kill. Never forget that doubles is a team game. Every time you hit the ball, you must take into consideration not only your position but also that of your partner. You cannot afford to play a shot that may save you if by so doing you put your partner in an untenable position. Doubles position is largely one of mutual understanding. There are a few general rules for teamwork that can be learned, but on any individual point they may have to be thrown away, and one of the men must call on that peculiar thing known as "anticipation" to save the situation. Here are a few generalities: Read More Home