In honor of the Australian Open,
let's look at the Australian doubles formation. The
Australian formation is executed by the serving team and
involves positioning the server's partner across the net
from the receiver's partner.(Instead of across the net from
the receiver). The server positions themselves very close to
the center mark, because they will be covering the other
side of the court, unless their partner pouches(more on that
later). Let's look at some reasons to use the Australian
formation.
1.
Take away the
cross-court return from the receiver-
if the receiver has been cracking your
serves cross-court with ease or damaging
effects, the Australian formation will
force them to return down the line, much
more difficult shot.
2. Protect
a weak stroke- let's say the
server has a weak backhand and their
team is losing points when they serve to
the add side(for right-handers) and the
return is hit well to their backhand.
Australian forces the return back to the
servers forehand side in this instance
3.
Break receiving
team's concentration/rhythm- nine
times out of ten the return is hit cross
court because it is the safest and most
natural shot. Returners don't even think
about the mechanics of it, but...if they
are forced to alter their return
(because their opponent is standing
right where they've been hitting it)
they begin to think a lot about how and
where to hit it. Many times, they don't
even make the return.
Next time we'll get into the specifics
of executing the Australian formation successfully in
Aussie Doubles2
