Doubles Tip for Team Positioning #5: Always exploit your opponents' positioning errors. If you've backed up to defend after sending your opponents an attackable ball, but your opponents fail to come in behind their attack, immediately hit deep and come in yourselves.
Doubles Tip for Team Positioning #4: Put the stronger player overall, including mentally, on the ad side, because more pressure, game points occur there.
Doubles Tip for Team Positioning #3: If other factors more or less balance out, put the player with the stronger overhead on the ad side, because the ad-side player will take most lobs down the middle.
Doubles Tip for the Team Positioning #2: If you lob your opponents, expect them to lob back. Keep your ad-side player around service-line depth until the opponent strikes the ball; from the service line, she will be able to hit an overhead on most lobs and easily retrieve those into her partner's deep corner.
Doubles Tip for the Team Positioning #1: Use alternative serving formations to disrupt the receiver's return patterns. One especially effective tactic is to use the Australian formation against a receiver on the ad side who, like so many players, loves to hit the inside-out forehand return. Taking that option away can leave him with no option he's comfortable trying.
