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Rule of the Week Question
I'm a club level player and now an ex-pat working in southeast Asia, mainly
Thailand. I've found Thai friends to play with over here and they practice
some unfamiliar mixed doubles 'rules'. It was my understanding that in
any doubles match, once a team takes their positions (say, Player A in deuce
court and Player B in ad court), they never change those positions when
receiving for the duration of the match. Here in Bangkok, after serving,
the partners change position so that in the deuce court, female players
serve to female players and male players serve to male players. I have
no idea why they do this other than the curious excuse that it 'evens the
power distribution'. That idea doesn't hold water because a server will
always serve to one player on one point and the other player on the next
point. Can you give me the full USTA (or international) rule that governs
the placement of mixed doubles players so I can straighten this situation
out? Thanks for being there, TennisONE.
Answer
Well, you were almost right. You were wrong that players must maintain
the same receiving position throughout the match, but you were right that
players cannot switch positions during a game or set. At the conclusion
of a set, players may change receiving positions, but never during a game
or set.
However, it sounds like an interesting twist to use during a "fun"
game.
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