Rule of the Week

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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