Mixed Doubles & TeamTennis
Your conference rules will generally limit you to what type of format you can run for your dual matches, but there’s no reason why you can’t experiment with your practices, and even non-conference, warm-up matches.
TeamTennis is the original format created by Billie Jean King in the 1970s, while the USTA now offers a similar format, Junior Team Tennis format. In TeamTennis, teams play abbreviated boys and girls singles and doubles matches and mixed matches, and count all games won in individual matches toward a team total. This keeps everyone interested in their teammate’s matches and is great for camaraderie.
If you have both a boys and a girls team, it might be useful to invite the girls to the boys practice or vice versa, or set up a pizza and tennis party on a weeknight or weekend and divide your players into two teams and have them play a TeamTennis match.
The official TeamTennis format runs like this.
Teams play one boy’s singles matches and one girls singles matches (one, six-game set, no-ad scoring).
Teams play one boy’s doubles match and one girls doubles match (one, six-game set, no-ad scoring).
Teams play two mixed doubles matches (one, six-game set, no-ad scoring).
Players can sub in for singles or doubles at anytime, but once a player leaves, he or she may not return to that match again.
Each team counts all games won. The team with the highest total of games at the end wins the match.
A Super Tie Break adds excitement by allowing the trailing team to come back at the end.
For example, if team A has five games less than team B at the end of regulation, and team A’s #1 mixed doubles team won the last game of their set, they can continue playing, earning one more point to their team total for every game won until the score is tied. The catch is, team A cannot lose a game or the dual match is over.
If team A’s #1 mixed doubles team wins five games in a row, the match is tied, and is decided by a tie break between the two #1 mixed doubles teams.
Obviously, you can play any variation of this format or these rules, use eight-game pro sets, play it co-ed or all one gender. TeamTennis matches are a great way to get your better players to mix with your lower players and to increase friendships among the social hierarchies that exist at every high school.
For more information on TeamTennis, visit their website.
