Serving or receiving in doubles???

[Draycott old man]

I've watched a lot of doubles matches lately!!! It seems to me in the professional game that pro's would rather receive a serve, as it so hard to keep a serve tight in doubles!!! Do you agree with me ????

 

[lodro]

I've watched a lot of doubles matches lately!!! It seems to me in the professional game that pro's would rather receive a serve, as it so hard to keep a serve tight in doubles!!! Do you agree with me ????

Not really 😂

 

[Fredrick]

I agree with Lodro but I have a question regarding serve receive rules in doubles

Do teams have to nominate which of the two players is going to serve or receive first ?

Here is why I ask.
Team AB wins the toss and chooses to serve. Player A gets ready to serve and sees that Player X is going to receive. So player Team AB switches the server to B. But then team XY promptly switches the receiver to Y . Team AB says , we are switching the server back to A then but the team XY says we wiil switch to Y to receive then from A.

Team AB can win the toss and choose to receive & same thing can occur.

How is this handled by the umpire ? Any rules on this ?


How does an umpire resolve this ?

 

[lodro]

I agree with Lodro but I have a question regarding serve receive rules in doubles

Do teams have to nominate which of the two players is going to serve or receive first ?

Here is why I ask.
Team AB wins the toss and chooses to serve. Player A gets ready to serve and sees that Player X is going to receive. So player Team AB switches the server to B. But then team XY promptly switches the receiver to Y . Team AB says , we are switching the server back to A then but the team XY says we wiil switch to Y to receive then from A.

Team AB can win the toss and choose to receive & same thing can occur.

How is this handled by the umpire ? Any rules on this ?


How does an umpire resolve this ?

I am sure some very knowledgeable player will soon give you the correct answer.
In the meantime here is my 2 cents worth:

I have observed that after the coin toss the umpire will ask the winner of the toss if they want to serve first or not.
After that is settled, he/she will ask the team that now serves first which one of the players has decided to serve first.
Once this is known the receiving team will choose who will recieve and from now on it is business as usual.

I am not quite sure myself if this sequence is then valid for the whole match or if it all starts up again beginning of every game, (without the coin toss of course.

 

[Fredrick]

I am sure some very knowledgeable player will soon give you the correct answer.
In the meantime here is my 2 cents worth:

I have observed that after the coin toss the umpire will ask the winner of the toss if they want to serve first or not.
After that is settled, he/she will ask the team that now serves first which one of the players has decided to serve first.
Once this is known the receiving team will choose who will recieve and from now on it is business as usual.

I am not quite sure myself if this sequence is then valid for the whole match or if it all starts up again beginning of every game, (without the coin toss of course.

Thanks. I knew it is better to choose to receive beause of this

As far as your comment about what happens in following games, I know how it works
If A served to X in first game , A will serve to Y in game 2 and so on. No need to decide before every game with coin toss.
If there is a deciding game, the receiver ONLY switches when either team reaches 5 points

 

[Der_Echte]

Team who won toss selects the server, then other team selects receiver. Games 2 and onward, the serving team chooses the server and the other team must receive in the opposite order of the previous game.

 

[Der_Echte]

So, in game 3, the "a" team could choose the person (player b) who did not serve first in game 1 to be serving first... but the other team would need to have the person who did not receive his serve in game 2 start receiving... so if player x received player "a" serve in the previous game, player x must receive serves from player "b" in the current game.

So basically, the serving team can choose after game 1, but the receiver must alternate from the previous game (so you do not have the same player receiving serves from same server to start the game)

 

[Brs]

I've watched a lot of doubles matches lately!!! It seems to me in the professional game that pro's would rather receive a serve, as it so hard to keep a serve tight in doubles!!! Do you agree with me ????

I don't think they have any trouble serving short and low. The opponent only needing to cover half the table is where I think the disadvantage to serving in doubles comes in.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

So, in game 3, the "a" team could choose the person (player b) who did not serve first in game 1 to be serving first... but the other team would need to have the person who did not receive his serve in game 2 start receiving... so if player x received player "a" serve in the previous game, player x must receive serves from player "b" in the current game.

So basically, the serving team can choose after game 1, but the receiver must alternate from the previous game (so you do not have the same player receiving serves from same server to start the game)

ITTF ruling doesn't work like that

A1 serve to B1,
then next game, B1 serves to A1,
and then A1 to B1 and then
B1 to A1 etc.

2.13.4
In each game of a doubles match, the pair having the right to serve first shall
choose which of them will do so and in the first game of a match the
receiving pair shall decide which of them will receive first; in subsequent
games of the match, the first server having been chosen, the first receiver
shall be the player who served to him or her in the preceding game.

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

I've watched a lot of doubles matches lately!!! It seems to me in the professional game that pro's would rather receive a serve, as it so hard to keep a serve tight in doubles!!! Do you agree with me ????

In professional games, service in doubles does not have the advantage like in singles.
in pro games, the ones who start to attack normally have the advantage.

So when comes to double receive, no matter if it is super tight, short or low etc, you can still attack the ball (especially with BH flicks since yester years)

At the end of the day, it makes no difference, as Pros are trained to handle serving or receiving.
What is more important in doubles is the partnership of your partner.

Sadly, in a lot of pro spaces, I don't see enough doubles training. Many times, they just do some "warm ups" in the training hall.

 

[lodro]

just making sure i got this correctly

In the deciding last game I am the server and i am 5 : 4 in the lead.
We change ends
I continue with my second serve but to the alternative receiver

Right ?????

 

[Tony's Table Tennis]

just making sure i got this correctly

In the deciding last game I am the server and i am 5 : 4 in the lead.
We change ends
I continue with my second serve but to the alternative receiver

Right ?????

Right