Will Blumberg is the #93 ranked doubles player on the ATP Tour. He was a 10-time All-American at North Carolina and made the finals of the 2024 Dallas Open where this conversation was recorded.
Will and I sat down on his day off in Dallas to discuss his career, the pro doubles tour, and strategy.
You'll learn:
Will also shares the advice he gives his fiancee and mom to help them in their adult league doubles matches, as well as what he did in practice that day in Dallas. At the end, we discuss the popularity of doubles.
Keep an eye on Will Blumberg throughout this season as I don't expect him to stay outside the top 50 for much longer.
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Will Blumberg is the #93 ranked doubles player on the ATP Tour. He was a 10-time All-American at North Carolina and made the finals of the 2024 Dallas Open where this conversation was recorded.
Will and I sat down on his day off in Dallas to discuss his career, the pro doubles tour, and strategy.
You'll learn:
Will also shares the advice he gives his fiancee and mom to help them in their adult league doubles matches, as well as what he did in practice that day in Dallas. At the end, we discuss the popularity of doubles.
Keep an eye on Will Blumberg throughout this season as I don't expect him to stay outside the top 50 for much longer.
-----
**Join the #1 Doubles Strategy Newsletter for Club Tennis Players**
**Doubles Strategy Courses** These video courses will help you play smarter doubles and make winning easier.
**Doubles Ebooks** These guides offer proven advice to improve your doubles strategy.
You're about to hear my conversation with Will Bloomberg from the Dallas Open. Will is the number 110 ranked ATP doubles player, at least at the time of this conversation. He ends up making the finals in Dallas, losing a very close match 10-8 in the third set tiebreaker and his ranking improved to 93, so he is on the rise right now and definitely somebody to keep an eye on throughout the year because I feel like he's playing at a very high level, much higher than number 93 in the world. But in this conversation we talk about in-match adjustments. He talks about why he and his partner switched return sides after the first set. I also asked him for advice during 10-point tiebreakers. How do you pick up your energy and play well during those pressure moments? We talk a little bit about practice. He has a specific game that he likes to play a lot during practice during tournaments. We also talk about how to adjust with different partnerships. So he played with nine different partners last year and had to make a lot of adjustments. So he talks a little bit about that. And then I ask him for some advice on net play strategy.
Speaker 1:This conversation was recorded during the launch of the net play strategy masterclass, so I asked him about that, and he shares some advice that he has been giving to his fiancee, as well as his mom, who sound like they are club level doubles players as well. So that will be helpful for you. And then he kind of differentiates between the body forehand and body backhand serve. So this will kind of depend on your skill level if you have the capability to hit both of those locations. But if you do, he does have some really good advice for that. And then, of course, at the end we talk about how to make doubles more popular. So, without further delay, enjoy this brief conversation with Will Bloomberg. Hey, everyone, we are here at the Dallas Open with Will Bloomberg. Will welcome to the show. Yeah, thanks, thanks for having me. So how has Dallas been so far?
Speaker 2:It's been great. We had a good match last night. Didn't start so good, lost the first set in like 20 minutes maybe, but quick conditions and even though the balls kind of get a little big, but balls are moving fast and really enjoying it and happy to play with my North Carolina teammate, rinky Hijikata, so enjoying it.
Speaker 1:Were there any adjustments you made after the first set to kind of turn it around? I'll be honest, I wasn't here because there was only one doubles match yesterday and I lived like an hour away, so I didn't want to make the drive.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I actually started returning on the ad side and after the first set we switched and I was on the do side, he was on the ad side. So, that was kind of a major adjustment for us.
Speaker 1:Why did you all make that adjustment? Because you all played together before, so this isn't like a new partnership.
Speaker 2:We just felt like we weren't really making many returns. I wasn't doing much on the ad side and he wasn't making a ton on the do side. So we just switched to give him a new look and give us a new look, and we were able to just put more balls in the court and make them earn a few more points. So it was a good decision, I think.
Speaker 1:Yeah, obviously so. So you all went to a 10 point tiebreaker, the 250s. We've got this shortened format. Do you have any advice for listeners with 10 point tiebreakers or kind of pressure situations or anything that you use to try to focus and kind of play your best in those situations?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think they're so tough I mean, even for us they're just so brutal. I think I just try to pick up my energy. That's one thing I can control is not being down or losing a matter of how the last set went or whether you won or lost. Pick it up and fire with energy, because things can happen so quick. I mean, sometimes you look up and you're up 5-1,. Sometimes you look up and somehow you're like 0-4 and you just don't know what happened. But all you have to do is just have good energy and have good focus and you'll put yourself in the best chance to win. It doesn't mean that you will. You know, unfortunately, a lot of our matches are decided on these two or three point margins and in the end but you know, just pick your best spot. I don't think. You know, let the nerves don't let the nerves get the best of you. Just continue to play on your plays and do the best you can and let the rest happen.
Speaker 1:How do you pick up your energy? What do you do specifically?
Speaker 2:I just think you make a point to pump yourself up more, bring more energy, Like jump around a little bit yeah jump around, move around, get your partner going. You know kind of pump each other up, you know say let's go, let's go, let's do this, you know instead of kind of just moping around. I'm more quiet sometimes, so that's more of an effort for me, whereas some people are the opposite, but yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, so a lot more kind of physical movement staying on your toes things like that. So today was an off day for you. You got to watch your partner play singles. What did the off day kind of look like as a whole? And then I wanted to have to practice specifically.
Speaker 2:Sure, so I woke up this morning at like eight and I actually practiced at nine. I wanted to practice here at the main site. This year we're, you know, practice courts are at Dallas Country Club, match courts here. So I wanted to be able to hit here at the court. So I hit nine to 10. So I came over here, hit nine to 10, you know, warmed up, did some two up to back to work on some volleys and backs, and then we played like some points and after practice just stretched, walked back to the hotel. Then I actually went to the George Bush presidential exhibit just here and checked it out. I wanted to check it out George W Bush Watch they have like a thing on the 9-11 Memorial and different exhibits there, and yeah. So went there and then walked back over here, had some treatment, watched drinky play and now I'm here here with you.
Speaker 1:So practice, you said you did a little two up to back. Who else was practicing with you it?
Speaker 2:was me, huntley Allen, and two of the guys from India that played first lamins and with for this year, both good players. I wouldn't do it justice and I might butcher their name, so I want to be. I'll be respectful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, VJ Rajanth, I believe, is one and the other name. I would also butcher. I spoke with them after their first win and they looked, yeah, they looked really good. So what else did you do in practice?
Speaker 2:I like to get into kind of the details Quite literally we just hit up the middle you know both guys, similar to a devil's practice or devil's warmup, wherever you are, just, you know, warmup down the line, down the line, volleys, overheads, you know, kind of an extended warmup for us, probably not as quick as five minutes, but 10 minutes or so, and then two up to back is, you know, for those who don't know, it's just a game where you have two people up and two people back at the baseline, two people at the net, the net players feed in. First ball comes, you know, somewhere through you where you can volley and then the points open. So it's kind of a game that a lot of pros play to move around and be playing but also kind of continue your warmup. So we play that to 21, switch every five points. So it's just a good, good game to you know, start working on movement, seeing the ball and then before you kind of take serves and get into the point, play.
Speaker 1:And then what about for tomorrow? Do you watch the opponents that you're going to play, or do you feel like you've already scouted them? How does that work for you?
Speaker 2:I've I've only I've played, you know, respect respectively one player on each team, so I know them a little bit, but I'd love to watch. You know, hopefully try to watch some of their match today. I'm not sure if we play tomorrow. It's possible that we play Friday, so we'll see. You know, hopefully play tomorrow and you know we can keep our momentum rolling, but it's also possible that we don't.
Speaker 1:So okay, so you'll try to go out there, though, and watch the match.
Speaker 2:Try to watch some, or try to watch online.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, I know YolzMatch yesterday was not available, at least on the tennis channel plus. It wasn't because I tried to pull it up from home and couldn't find it, but it looks like today they had a few cameras out there, so yeah, they have the matches.
Speaker 2:I'm not sure where they're streamed. And you know, the ATP did a nice thing this year, I think the media rights changed and so we can request the streams so we can watch our matches and, you know, kind of analyze what we did right, what we did wrong. So that's a nice thing. It is nice, that seems like something that should have been done a long time ago.
Speaker 1:So how do you balance your schedule with ITF, atp managing partners? I was looking back through your schedule last year and you played a lot of tournaments with a lot of different partners.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's tricky. I actually you can fact check me after this. I'm not exactly sure, but since college since after college I'm not sure that I had to play any futures I think I just went right into the challenger level and above. But yeah, it's difficult. I mean like, for example, a tournament like this. I'm not sure what the cut was, maybe 180 or something or 160.
Speaker 2:But so you need to combine your ranking. For those at home who don't know or unfamiliar, you can enter a tournament with a singles ranking or doubles ranking and you can enter singles, singles or doubles doubles or singles doubles, so you get seated on your doubles, doubles ranking. But you can enter a certain way. So you know, for me to want to play here, ricky was nice enough to sign with me. You know he still had his points from Australia and open when we signed here. So our combined was like 130 or something. So that's kind of how it works. And now you know that's how you get into the event. So to get into different events and higher level events, you need to change partners, at least for me at my ranking, my level, until hopefully I can build my ranking up high enough to play in this, you know, with the same partner.
Speaker 1:So are you looking like two to four weeks ahead and just like kind of texting people and say, hey, do you mind? Yeah, probably a little further than that Most times.
Speaker 2:Most times you're you know the sign in is two weeks before. So yeah, you know, maybe a month or six weeks before, just kind of checking it out and saying hey, you know who's going to be here, or texting some guys, or even sometimes further out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, that makes sense. Do you know how many partners you played with last year? I have no idea.
Speaker 2:I'll say if I had to guess seven, it's more than that.
Speaker 1:So I've got Tiafo Ram Keckmanovich, purcell, kasparud Higikata, steve Johnson, christian Harrison, louise Martinez. Yeah, what is that? One, two, three, four five, six, seven eight, nine, nine I may have missed a few as well. Yeah, I kind of gave up after a little while. So how do you adjust to playing with all these different partners? Is there some questions that you ask before, like a new partnership, for example, and then players like. Rinky, you've played with before.
Speaker 2:A couple of those names that you've listed. I actually have played a bit of tournaments with Louise, for example. Stevie we had played in the past in Newport together and Cincinnati Rinky, I obviously know. So a couple of them I had familiarity with already. So that helps the ones that I hadn't. You kind of just talk or you practice, or people have preferences. Obviously a legendary player like Rajiv has his side or his preferences that I've watched and I've known.
Speaker 2:So I can adjust a little bit more to that. But yeah, just competing, at the end of the day, everyone's just player. Obviously, you mesh better with other people. Those are the people that you tend to stick with, kind of like really anything in life. But yeah, just trying to play all the best events I can and trying to be around the best players.
Speaker 1:Do you have any specific goals in mind for 2024? Do you just kind of go with the flow and trust the process and just keep working hard?
Speaker 2:I had a goal to work harder this off season, get into better shape and just be stronger and quicker and fitter, and I think I did a good job of that. I'm happy with the way I'm starting the year and playing, which is nice. I think that for me, I'm hovering around 100 again. Now I'd love to get back well inside top 100. I think that would be a great goal for me. I think my career is high as 74 or 73 or something like that.
Speaker 2:So, I'd like to break that and be pushing higher and be in the better events and kind of have more stable schedule. I think would be a nice goal for the end of this year.
Speaker 1:So a lot of the listeners are kind of club level doubles players and this past month we've been focused on net play strategy. So do you have any tips for club players who maybe don't have a lot of confidence at the net or struggle a little?
Speaker 2:bit at the net. Yeah, you know, it's funny. Like my fiance now she plays.
Speaker 2:She's good at tennis, but just plays for fun and like we live in Atlanta and this Alta team and 3 21, they'll ask me you know, what do you think sometimes? And I'm more quiet, but I always tell her I'm like, just take away the middle, like, and my mom too, she'll play, you know, and some, and I never understand why, people just squat down in the alley and I just tell them, hey, go, go, go towards the middle. Who cares if someone beats you? Or I think sometimes they're afraid of the ball. But yeah, that's the number one thing I would say is take, take away the middle, take away the big percentage, play for people and make people beat you on a lob or down the line, shot Especially. I, like you know it's, it's not meant to be more serious than it is, you know. So I think that's the side of it is not going to be out there really like running plays and for fun, doubles match.
Speaker 2:But if they were, I'd love to see people serve and people move and take the middle way more than they do. I think people just be just kind of sitting.
Speaker 1:I think the people that listen to this show are the people who are running plays at the club level, because they're, they're really interested in the strategy.
Speaker 2:That's why they listen they should?
Speaker 2:I mean I would say, yeah, I mean for me, I love taking taking away middle. We serve body. Yeah, I mean even another level of that. The people that are that care, or you know you choose whether you're serving body forehand or body backhand. That's an important piece. You don't just say you know I'm serving body and then you give someone a backhand. If you'd serve, you know, body backhand and you took middle, it's more likely that they'll pull the ball line than they would push it inside out of that In the deuce court?
Speaker 2:yeah, In the deuce court and opposite on the other way Right. So you know play, call your plays if you are to those specific strategies or call plays to percentage. I don't know if they like to play eye position, but if you play eye and you serve IT and move left, you know if you can shield your eye position a little right and make it look like the line is open. And if I'm not making sense, tell me.
Speaker 2:And then cope back to where that position is. A lot of the times you'll end up with a volley. So I think it's just things to work on with your partner and in practice, yeah, almost like a fake out of the eye formation, totally so.
Speaker 1:Last question for you, and then I'll let you go. How do we make doubles more popular? That's a great question.
Speaker 2:I mean, I think, in all you know honesty, I think doubles is a great product. I think the more we can get you know singles players and big names playing doubles, I think that's great. Just bringing attention to the game. It's very short. I mean our match yesterday was three sets in an hour and five minutes or something, so the length of it is no problem. Yeah, just bringing awareness, getting you know, getting the people that people want to watch honestly in and I think I think a lot of club players love doubles. I think they come and watch and play doubles. Obviously, just expanding it to the average fan or the average person who wants to watch a big name play, I think would be great. But I think the Masters you know 1000s do a good job. Sometimes they're playing Grand Slam and some other tournaments, but just get people around the game. I think people coming to events like this and seeing how fun it is and how fun of a product it is to watch, I think is how we will.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for coming on. Yeah, thank you, it was a lot of fun.