Doubles Only Tennis Podcast

Olympic Doubles Recap: Scouting Nadal, Alcaraz, Murray, & More

• Will Boucek • Episode 190

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0:00 | 23:03

Team USA finished with two doubles medals at the Olympics. Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek won Silver while Tommy Paul and Taylor Fritz took home Bronze.

In this episode, I share three more lessons I learned providing strategy and scouting analysis for Team USA.

  • How to beat Nadal & Alcaraz.
  • The Andy Murray tendency.
  • The two most important shots in doubles.

These lessons will help players of all skill levels. Not just the pros ;)

Only 5 spots left in our doubles camp!


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Analyzing Olympic Doubles Strategies

Speaker 1

Hey everyone, welcome to the show. Today I'm going to be doing an Olympic review for you. So if you missed last week's episode, I went over a few lessons that I had kind of learned or reminded myself of during some of my strategy reporting and scouting during the first half of the Olympics. Now the Olympics are over and the US men got silver and bronze in doubles. So it was a very successful Olympics for the doubles teams and my schedule's been a little bit of a mess. That's why this is being released a little bit late.

Speaker 1

During the Olympics I was waking up a few of the mornings at least super early. One morning I got up at 3 30 AM to get a scouting report done for, uh, austin Krychek and Rajiv Ram for a match they had later that day. There was another morning I got up at 5 AM, which is not normal for me I'm definitely not a morning person, um, but I feel like it all kind of paid off in the end. I think it did contribute a little bit and help towards Captain Bob Ryan and Rajiv and Austin getting silver and then Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul, of course, getting bronze. So I'm going to go over a few more lessons that I learned during the later half of the week, including scouting against Nadal and Alcaraz, as well as Andy Murray, and some of this I included in the newsletter this week. This is one of those episodes where I'm going to go over it twice, but I'm going to go a little bit more in depth here. One of the listeners recently, or one of our newsletter subscribers recently, named Ken, reached out to me Shout out to Ken if you're listening and he said that the last two episodes have been really good with Bruce Lipka and then last week's episode on the Olympics, and one of the things he noticed is how deep Bruce and then myself on the last episode, got into the strategy and the tactics of doubles. And that's something that I view my role as being able to teach you the depth and teach you how to think for yourself on the doubles court so that you aren't thinking as simply as you know they have a weak backhand. I'm going to hit it to their backhand. It's just a lot more complicated than that. It's something I've stressed over and over over the years and it's something I'm continuing to try to find ways to teach it better so that I can learn more and so that I can deliver that information to you in a better way as well. So let's get into the lessons here in a second.

Speaker 1

One other quick thing the New York doubles camp has five spots left. So if you will be in New York during the US Open we're doing it Thursday, friday and Saturday, just before Labor Day weekend, and it's going to be in the mornings from 9am to 1130am, so afterwards you can head off to the US Open and watch the matches there. It's going to be two and a half hours a day, so seven and a half hours total, and we're going to dive deep into doubles strategy. I'm going to share specific formations and tactics and strategies that are going to be unique to your game. So I'm going to study your skill set and help you take notes and really learn as much as possible so that when you go back home you'll be able to really feel confident that you understand your game on a whole new level and you'll feel confident in your ability to kind of problem solve against any doubles team that you face. So it's going to be a lot of fun. I'm going to be joined by a couple of other coaches and, like I said, we only have five spots left. You do have to be a 30-0, 3-5, or 4-0 level player to sign up, so you can go to thetennistribecom slash camp to sign up there.

Speaker 1

One other quick thing I am in Toronto right now. I'm in my hotel room. I just got here earlier today but have not been to the tournament yet, and I'm going to be heading there tomorrow and I'm going to be getting a lot of WTA interviews. So expect some short interviews post-match from some WTA doubles players over the next couple of weeks from Toronto as well. And be sure to watch the Canadian Open. The men are in Montreal, the women are here in Toronto. You can watch the doubles. If you're in the US, watch it on Tennis Channel Plus. If you're not in the US, wta TV or a tennis TV work as well. So let's dive into the Olympics.

Speaker 1

So, like I said, last Wednesday, I released an episode. I recorded that one on Tuesday. On Wednesday, rajiv Ram and Austin Krychek I keep wanting to say Rajiv Ram and Joe Salisbury because they've played together for so long Rajiv Ram and Austin Krychek played against Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz. I knew it was going to be a very, very tough match and it was really fun studying the film, studying the data and scouting Nadal and Alcaraz, you know one of the best players of all time, and then Alcaraz certainly will be one of the best players of all time once he's finished with his career.

Speaker 1

So one of the things that I noticed when I started studying them is, obviously they just don't have a lot of weaknesses, right. So you know, as club level players, usually within a game or two I can find. If I'm focused on one person, I can find their weakness. Whether it's watching them hit a shot that they just have really bad technique with and look uncomfortable, or watching them try to avoid a particular shot and run around something every time, or just watching them miss whatever it is, I can usually find a weakness pretty quickly. Now, the pros don't have the same glaring weaknesses, which is why I have to go into such a different level of detail and get all this data and study the film really closely to be able to find those really small weaknesses, because the margins are so much thinner.

Speaker 1

If somebody's backhand is worse than their forehand, it's not that simple and it's not that obvious. You really have to look at winners and errors. You have to look at the different areas of the court that they're hitting, from the direction they're hitting, from what type of shot they're hitting, because the net player is able to get involved. There's so much to it. So with Nadal and Alcaraz I couldn't really. I didn't find a whole lot of weaknesses and in this episode I'm not going to share any specific details on the scouting reports. By the way, I should have mentioned that at the beginning. I'm going to try to translate this for you without kind of giving anything away, because who knows if Alcaraz will play doubles against the US again and we have to use this information again but because they didn't have any real weaknesses.

Speaker 1

Sometimes when you're on the doubles court, rather than seeking out some of these weaknesses, you might want to avoid particular strengths. So there were two particular strengths that I found and told Rajiv and Austin. You know, don't let these two things beat you and I'm not going to tell you what they were, but I'm going to give you an example here in a second to help kind of illustrate this. And this is something that a month or two ago, paul McNamee was on the show. So he's the coach of Shea Sueway, who has won, I think, seven grand slam titles. She's certainly one of the best doubles players in the world of the last five years or so, and she and Paul mentioned you know he's a big proponent of not allowing the opponent's strength to beat you. So whatever their strength is, we're going to make sure they don't get to dictate with that and that kind of landed with me at the time.

Speaker 1

But I didn't really fully grasp what it meant until recently scouting this Nadal and Alcaraz match, and I'm going to give you an example here. So let's say you're playing against me and it's a mixed doubles match. So I'm a 5-0 guy, my partner is a 4-0 girl and what you're going to say is we want to attack Will's partner because Will's partner is weaker. That's the weakness on the other side of the net. But if you do that you might still lose the match because you're missing the bigger picture.

Strategic Tips for Doubles Matches

Speaker 1

So generally when I'm playing mixed doubles, if I'm the 5-0 guy playing with a 4-0 girl, we are best as a team when I am at the net and my partner is at the baseline, even though my partner's not going to be able to, outrally you. Let's say you're a 4-5, playing with a 4-5 and it's a 9-0 mixed match, even though my partner's not going to be able to outrally you. I'm going to be able to move so much at the net and put so much pressure on you that I'll be able to get volleys force errors, and all my partner has to do is stay in the rally for maybe one, maybe two shots, maybe none at all. If they're serving and I'm moving, all I need them to do is either make the serve or make the return. So, because of that, one of the better, a better strategy might be to actually rally to me when I'm back at the baseline, to keep me back at the baseline, because I'm not that strong at the baseline depending on how often I've been playing, which recently is not much at all. So, making it oversimplified and making it, you know, we're going to hit everything to the four girl because she's the weaker player. That might get you into trouble, and we could have done the same with Nadal and Alcaraz. Right, we could have just said, oh, hit everything to the backhands because their forehands are so freaking good. But I don't think that was the right strategy. It's not the strategy I recommended and I think it would have gotten us in trouble.

Speaker 1

So, in this 9-0 mixed scenario, you might want to rally to me at the baseline to keep me back at the baseline so that I can't move forward. And when I do get to the net, let's say I hit a high top spin lob and I follow it in. At that point you might want to lob me, right? Because when I say, don't let this one thing beat you, the thing that's going to beat you is me being active at the net. So you've got to totally take that out of play. So that means rallying to me when I'm at the baseline at times and then if you hit to my partner, I'm going to get to the net and then you've got to lob me because I'm going to be moving around, I'm going to be dictating. It's going to be really difficult and in my experience, the mixed teams that I've faced, that I've struggled the most with, did exactly that.

Speaker 1

I could not play super close to the net because they lobbed me so often and they kept me back at the baseline because it was either me being at the net and my partner having to handle all these lobs, and that's not a good matchup because she's a 4-0 and she's playing against two 4-5s, or I sit back at the baseline and I'm a 5-0, rallying at the baseline against two 4-5s, which should be a good matchup, but again, that's not my strength. I don't like to be at the baseline as much. So they're forcing me to not play to my strengths and they're refusing to lose by me playing at my strength. Do not let Will at the net beat you. That would be the best way to attack me next time you play me in 9-0 mixed. So think about that next time you're out there. If you don't see any obvious strengths or if you do see a huge, I'm sorry. If you don't see any obvious weaknesses or if you do see a huge strength, just find ways to avoid that strength. It's not always the go-to tactics. Sometimes you'll attack weaknesses, but sometimes you want to avoid strengths and you want to prioritize that over attacking weaknesses. So think about both of those things when you're out on the court.

Speaker 1

The next thing I wanted to talk about was the match against Dan Evans and Andy Murray. So this was Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul, two singles players. Obviously, fritz, especially, is a singles player. If you watched him at the nut, he's not the best volleyer. At times he struggled a little bit at the nut. But there was something that I noticed from Andy Murray, and this I'm willing to share because Andy Murray's retired now and I don't think it would bother him or anyone else if I shared it. So one tendency I noticed for Andy Murray when he plays at the net.

Speaker 1

I was going through film. I've got this software where I can watch all the points where his partner, dan Evans, is serving. So I watch them all back to back to back to back and I'm studying Andy Murray. I'm staring at him on all of these points in a row and I noticed that he starts five, six feet behind the nut and then as soon as Dan Evans goes into service motion, the ball starts to cross the nut.

Speaker 1

Andy moves forward, which most pro players do, most pro doubles players do, but he moves forward so aggressively that there's just no way for him to change direction and get backwards. So what he's basically doing he and Dan have decided, at least in the Olympics is so against a Dan Evans first serve, andy Murray is going to move forward very aggressively. He's going to get very close to the net as the return comes at him and he's going to move towards the middle and he's going to dare you to hit a small target off of a first serve, which is a very low percentage shot. So how do you counter something like this? Well, when he's moving forward so aggressively, like I said, he can't change direction very easily, so you hit a lob return. It's something I talked about last week and, you know, throughout the rest of the week I continue to believe in the lob return.

Speaker 1

I think it's such a good tactic at every level of the game against first serves especially. Such a good tactic at every level of the game against first serves especially. So Tommy Paul, especially Taylor Fritz, a little bit used the lob return in that match. They won 6-2, 6-4. And it was really effective. They won a lot of points on Dan Evans' serve, nearly 50% of Dan Evans' service points. So that's something that you can kind of take away next time you're out there.

Speaker 1

And if you're struggling to kind of come up with some return tactics, when you are the returner's partner, you should be communicating this information to your partner when they're returning. So when you're at the net your partner's returning, your eyes need to be focused on the server's partner and their movement, their position, their tendencies should dictate your return tactics. So in this case, andy Murray is moving aggressively forward to the net. So we're going to try the lob. If you play a player who plays really far off of the net, you might occasionally rip a ball down the line at them and try to dip it down low to their feet because they're playing so far off the net. If you play somebody who is lined up really close to the doubles alley, like a lot of club level players do, then just return across court every time. It's simple. If they play super close to the net, lock them down the line. So you've got to be studying the server's partner when you're the returner's partner and then you communicate that information back to your partner who's returning. If you can't get your partner to do that when you're returning, you have to kind of try to do it yourself a little bit, but work with them on this, ask them to do it before the match, say we need to be studying each other's return points, we need to study the net player on the other side. So that's something that was a really valuable lesson, I thought, from scouting Andy Murray and Dan Evans there, and then the last one again with Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul. They got the bronze medal.

Speaker 1

So they lost in the semifinals to the eventual gold medalist John Piers and Matt Ebden, who played phenomenal throughout the tournament. I scouted against them and they were a really really strong doubles team. Beat lots of good singles players, beat lots of good doubles specialists. Really, really props to them for such a good tournament and winning gold. But Fritz and Paul had previously I think they had lost like four doubles matches in a row. Fritz is not really a doubles player. Paul has potential, but I think one of the commentators in one of their matches said that he had heard Paul say in an interview that he had never game planned for doubles before this. So he just walked out on the doubles court and played. He never kind of had a game plan or a mindset on the doubles court. So just creating this game plan with some of these scouting reports and then also I'm sure Bob Captain, bob Bryan and the rest of the team had a lot to say as well as far as their strategy Just having that kind of doubles coach obviously one of the best doubles players of all time I think helped Fritz and Paul play a little bit better doubles.

Speaker 1

Right, they're great tennis players they always have been but they started to play a little bit better doubles and the other thing that this reminds me of is just how important serves and returns are, because Fritz and Paul got bronze. They beat several double specialists with much better volleys than they have certainly much better volleys than Fritz has and they still won the majority of their matches, their only loss being to the gold medal team. So how were they able to do this? It's because serves and returns are so important, and Taylor Fritz has a better serve than almost anyone in the world. He has one of the best serves in the world singles or doubles and then Tommy Paul has a great serve as well, and they both are great returners. Being singles players, they can return either direction with either side. So there's just not a lot of places to go, and those two shots are much more important than volleys, even in doubles. Shots are much more important than volleys, even in doubles. So they kind of proved this out by getting bronze. It was really cool to see them go so far and do so well, and to see Team USA do so well as well. So it was a lot of fun to be a part of.

Speaker 1

It was a long week, as I mentioned at the top of the episode, but hopefully some of this you can kind of take away and take out onto your own, into your own matches on the doubles court, because I certainly know I learned a lot for my own doubles game and hopefully it's going to help me going forward as well. So if any of you have any questions about this, if any of you are in Toronto and want to meet up and watch some doubles, shoot me an email will at the tennis tribecom. Thank you all for sticking with me the past few weeks. I know the newsletters have been kind of scattered and the podcast, this time at least, is a little bit scattered as well, but I'm going to try to keep everything on schedule going forward as best I can. So thank you all for listening and I will talk to you all in the next episode.