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“M or
W?” Up or down?” Common enough questions on the court at the beginning of
a match, right? But are you asking it at the correct time? If you’re not
taking care of this before the warm-up, you’re not. The toss should
occur before the warm-up begins. This way players can warm up on the side
where they’ll play their first game.
Before
the toss, you should consider the position of the sun. And do you have a
righty/lefty doubles team? If you do and you choose correctly, neither
partner should have to serve where the sun is bothersome during your ball
toss.
Got
that? Now what’s next is even better…
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Part
Two |
If you
or your doubles team wins the toss you get to choose:
1)
To either
serve or receive in the first game of the match. In this case your
opponent(s) get to choose the side of the court for the first game of the
match.
OR
2)
The side of
the court for the first game of the match. In this case your opponent(s)
get to choose whether to serve or receive for the first game of the match.
OR
3)
To require
the opponents to make one of the above choices.
Now
did you get that last one? This is big! Let’s say you win the toss. You
choose option three – you require your opponent to choose between option one
or option two. Your opponent chooses not to serve. At this point you (the
winner of the toss) can choose the side and with it, subsequently, comes the
first service game.
In a
case like this, the player who defers the choice to his/her opponent ends up
with a “two-fer” – the opportunity to serve to start the match, and the
choice of sides.
Whew! Is your head spinning yet? To be quite honest I had
to draw myself a little graph to get that one though my head. If you
haven’t had your Grande latte with half the
vanilla, extra hot, and non-fat yet today just go on back to Part One and
remember to give that racquet a spin before you hit even one ball.
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Courtesy Dennis Mallast |
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