How to cut down on double faults – during a match and in the long term
Is the dreaded double fault costing you tennis matches and loss of sleep?
Here tennis analyst and LTA-qualified coach Jack Edward shows how some simple steps can help you avoid those serving nightmares…
We’ve all been there. You’re playing a competitive match and your serve, the only shot you have full control over, goes haywire. The double-faults rain down thick and fast. All of a sudden you’re gifting a couple of free points per service game, essentially eliminating your chances of holding serve for the rest of the match.
Makes you shudder, right?
Here I’m here to show you how to eradicate those pesky double-faults with both short-term and long-term fixes.
Short-Term: Fixing double faults during a match
So you’re playing an important match and the double-fault bug comes a-biting. No time for the practice necessary to fix any huge underlying issues: you need a short-term fix right here, right now! What do you do?
1. No First-Serve
All you wanna do is put the damn thing in? It’s time to ditch the first-serve and just do two second-serves for a while. After all, you have a far higher chance of winning the point landing a serve than if you miss both entirely.
At the club/recreational level there’s a high chance chance your opponent likes a bit of pace on the ball.
Asking your opponent to put you under pressure using their return can be challenging. But swallow your pride. Two second-serves are always preferable to handing the opponent every other point. And it’s amazing how often players fluff an apparently ‘easy’ serve return.
2. Hit up and miss long - not in the net
Ever had someone tell you to hit down on the serve? Ignore them! A common misconception among club players is that the trajectory of the racket must go down through the ball on serve to find the court.
This is a terrible foundation on which to build the serve. This is when double-faults take the form of dumped balls into the net. And with very little space to squeeze the ball over the net in order to find the service box, the level of accuracy required becomes incredibly demanding.
By instead focussing on hitting up, the serve will naturally be imparted with topspin giving you far more shape and margin for error on the ball.
Dumped balls into the net are an indication of far greater technical issues and will be much harder to fix in the heat of battle. If you focus on hitting up into the serve, you give yourself far more room to find the service box.
If you really really insist on double-faulting, don’t dump balls into the net - miss long and adjust from there!
3. Don’t slow down
When nerves take hold, club players have a tendency to take everything off the second-serve - cutting right down on the pace and power of the racket motion - in the hopes that they will find the court.
(Now for some, this isn’t the worst idea… If you use a ‘frying pan’ serve (which I don’t recommend - do try changing to chopper grip!)) then by all means take a little off to find the court. There’s not a whole lot that can go wrong if your strings are facing your opponent throughout the entirety of the swing.)
But if you use a chopper grip, slowing down is not a good idea. Fluidity and the serve are friends. As soon as the serve starts to become disjointed, that’s when it starts to break down. To keep the serve smooth, you must not slow down the serve during the motion.
Focus on keeping the service fluid to control the ball. Sometimes a little extra speed through the serving motion will actually help to overcome any nerves. Trust yourself!
Long-Term Malfunction Prevention - cutting down on double faults for good
Your recent double-faulting breakdown in a recent club champs match is living rent-free in your head. You swear to yourself you’ll do whatever it takes to stop it from happening again…
Let’s take to the practice court and fix your serve for good! (…you are going to practice your serve, right?)
1. Lower Your Ball Toss
A fairly simple technical fix that hopefully doesn’t involve a huge amount of practice to recalibrate? Lower your ball toss!
Try stretching your arm and your racket as high as you can above your head. That is the height at which the ball is easiest to strike on serve.
Throwing higher than your maximum reach can add a few mphs to your serve (see Alexander Zverev on the men’s tour or Aryna Sabalenka on the women’s tour) but it will also make the serve a lot harder to time as you are hitting the ball as it accelerates on its way down, increasing your chances of mishitting and ramping up the number of double-faults (also see Alexander Zverev and Aryna Sabalenka).
Throw lower and it becomes harder to get the serve over the net from a lower contact point. You are also less to hit up into the ball, decreasing your amount of topspin.
At the amateur level, consistency is far superior to power. Try catching the ball just as it reaches the apex of the toss and you should find your timing improves.
2. Practice ball toss consistency
The number one proble with lower-level serves? An inconsistent ball toss!
Now that you know the ideal height on your ball toss (see point 1 above), here’s what you need to do to get consistency:
Keep your wrist straight. As soon as the wrist gets involved, you leave yourself prone to errant tosses or - gulp - the yips!
Practice throwing the ball up without hitting it. It should land slightly in front of you and on your dominant side for a regular flat-serve. See if you can throw ten in a row landing it around the same spot. Hit a few serves and go again.
3. Get a kick-serve
Ah, the kick-serve… Criminally unappreciated at the club level. I won’t talk you through how to hit one …TPA Tennis have a good video on it here if you need a lesson:
But I will preach the benefits of a kick-serve.
The kick-serve is loaded with topspin and sidespin. Though it generally travels slower than the flat-serve, the sidespin can be very difficult for your opponent to control as the ball unpredictably shoots off the court. The safety is the real allure though as the added topspin allows for plenty of net clearance making it far more reliable than a flat-serve in the heat of battle.
Kick-serves are usually executed on second-serve. If you’re having a bad day on serve however, why not go for two kick-serves? As always, a serve in the court is preferable to no serve in the court.
Do not overlook the kick-serve! If you’re dealing with double-faults, add one to your arsenal as soon as possible!
To Summarise
Struggling with double-faults in the heat of battle?
1. Try hitting two second-serves.
2. Hit up into the ball - if you’re going to double-fault, double-fault long!
3. Don’t slow down the serve - fluidity is key!
Got some practice time to right some wrongs off the court?
1. Limit the height of your ball toss to as far as you can reach with your racket.
2. Work on keeping your ball toss consistent.
3. Learn how to kick-serve.
See also:
How to practice your second serve consistency
How to stop worrying about your serve
About the author
Jack Edward is a tennis analyst and host of the On The Line podcast, which takes regular deep dives into ATP and WTA tour matches. He’s also a qualified LTA coach and on Talking Tennis he brings his unique analytical insights to help club and recreational players to be more effective on the court.
