Tennis games for three players (and other awkward numbers)
Stuck on an odd number of players? Or too many people on too few courts? No problem! There are lots of fun ways to play tennis with three people, or five, or any tricky number…
By Lizzie Flint and Andrew Nixon
At Talking Tennis we quite often champion the relative ease of organising a spot of tennis. Unlike big team sports with lots of individual schedules to juggle, for our game you just need to get hold of a pair or a foursome and you’re good to go.
But of course sometimes it’s not that simple. Perhaps a player drops out at the last minute, or someone fancies joining in when you’ve already got your ready-made four…
Well this doesn’t have to be a problem, because there’s still plenty of fun to be had when there are three, five or even more of you gathered together on just one court.
So we’ve put together six of our favourite ‘awkward number’ games so you can still have a great, competitive hour on the court, however many players turn up…
Game #1 - American (or Canadian) Doubles
Number of players: 3
In the UK we refer to this as Canadian or American doubles. This is probably the most common game played for three players and is great for practicing both your singles and doubles game. It also allows for all players to be on the court at the same time, so no one is hanging around.
How to play
This game is pretty straight forward; a doubles pair takes on a singles player. The doubles pair have to play within their opponent’s singles court, but the singles player has the full doubles court (tramlines) to hit into.
Play normal tennis serving and scoring rules. The standard way of playing is for the single player to serve, and each rotate after every game. But you can play sets or tie-breaks however you wish - and switch around the players as you like. Easy!
Game #2 - Cutthroat Doubles (best game for three players!)
Number of players: 3
A brilliantly exciting variation on American or Canadian Doubles, with a constant rotation of your starting positions in an all-against-all race to 10 points!
Now it may seem a little complicated on paper, but trust us, when you get into the swing of it the logic is simple to follow…
How to play
Much like American Doubles, you play a single versus a doubles pair on each point, with the single player able to hit into the full doubles tramlines but the doubles players restricted to the singles court.
However, instead of sticking in the two teams and using normal tennis scoring, you constantly rotate positions and can only score when you’re the singles player and are serving.
To begin with, choose between the three of you the starting positions. The singles player serves first from the deuce court. The doubles players receive first, and must stay on their respective sides for as long as they’re a pair.
If the singles player wins the first point, she scores 1 and the score is now 1-0-0. She then serves from the ad court. If she wins again she scores another (2-0-0).
She then serves again from the deuce court, scoring for every point won, and so on… until she loses the point.
When that happens, no points are scored but the doubles players do get control of the serve. The doubles player on the deuce court serves first. If the doubles team loses the point, the serve goes back to the singles player. She then serves from whichever side she didn’t serve from last time, and can continue scoring on her serve. When she next loses a point, no score is made but the serve goes back to the doubles team, and the player on the ad side will serve. (If the pair gets to serve again, the deuce court player would serve - so they take turns serving for as long as they’re a pair.)
If the doubles players win the point on their serve, then again there is no change to the scoreboard, but all three players rotate anti-clockwise. So the doubles player on the deuce side crosses the net, becomes the singles player and gets the chance to start building his score. The doubles player on the ad side becomes the doubles player on the deuce side. And the singles player becomes the doubles player on the ad side, and will have to work her way right round again before she gets the chance to be the singles player and score some more points.
The first player to 10 points (or whatever number you agree) wins.
The game can get very exciting and competitive, because players can make big comebacks by getting on a bit of a roll when they’re the singles player. There’s also an interesting dynamic where you’re temporarily allied with first one then the other opponent on a doubles team, then playing against them both as the singles player.
Quick summary:
First to 10 points wins. You can only score points when you’re the singles player
The singles player scores a point when they hold a service point
The doubles players don’t score if they break a service point, but they do get control of the serve.
If the doubles players lose their serve, no point is scored but the singles player gets back control of serve.
If the doubles players win their serve no point is scored but all rotate.
Game #3 - The 105 Club
Number of players: 5 or more
Perfect for five or any number above, this game is pretty quickfire when played properly, with an emphasis on positive attacking play – there are huge rewards to be had if you go for broke!
How to play:
It’s a race between two teams (of any number) to 105 points!
Suppose there are five of you. Divide yourselves into two teams with three one end of the court and two the other.
Four players start on the court - two versus two - with the fifth player off at one end (ensuring they have a ball in their hand ready to come on quickly to start the next point).
Start in a normal doubles format: two at the baseline, two at the net. The baseline player on the team of three starts by feeding the ball crosscourt and everyone then plays out the point. The team that wins gets a point.
The three then quickly rotate, so the player who was off moves on to the baseline, the initial baseline player then moves to start at the net, and the original net player goes off to the back (and finds a ball ready for when they’re next on).
Scoring format:
To encourage and award more creative and attacking play, points won off certain shots can score you more points. Here’s a suggested system:
Smash or lob winner = 20 points
Volley winner = 10
Groundstroke winner = 5
Error = 1
So with offensive positive doubles play (or a great defensive lob) you could win the entire game in as little as 6 points (5 smashes and 1 groundstroke winner) or you could be there slogging it out for hours accumulating points just one by one…
Note that the big scoring shots must be clean winners, i.e. your opponent doesn’t even get a racket to the ball. This is great for really pushing yourself to chase those balls you thought impossible - even just to get a slight touch with your racket will prevent your opponents from gaining any additional score - and will seriously annoy them!
Game #4 - Elimination
Players: 6, 8 or 10
This game is one of my favourites – it tears up the tennis rule book of how many players are allowed on court with a brilliantly fun tug-of-war feel amongst the two teams.
How to play:
An even number of you makes this game work better so let’s say there are six of you on one court.
Split yourselves into two teams of three, and here’s where it’s a tennis game like no other - everyone is on the court at the same time!
Organise yourselves on the court however you wish – perhaps two back and one at the net, or two at the net and one at the back, and choose one team to always feed it (fairly) in to begin the point.
Play the point out amongst the six of you and whichever individual player was responsible for the loss of a point (through an error or beaten by a winner) goes off for the next point.
So now it’s 3 v 2. If a team wins the point, you get a player back as your opponents lose one.
A final whole point is scored when one team has all members on court and their opponents have none left.
Then just start again with 3 v 3, swapping over which team feeds in the ball to start.
Have a race to 15 points, or whatever number you like given the time available.
Game #5 - Champion
Players: 3 or more
This is a tennis classic. Depending on your numbers, it can be played as a singles or doubles game, so as a group you can decide.
How to play:
Let’s say there are three of you. A Champion starts at one end of the court, with the two contenders at the other.
The first contender begins the point serving from the deuce court and takes on the Champion in a normal singles contest.
If the contender wins the point, they stay on for a second, switching their serve to the left. If they win two points in a row, they replace the Champion, who then comes down to play as a contender.
If the contender loses their first point, they come off the court and allow for the second contender to have a go.
The final winner is the player who has scored the most points as Champion – so make sure you keep track of the points you win every time you’re at the top end.
If you have five players or more, I would recommend playing it in a doubles format so you haven’t got too many players off the court at any one time.
Simply have two players as the champions, then the contenders keep switching around their partners (or alternatively can keep the same partner if you have an even number of players) until one pair wins the two consecutive points and can become the champions themselves.
Game #6 - Around The World
Number of players: 5 or more
This game is hugely energetic and regardless of numbers, everyone on a team is part of every point which is particularly great for when you have a fairly large number of you squeezed onto one court.
You can have so much fun with it; brilliant for lots of running about, lots of hitting balls, fabulous team work, and above all getting lots of laughs.
How to play:
Split your players into two teams, either side of the net, and start with two players on the court, like a singles point. The others gather on the court behind their team mate.
The idea is that the teams alternate each shot that is hit with the point – so the player who feeds (fairly) in the start then runs off allowing their teammate behind to run on and hit the next shot, before they run off and let the next team member come on to hit a shot and so on.
Score first team to 21, alternating the feed every five points.
Variation: Dizzy Rackets
Play the same game but your team is only allowed to use one racket between you! So as soon as a player hits a shot, their teammate behind better be near them to pass it quickly before getting their next shot – it certainly requires a bit of strategic planning with your positioning, but it’s a fantastic workout, and I promise this game will have you in stitches laughing!
So next time you’re left with that awkward number of players on the court, make sure you’ve got your creative-out-of-the-tennis-box head on and get one of these games going - you’ll be glad in the end no one else turned up!
Let us know how you get on :-)
See also:
Levelling up tennis mismatches: Fun games for when players have different skill levels
The joy (and etiquette) of mixed doubles