Mixed Doubles is a sport in it's own right. Is it televised? I think I saw it once for ten minutes. It's probably the least televised sport in the world, right next to archery. Lately we've had a resurrection of the sport in Falmouth. Not since the eighties has there been so many mixed doubles combinations hitting the courts. What is mixed doubles? It's when a man and women play doubles against the same combination. It's one of the few sports that place men and women on equal footing at least more equal the average pay scale for men and woman except at the US Open. You won't see a woman share a boxing match, a hockey game, or football game, etc., except at cookouts. Okay there are some exceptions in Alaska.
When I think of women's equality in tennis I think of Billy Jean King. Together we instructed a Domino's Pizza tennis clinic in Dedham and shared a USTA high performance coaches certification in Chicago. In Domino's team matches players would switch in and out as in a basketball game. Today, on a professional level there is World Team Tennis which has has seen a rebirth from the seventies with teams like the Boston Lobsters and the Philadelphia Freedoms (enter Elton John). A colleague and former US Open Quarter Finalist named Bud Shultz is the coach for the Boston Lobsters. Bud still has a hell of a serve and volley. The USTA now has mixed leagues where players play in leveled matches. In 1892 the first National Mixed Doubles was played at the Newport Casino in Rhode Island. That predated the first Wimbledon Mixed which was played in 1913. So you could make a case that the United States officially instituted the sport of mixed doubles. Mixed doubles is the classic Friday and Saturday sport of tennis clubs across the country.
I remember watching Eli Nastasi (one of the most talented shot-makers in the history of the game) and Gabriella Sabatina (turned model) play Ferdi Taygen (a Boston and Falmouth resident) and Barbara Potter (Potsy). Nastasi was the worst sport I've ever seen on the court but that's why people loved to watch him play. You'd never knew what he was going to do or say. Taygen, was ranked number in the world in Mixed doubles at the time. When he retired we would share a hit from time to time here at the Sports Center and he would unlock secrets of the game and recant a few tour stories. He never let Nastasi get to him.
Mr. Van Alan who founded the Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport recently passed away designed the "No-ad" or the Van Alan Scoring System (Vass) scoring and tie-breaker which is used by many high school, college, and recreational players today as a means to keep matches on schedule and stop the non-ending deuce stalemates. We use Mr. Van Alan's no-ad in our our Friday night mixers which sometimes include, heaven forbid, two men against a man and a women or the other way around. In a mixer anything can happen and it usually does. If the match is even it doesn't matter who plays whom. You can't have a good match if it is uneven. Levels of the game are important.
There are certain rules of decorum for mixed doubles at the club level--a man shouldn't never try to take a woman out with a put-away, a woman can blast the guy and that is humorous, the man always serves first (this is to insure the team wins the first game), the woman's serve should be broken (strangely softer serves often present more difficulty for the men), it's okay for the man to to poach madly at the net and steal easy points, the man should claim most of the over-heads, the man must always be supportive to his partner and never yell at her; I suppose the converse is true but I've never really seen that happen, having a sense of humor makes things more fun (don't take it too seriously because that will only hurt your chances; you have to stay relaxed), and give your partner a kiss on the cheek at the end of the match regardless of how lousy either of you played because you must remain chivalrous at all costs. It's not okay for the man to ask the woman to sit down on the bench and let him finish the rest of the game by himself. If the woman is has a knee brace on and has had a hip replacement it's not okay to hit aces by her unless she has aced him several times.You must be more of a lady and more of a gentleman. After-all it's a gentleman's sport. It's okay to win but not win badly.
"What do you do if you're serving and have a match point against your grandmother?" This was a question asked to me by Adelaide Cummings, the phenomenal tennis legend and writer from West Falmouth.
"I don't know," I said. "What?"
"You ace-a," she said.
Here's another one she asked. "How many tennis balls fit in the service box?"
"I don't know."
"Six hundred and fifty, don't you think you could serve just one in?"
That is a great way to lighten the load after a double fault. You'd better read your audience first.
This weekend the Sports Center will be hosting a Mixed Doubles Tournament that begins Friday evening and ends Sunday with the finals. Late Saturday afternoon there will be a social mixer for all players in the tournament. Hopefully no Eli Nastasi's will show up. If they do we'll have to throw them into the penalty box to the adulation of the locals.
I remember watching Eli Nastasi (one of the most talented shot-makers in the history of the game) and Gabriella Sabatina (turned model) play Ferdi Taygen (a Boston and Falmouth resident) and Barbara Potter (Potsy). Nastasi was the worst sport I've ever seen on the court but that's why people loved to watch him play. You'd never knew what he was going to do or say. Taygen, was ranked number in the world in Mixed doubles at the time. When he retired we would share a hit from time to time here at the Sports Center and he would unlock secrets of the game and recant a few tour stories. He never let Nastasi get to him.
Mr. Van Alan who founded the Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport recently passed away designed the "No-ad" or the Van Alan Scoring System (Vass) scoring and tie-breaker which is used by many high school, college, and recreational players today as a means to keep matches on schedule and stop the non-ending deuce stalemates. We use Mr. Van Alan's no-ad in our our Friday night mixers which sometimes include, heaven forbid, two men against a man and a women or the other way around. In a mixer anything can happen and it usually does. If the match is even it doesn't matter who plays whom. You can't have a good match if it is uneven. Levels of the game are important.
There are certain rules of decorum for mixed doubles at the club level--a man shouldn't never try to take a woman out with a put-away, a woman can blast the guy and that is humorous, the man always serves first (this is to insure the team wins the first game), the woman's serve should be broken (strangely softer serves often present more difficulty for the men), it's okay for the man to to poach madly at the net and steal easy points, the man should claim most of the over-heads, the man must always be supportive to his partner and never yell at her; I suppose the converse is true but I've never really seen that happen, having a sense of humor makes things more fun (don't take it too seriously because that will only hurt your chances; you have to stay relaxed), and give your partner a kiss on the cheek at the end of the match regardless of how lousy either of you played because you must remain chivalrous at all costs. It's not okay for the man to ask the woman to sit down on the bench and let him finish the rest of the game by himself. If the woman is has a knee brace on and has had a hip replacement it's not okay to hit aces by her unless she has aced him several times.You must be more of a lady and more of a gentleman. After-all it's a gentleman's sport. It's okay to win but not win badly.
"What do you do if you're serving and have a match point against your grandmother?" This was a question asked to me by Adelaide Cummings, the phenomenal tennis legend and writer from West Falmouth.
"I don't know," I said. "What?"
"You ace-a," she said.
Here's another one she asked. "How many tennis balls fit in the service box?"
"I don't know."
"Six hundred and fifty, don't you think you could serve just one in?"
That is a great way to lighten the load after a double fault. You'd better read your audience first.
This weekend the Sports Center will be hosting a Mixed Doubles Tournament that begins Friday evening and ends Sunday with the finals. Late Saturday afternoon there will be a social mixer for all players in the tournament. Hopefully no Eli Nastasi's will show up. If they do we'll have to throw them into the penalty box to the adulation of the locals.
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