Doubles Serving Strategy: The 5 Best Serves To Play

The serve is one of the most important shots in doubles – and it often decides the rally within seconds.

We analysed 100+ hours of doubles matches and found that for both intermediate and professional players: an average of 40% of rallies are over within the first 4 shots!

So no matter what level of badminton player you are, having a good serving strategy helps you gain advantage at the start of the rally or win quick points. 

Here are the 5 best serves to play in doubles:

  • Serve to the T and intercept
  • Serve to the body and intercept
  • Serve wide and go side-by-side
  • Flick wide and rotate back
  • Flick down the middle

Before we break down exactly how to use each one, you need to make sure you are in the correct positioning 👇

Serving Set-Up: Where Should You Stand?

When serving in doubles you should be stood close to the service line, as well as close to the centre line from whichever side you are serving from.

But make sure that you are not stood on any lines – as this is a fault! 

serving positioning in badminton doubles

Serving Set-Up: Where Should You Stand When Your Partner Is Serving?

As the non-server, you should be stood around 2 racket lengths behind the server, usually in the centre of the court. This is a good position as you can reach both sides of the mid court and rear court.

However, if you struggle to get returns to either side (e.g. your backhand side), then you might move half a step further over in this direction to help you cover that shot!

Bonus Resource: If you are struggling to reach a return of serve to your backhand when your partner is serving then you might want to check out the article here for more tips.

You can also move over towards one side if your partner is really tall and you struggle to see over them. 

💡 It’s really important to get your set-up and positioning right as it could be the difference between hitting the third shot early and not getting it at all!

Which side is best to move to will depend on where your partner serves to, so we’ll now go through some scenarios of where you should serve to and what you should both do after this!

The 5 Best Serving Strategies In Doubles

1) Serve To The T + Intercept At The Net

From a simple serve to the T, this is what commonly happens:

  • Opponent tries to push the shuttle into the rear-court corner
  • Because they are often hitting the shuttle below net height, the shuttle travels slightly upwards
  • You as the server can then intercept this!

As a bonus tip, these returns are likely to go cross-court too as that follows the natural swing of their racket.

âś… How To Execute:

  1. Tight serve to the T
  2. Slightly step back to intercept the hard cross-court shot
  3. Be ready to take the shuttle early

Of course this ‘common’ situation will depend on 2 things:

  • Your opponent’s habits – e.g. they might actually always play net shot returns.
  • Your opponent’s body positioning and how they set up to receive the serve.

đź’ˇ Hitting a winner on the third shot not only frustrates your opponents but it's also a great feeling and it can win you many points!

2) Serve To The Body + Intercept 

You can also try serving to your opponent’s body.

The exact placement to the body will determine their most likely reply. Ideally you want to  ‘tempt’ them into hitting on your forehand side, which is usually the more comfortable side to intercept from!

  • For example, if you serve to their body from the right hand side (assuming they are right handed) and they can still take a backhand, they will probably play it straight down the line.
  • If you serve slightly further across them so they have to play a forehand, then they will probably play it cross court instead to your forehand (assuming you are also right handed) as it’s a more natural swing for them to hit it this way.

âś… How To Execute:

  1. Tight serve across their body, slightly to their forehand side
  2. Slightly step back to intercept the hard cross-court shot to your forehand
  3. Be ready to take the shuttle early

What should your partner do?

  • If you’ve moved to one side to look for the interception, your partner should move round and cover the other side to be ready for anything that comes there.

Taking it to the next level:

  • If you successfully intercept the return a few times, your opponent might think about playing something else the next time you serve to the T or body like a net shot, but this is where you can be clever and try to predict this too!
  • This will really give you a psychological advantage over your opponent and make them not know what to do on their returns – often either forcing a mistake or a lift, both of which are good for you!

3) Serve Out Wide, Then Go Side-By-Side

âś… How To Execute:

  1. Serve low out wide to the tramline
  2. Move over to cover your forehand side
  3. Your partner covers the middle and cross-court

Why This Works:

  • Most returns go straight down the tramline
  • You’re already moving there to cover it! 

However: This set play only really works if you’re fast enough to serve from the T and then move over in time.

If you’re not fast enough to cover the straight, you can still serve out wide… But instead, let your partner move to cover the straight tramline instead and you can then take half a step back and cover the middle and cross-court.

đź’ˇ Adding variety into your serves makes your opponent uncomfortable as they can't get into a rhythm, and it can often either force a weak reply or even a mistake!

4) Flick + Move Back (To Your Side)

A lot of people don’t think about serving low out wide to the tramline because it might look obvious to their opponents that they’re going to do this.

But you can actually also play a flick serve out wide with a very similar technique to almost deceive your opponents!

It’s important to have the mindset that a flick serve is an attacking shot so you want to be in a good position to counter attack after the serve. 

The best option after flicking out wide is to move back on the same side you flicked from so you’re covering the cross court shot, allowing you more time to react to the return. Since your partner is behind you, they’ll have more time and will be better at reacting to the straight shot.

âś… How To Execute:

  1. Flick serve out wide to the tramline (with the same preparation as your low serve)
  2. Move backwards on the same side as you served from
Positioning after flick serve out wide where S represents the server and P represents their partner

You should move back on the same side you flicked from so you’re covering the cross court shot, allowing you more time to react to the return.

Since your partner is behind you, they’ll have more time and will be better at reacting to the straight shot.

Your exact positioning can also change depending on how good your flick serve is:

  • If you play a really good quality flick serve and you can see that your opponent is taking it late and are off balance, then you can move your position forwards to be earlier and more aggressive onto the next shot.
  • If your flick isn’t great and your opponent looks like they’re going to play a good shot then you can move back into a more defensive position. However, you shouldn’t move too far back as if you’re still moving whilst playing a shot, it can limit the quality of shot you can play!

5) Flick Down The Middle 

This can be used very effectively from both sides!

âś… How To Execute:

  1. Flick serve down the centre line
  2. Where you move next depends on what side you flick from and if your opponent is left or right-handed…

In general, you would move back to the same side you’ve served from, similar to the flick out wide. 

However:

  • What works really well is when you’re serving to a right-hander from the right side or a left-hander from the left side – here we’d recommend moving to the opposite side after you’ve served but staying quite high up on the court (i.e. don’t move too far back).
  • Your partner should then move to cover the cross and they need to be ready as the most likely return from a flick down the middle is cross court, following their natural swing.
  • We recommend your partner to take the cross instead because they have more time to react and move forwards into the shot and can easily see where the space is on the court.
Positioning after flick serve to the middle where S represents the server and P represents their partner

Good shots to play on the 3rd shot are:

  • A straight drive – this makes it hard for the returner’s partner to quickly react to this.
  • A cross court block – this can be effective as the returner should be moving backwards and be off balance, so there will be space at the front.

💡 This set play won’t work well if your serve isn’t good and they’re not off balance! A flick that’s too flat doesn’t move your opponent enough... And a flick that’s too high gives them too much time to get behind the shuttle and play a smash straight at you!

Tips To Develop Better Serving Strategy

We’d really recommend communicating with your partner where you’re serving to and what you’ll be looking for.

âś… Practical Tips:

  • Discuss your serve before each rally
  • Agree where you’re both moving to after the serve
  • Adjust based on opponent habits

Doing this will help you use different serving strategies into your game.

It might feel weird at first but it hugely improves your organisation so that you’re both not looking for the same shot!

Note: You might watch some professional players play and notice that they sometimes don’t do this, but don’t forget they’ve likely trained for hundreds of hours with their partner so will have a good idea what each of them are doing. They will also be better at knowing what the likely replies are going to be and will be able to adjust accordingly!

Learn More

Now that you know these doubles serve strategies, you need to be able to move to the 3rd shot quickly and effectively so that you don’t undo all of your good work! 

So, to learn how to move faster and more efficiently on-court, check out The Footwork Accelerator here.

Or, if you’d like to check out our full YouTube video on 4 of these set plays and watch exactly how they work through video demonstrations, you can do so below!