Louis Cayer is one of the smartest doubles minds on the planet. He is a Senior Performance Advisor for the LTA, and the strategic brain behind every successful British ATP doubles player of the last few decades. He's worked with players doubles grand slam champions like Jamie Murray, Joe Salisbury, Neal Skupski, Henry Patten, and more.

I spoke with Louis at the 2025 Australian Open, several days before one of his teams (Henry Patten & Harri Heliovaara) won the title. Whether you're a coach or player, this is an episode you'll want to listen to more than once.

We explore the world of doubles coaching on the ATP Tour, the difference between the player and the performer, and how to effectively communicate. The discussion highlights Louis' coaching philosophy, evolving strategies, and passion for doubles within professional tennis.

• Why clear communication is key to good coaching, plus the exact phrases Louis uses with his players
• The significance of a supportive team environment in doubles
• Balancing team strengths vs opponents' weaknesses
• The evolving role of a coach: from directive to empowering
• Mistakes he's learned from in coaching
• ATP doubles changes & growth of the sport

This is one of my favorite conversations I've had on the podcast and Louis is someone I look up to greatly. I hope to speak with him again at some point to dive deeper into the puzzle that is doubles strategy.

-----

**Join the #1 Doubles Strategy Newsletter for Club Tennis Players**

• New doubles strategy lessons weekly straight to your inbox

**Become a Tennis Tribe Member**
Tennis Tribe Members get access to premium video lessons, a monthly member-only webinar, doubles strategy Ebooks & Courses, exclusive discounts on tennis gear, and more.

• Learn More & Sign Up Here

**Other Free Doubles Content**

• Serve Strategy Cheatsheet
• Return Strategy Cheatsheet
• Serve Strategy 101 - Video Course

For the 4th year in a row, I bring Peter Lebedevs on the show to preview the Dallas Open.

The 2025 tournament is undergoing remarkable changes as it transitions to an ATP 500-level tournament, bringing in a stronger singles and doubles field. It's also moving to a larger venue at the Dallas Cowboys' practice facility in Frisco, Texas. Fans can expect world-class tennis, great food & drinks, and unique player engagement opportunities throughout the tournament.

We discuss:

• Transitioning from an ATP 250 to a 500-level tournament
• The player lineup featuring Grand Slam champions and rising stars
• Venue change to the Cowboys’ Ford Center with expanded 6,000-seat capacity
• Challenges presented by the Super Bowl overlap
• Active recruitment of players by Peter, a year-round process
• Enhanced fan experiences including a vibrant outdoor fan zone

More from this episode:

• Follow Peter on Twitter | Follow the Dallas Open on Twitter and Instagram
• Buy tickets, volunteer, or find more information about the tournament at DallasOpen.com

-----

**Join the #1 Doubles Strategy Newsletter for Club Tennis Players**

• New doubles strategy lessons weekly straight to your inbox

**Become a Tennis Tribe Member**
Tennis Tribe Members get access to premium video lessons, a monthly member-only webinar, doubles strategy Ebooks & Courses, exclusive discounts on tennis gear, and more.

• Learn More & Sign Up Here

**Other Free Doubles Content**

• Serve Strategy Cheatsheet
• Return Strategy Cheatsheet
• Serve Strategy 101 - Video Course

Mark Petchey is a commentator and analyst for Tennis Channel and other television networks. He is also a former top 100 singles player on the ATP Tour. He's been around this sport for decades and understands the ins and outs of the tour, TV, and doubles.

I spoke with Mark at the 2025 Australian Open, a few weeks after he sent out this tweet which created some buzz in the doubles world. I spoke with him about what he meant, and what he'd like to see change on tour for doubles. We discuss:

• Why he thinks ATP doubles isn't an exciting product.
• What changes he would like to see, including moving the net post and changing the position of the server's partner.
• How the tour is blocking doubles from growth.
• The debate of the root cause of doubles' problems... does the product or the marketing need to change? Mark and I do not agree on this but that's OK.
• and more...

This is a friendly debate that I believe needs to happen more often so that we can come to solutions and create positive change for doubles.

What do you think? Agree? Disagree? Tweet at me and Mark with your thoughts.
-----

**Join the #1 Doubles Strategy Newsletter for Club Tennis Players**

• New doubles strategy lessons weekly straight to your inbox

**Become a Tennis Tribe Member**
Tennis Tribe Members get access to premium video lessons, a monthly member-only webinar, doubles strategy Ebooks & Courses, exclusive discounts on tennis gear, and more.

• Learn More & Sign Up Here

**Other Free Doubles Content**

• Serve Strategy Cheatsheet
• Return Strategy Cheatsheet
• Serve Strategy 101 - Video Course

Calvin Betton is an ATP doubles coach. He works with Henry Patten & Harri Heliovaara who won Wimbledon in 2024, and Luke Johnson. I spoke with Calvin on the middle Sunday at the 2025 Australian Open.

Calvin shares his work over the past year with Harri and Henry, including their run at Wimbledon. He breaks down the matchups, draw, and how he scouted their round 1 opponents incognito.

After that, we dive into the growth of professional doubles. If you've listened to the podcast for a while, then you know I'm extremely passionate about this topic. We discussed:

• 2024 doubles experiments and changes
• Opinions on shot clocks and changing the product or rules
• What type of marketing and promotion is needed
• What the doubles players want and have tried doing on social media
• What's holding doubles back
• and more...

Calvin is active on Twitter and is also a host of the Tennis Unfiltered Podcast.

Listen to my interview with Harri Heliovaara about their 2024 Wimbledon Title.
-----

**Join the #1 Doubles Strategy Newsletter for Club Tennis Players**

• New doubles strategy lessons weekly straight to your inbox

**Become a Tennis Tribe Member**
Tennis Tribe Members get access to premium video lessons, a monthly member-only webinar, doubles strategy Ebooks & Courses, exclusive discounts on tennis gear, and more.

• Learn More & Sign Up Here

**Other Free Doubles Content**

• Serve Strategy Cheatsheet
• Return Strategy Cheatsheet
• Serve Strategy 101 - Video Course

The 2025 Australian Open is underway and this episode previews new teams and picks for the first major of the year.

I recorded this from Melbourne with Tennis Tribe beat writer, Hanlon Walsh. We review the ATP then WTA draws discussing new partnerships and making 3 picks each for the 2025 AO Champions.

I'll have more conversations with players and coaches from Melbourne over the next several weeks.

Mentioned in this episode:

• Read Hanlon's 2025 Australian Open Doubles Preview
• Podcast with Nate Lammons
• Podcast with Coach Dan Kiernan
• Podcast with Marcel Granollers & Horacio Zeballos
• Gaby Dabrowski's announcement about her breast cancer diagnosis

-----

**Join the #1 Doubles Strategy Newsletter for Club Tennis Players**

• New doubles strategy lessons weekly straight to your inbox

**Become a Tennis Tribe Member**
Tennis Tribe Members get access to premium video lessons, a monthly member-only webinar, doubles strategy Ebooks & Courses, exclusive discounts on tennis gear, and more.

• Learn More & Sign Up Here

**Other Free Doubles Content**

• Serve Strategy Cheatsheet
• Return Strategy Cheatsheet
• Serve Strategy 101 - Video Course

To celebrate the new year, I'm re-releasing the three most popular episodes of 2024. This was the top #1 episode from 2024... enjoy!

For the strategy nerds... Jonathan Stokke joins the show for a second time as we discuss his Stokke Six. What are the Stokke Six? Simply put, they are errors to avoid that will dramatically improve your game. And I mean dramatically.

Jonathan and I could talk strategy and tactics for days. He's one of my favorite coaches because of his ability to simplify the game and help players focus on the most effective things that lead to winning tennis.

We dive deep into the most common errors:

• During the first four shots (the most important!)
• Why net errors frustrate Jonathan so much
• How to reduce your double faults
• Your one goal for the serve +1 and return +1
• Specific drills to improve the Stokke Six
• and more...

Jonathan's last episode was one of our most popular and I know this one will be as well. Listen to our first conversation here: https://www.thetennistribe.com/jonathan-stokke-interview/

• Instagram: @stokketennis
• Youtube: stokketennis
• Baseline Intelligence Podcast
• Baseline Intelligence Substack

-----

**Join the #1 Doubles Strategy Newsletter for Club Tennis Players**

• New doubles strategy lessons weekly straight to your inbox

**Become a Tennis Tribe Member**
Tennis Tribe Members get access to premium video lessons, a monthly member-only webinar, doubles strategy Ebooks & Courses, exclusive discounts on tennis gear, and more.

• Learn More & Sign Up Here

**Other Free Doubles Content**

• Serve Strategy Cheatsheet
• Return Strategy Cheatsheet
• Serve Strategy 101 - Video Course

To celebrate the new year, I'm re-releasing the three most popular episodes of 2024. This is #2...

Tony Huber is the former coach of multiple doubles world #1 players including Liezel Huber, Martina Navratilova, Cara Black, Lisa Raymond, Ai Sugiyama, Latisha Chan, and Sonia Mirza. Today he coaches adult club-level players and I absolutely love his approach to the game.

This is one of those conversations that you'll want to listen to multiple times. I believe it will change the way you practice and play. We cover:

• Tony's favorite doubles drills to help adult players better understand how points are won and lost in doubles.
• The one error you must avoid to improve.
• How to level up from 3.0/3.5 to 4.0/4.5.
• What most player get wrong about how they win or lose.
• The 3rd String Theory (this will help your volleys a ton!)
• The most important shots in doubles.
• How to captain a winning USTA team
• and more...

I expect this to be one of our most popular episodes and will have Tony on again.

Mentioned in this interview:

• Baseline Vision Camera
• The Bolt Tennis Racquet
• Australian Open & Cincinnati Open
• Pressure Tennis by Paul Wardlaw
• Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt

-----

**Join the #1 Doubles Strategy Newsletter for Club Tennis Players**

• New doubles strategy lessons weekly straight to your inbox

**Become a Tennis Tribe Member**
Tennis Tribe Members get access to premium video lessons, a monthly member-only webinar, doubles strategy Ebooks & Courses, exclusive discounts on tennis gear, and more.

• Learn More & Sign Up Here

**Other Free Doubles Content**

• Serve Strategy Cheatsheet
• Return Strategy Cheatsheet
• Serve Strategy 101 - Video Course

To celebrate the end of 2024, I'm re-releasing the three most popular episodes of the year. This is #3...

Styrling Strother is an innovative tennis coach who trains junior players and adults to transform the way they practice and think about the match court. He is a Tennis Performance Trainer (TPT) with the International Tennis Performance Association (ITPA), a PTR Professional Coach, a best-selling author, and the founder of Styrling Strother Tennis, a player development program located in Cary, North Carolina.

This episode will totally shift your practice habits, and inject fun into your doubles matches. Styrling shares some transformational ideas with me in this episode.

• Why you should NOT look at the ball after you hit.
• A new way to think about the game score that helps you maintain focus and concentration (Momentum Scoring System).
• Innovative doubles drills that will better help you win matches.
• What you should be thinking when you make an error.
• Why opponent-based thinking is the #1 thing to learn for tennis players (and why it's so hard).

We also discuss his new book, The Art of Winning Tennis, which offers strategies that change the way you see the court. I'm about halfway done with the book and it's already got me thinking about adjustments for my next match.

As we dissect the traditional practice court paradigm, you'll discover why it's critical to move beyond technique to the strategic 'where, when, and why' of each shot. You'll learn to embrace the pressure of in-match scenarios through our in-depth analysis of scoring and drill modifications that mimic match conditions.

See the show notes for this episode here: https://www.thetennistribe.com/styrling-strother-interview


-----

**Join the #1 Doubles Strategy Newsletter for Club Tennis Players**

• New doubles strategy lessons weekly straight to your inbox

**Become a Tennis Tribe Member**
Tennis Tribe Members get access to premium video lessons, a monthly member-only webinar, doubles strategy Ebooks & Courses, exclusive discounts on tennis gear, and more.

• Learn More & Sign Up Here

**Other Free Doubles Content**

• Serve Strategy Cheatsheet
• Return Strategy Cheatsheet
• Serve Strategy 101 - Video Course