In singles, you can serve to all parts of the table. This means you can usually force your opponent to receive from his weaker side, whether it's forehand or backhand. Not so in doubles! Now your opponent can choose his stronger side to receive. If you serve long, he'll probably attack it, usually by looping. If you serve short sidespin or topspin, he'll probably attack it as well with a flip. If you serve backspin, he can drop it short, push heavy, or flip it to a corner. What is a server to do?

Surprisingly, the answer is often a very shot, very low no-spin serve. At the world-class level, it's the most common serve in doubles, and often in singles. Why is this? A short no-spin serve is tricky to push - it's easy to pop up, and you can't put as much backspin on it, since you don't have a ball's spin to rebound off your racket - you have to create all your own spin. It's also not as easy to flip aggressively as a ball with spin since you can't use the spin of an incoming ball to help your flip. A topspin or sidespin ball rebounds out with topspin when struck properly. A backspin ball can be aggressively flipped, and the backspin continues, except now as topspin. (Often the receiver can put great topspin on this ball, especially with a backhand banana flip.) But a no-spin ball doesn't rebound out, and you can't use its non-existent spin. Plus, it's easy to keep a no-spin ball low. (A slightly high no-spin ball is easy to attack, so beware.) This doesn't mean you should serve all no-spin. But it can be the primary serve, with other serves used as variations, especially short, heavy backspin. 

Should one search for the perfect equipment that matches his game, or adjust his game to match his equipment? This is never an easy question, but here is the main factor to consider. Once you are beyond the beginning stage it’s time to think long-term, and think about what your ultimate style of play will be. Once you decide that, look at some of the top players who play that style. What equipment are they using? If you want to play like them and hit shots like them, it’s helpful to have similar equipment. So once you are past the beginning stage, it’s time to adjust your equipment to the way you want to play.

The comparison isn’t exact; they play at a much higher level and train full-time (including physical training), so depending on your level, you might want something slower, though not too much so. For example, if their sponge is too fast, you might want a slower version.

One other thing to take into consideration is that if your game is centered around looping – as nearly all players at the higher levels are – then you do want something extra bouncy, that allows you to loop nearly anything, in particular one of the tensored sponges. 

When you face a new and unknown opponent, you aren't sure yet how the rallies are going to go. But you can control how the rallies start. Learn to use serve & receive to start rallies the way you want them to go, and so rather than you adjusting to your opponent, he has to adjust to you. It doesn't matter if the opponent plays very orthodox or has an unusual or weird style, you should be able to at least start the type of rally that favors you. A few examples:

• If you are good at attacking backspin, then a short, heavy, and very low backspin serve often forces a backspin return that you can attack.
• A short and low no-spin serve, as a variation to spin serves (especially backspin serves), is hard to either attack or push heavy, often giving you an easy ball to attack.
• If you serve a lot of short backspin serves and your opponent keeps pushing them back heavy, throw in short side-top serves and you'll likely get pop-ups.
• If you are good in fast topspin rallies, then a topspin or sidespin-topspin serve often forces a topspin return that you can attack. Mix them up with big breaking side-top serves as well as short ones.
• Fast & deep serves, strategically placed, often get you into a fast exchange, and can back players slightly off the table, giving you time to set up your attack. Forehand loopers are often forced out of position by these serves. Focus especially on side-top serves that break away from the receiver, fast no-spin at the elbow, and sudden quick ones down the line.
• Slow but deep sidespin serves, against an opponent who doesn't loop, sets you up for all sorts of attacks.
• If your opponent keeps attacking your short serve with his backhand, serve from the middle or forehand side so you have an angle to serve into his forehand, and force him to receive forehand. 

Many players grip the racket too tightly. Many think this gives them added stability. Actually, all it does is tighten the muscles up by matching opposing muscles against each other rather than have them work together. It means that instead of smoothly executing a shot like the pros do, some of your muscles are trying to do the shot right while others are pressing back, making your shot ragged and erratic.

It also leads to injuries as muscles are forced to battle against each other while simultaneously executing table tennis shots. Players with tight grips leave the playing hall with exhausted muscles; players with loose grips leave with relaxed, loose muscles.

Here's a test. Imagine someone sneaking up behind you and grabbing your racket from your hand. It should come right out. If it doesn't, you're holding it too tightly. Conversely, it shouldn't be so loose as to wobble about in your hand, but that's rarely a problem.

A backhand sidespin serve tends to be more effective to an opponent's forehand, while a forehand pendulum serve tends to be more effective to the backhand. This is both because players often have to lunge after the ball as it breaks away, and because the racket angle needed to return these sidespins is less natural when done this way. Because the balls are breaking away from the table, it effectively increases the width of the table, forcing receivers to cover more ground. This doesn't mean only serving these serves to the side that they would break away from, only generally serving it more to that side. Each opponent is different, so try out each combination and see what happens.

Using this principle, you might want to develop the following four serves. 

• Big breaking sidespin serve (from the backhand side) deep into the backhand that breaks away from the receiver, usually done with a forehand pendulum serve. This is very difficult for many receivers to handle as they often don't have as much range on the backhand as the forehand, and so end up reaching for the ball as it breaks away.
• Big breaking sidespin serve (from the forehand side) deep into the forehand that breaks away from the receiver, usually done with a forehand tomahawk serve. This serve is extremely effective through the intermediate level, but doesn't work very well at the higher levels, where they just loop it. But it's often a free point against many club-level players, who lunge for the ball as it breaks away and so lose control, usually lifting it off the end or side.
• Short sidespin serve (from the middle or forehand side) to the wide forehand that breaks away from the receiver, either bouncing twice on the table (given the chance) or going off to the side, usually inside the corner. It is usually done with a tomahawk, backhand, or reverse pendulum serve. Many players find this serve very awkward to receive as they have to reach over the table with their forehand, and then often end up lunging at the ball when it breaks away. Below the advanced level players almost always return this crosscourt, so you can almost camp out on that side and wait for the return. 
• Short sidespin serve (from the backhand side) to the wide backhand that breaks away from the receiver, either bouncing twice on the table (given the chance) or going off to the side, usually inside the corner. This is usually done with a forehand pendulum serve. This often isn't as effective as one that breaks short into the forehand, but many players will have trouble with it, plus it takes out the extreme angle into the forehand, which is important for players who strongly favor the forehand.

So add these breaking sidespin serves to your repertoire, and give your opponents a case of the lungies!