Who serves in padel? Serve order and rotation
Service alternates between the two pairs game by game, and within a pair one player serves the whole game. In padel doubles that means that if you served the first game, your partner serves the third, and the opposing pair serves the second and fourth. Before each set a pair can choose which of its players serves first, and that order then stays fixed until the next set. Inside a tiebreak the pattern changes: one point, then two points each.
How do you decide who serves first?
A coin flip decides, not the score. The pair that wins the toss chooses one of three things: to serve or receive first, in which case the other pair chooses the side; the side for the first game, in which case the other pair chooses to serve or receive; or to ask the opponents to choose first. Both pairs then tell the umpire who serves and who receives first. Spinning a racket is club custom, and the rulebook says coin.
Only after that does the rotation take over. A pair that chose to receive still serves the second game, and from there the alternation runs to the end of the set.
How does the serve rotate through a set?
Before each set the pair with the right to serve in the first game decides which of its players starts. When that game ends the other pair serves and chooses its server, and so on. Once the order is set it cannot change until the next set. Games alternate, and inside each pair the two players take every second turn, so each player serves every fourth game.
| Game | Serving pair | Server | Change ends afterwards? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pair A | A1, the player chosen to start | Yes |
| 2 | Pair B | B1, the player chosen to start | No |
| 3 | Pair A | A2 | Yes |
| 4 | Pair B | B2 | No |
| 5 | Pair A | A1 | Yes |
| 6 | Pair B | B1 | No |
| 7 | Pair A | A2 | Yes |
| 8 | Pair B | B2 | No |
Players change ends after the first game and after every odd game from there. With a scoreboard in front of you this is trivial. Kept in four heads, it drifts. For the wider picture see the padel scoring rules.
Who receives, and from which side?
The receiving order is fixed too. The receivers decide who takes the first serve of the first game of each set, and that player takes the first serve of every game until the set ends. The first serve of a game goes into the diagonal box and the serve then alternates sides, so in practice each receiver stays on the same side of the court for the whole set. The pair can swap at the start of a new set.
On the deciding point of a golden point or Star Point game, the receiving pair chooses to receive on the right or the left, but the receivers cannot swap positions to do it. The golden point guide has the detail.
How does the tiebreak change the rotation?
The tiebreak breaks the game by game pattern. The player whose turn it is serves one point. Then service passes to the other pair, and every server after that serves two consecutive points. The point by point table is in the tiebreak rules guide.
When the tiebreak finishes, the next set starts with a player of the pair that did not serve first in the tiebreak. A mistake here hands a service game to the wrong pair, which is a reason to use a scoreboard that tracks the serve as well as the points, such as a watch you can score on without a phone.
What counts as a fault on the serve?
The mechanics of the serve are in the padel serve rules guide. One rule is easy to get wrong. A serve that bounces in the correct box and then hits a glass or solid wall stays in play. If, after bouncing in the box, it touches the metal mesh fence before its second bounce, it is a fault.
Questions people also ask
Can partners swap who serves first in padel?
Yes, at the start of each set. Within a set the order is fixed, so each player serves every fourth game.
Who serves first after a tiebreak?
A player of the pair that did not serve first in the tiebreak serves the first game of the next set.
Learn more: Who serves first after a tiebreak?Who serves in padel doubles?
Padel is played in pairs, so the pairs take turns serving whole games and the partners inside each pair alternate. Each player serves every fourth game.
Who serves first in the second set?
The serve carries on alternating, as is usual, so it goes to the pair that did not serve the last game of the first set. After a tiebreak it goes to the pair that did not serve first in the tiebreak. That pair chooses which of its players serves first.
How do you decide who serves first in padel?
By a coin flip. The winner chooses to serve or receive first, or chooses the side, or asks the opponents to choose first.
Learn more: How do you decide who serves first in padel?