The guide · Scoring

Padel scoring, and the one thing it does differently.

If you know tennis scoring you know almost all of this already. The part worth reading is deuce, because padel has three answers to it and the one your club uses changes how matches feel.

In one paragraph: 15, 30, 40, game. Six games with a margin of two wins a set. Tie-break at 6–6, first to seven with a margin of two. Best of three sets. At 40–40 most organised padel plays a Golden Point — one point, sudden death, game over.

Points

Called exactly as in tennis, and in the server's favour first:

Three points each is deuce, and that is where the systems diverge — see below.

Games and sets

• Six games wins a set, as long as you are two clear.
• At 5–5 you play on: 7–5 takes it.
• At 6–6 you play a tie-break.
• Best of three sets takes the match.
• A deciding third set is sometimes played without a tie-break, so a pair has to win by two games however long that takes. This has to be agreed before the match, not at 6–6.

The tie-break

Points are plain numbers here — zero, one, two — not 15 and 30. First to seven, two clear; if nobody is two clear at 7–7 it keeps going until someone is.

The player whose turn it was to serve in the set serves first, and after that service rotates as usual. Ends change as the tie-break runs. For counting games — when ends change, when balls change — the whole tie-break counts as one game.

Deuce: the three systems

This is the part to settle before you start, because all three are legitimate and they are not interchangeable.

On a Star or Golden Point the receiving pair chooses which of them takes the serve — but they cannot swap the sides they have been receiving on all game. It is a choice of who faces it, not a free reshuffle. In mixed matches the receiver must be the same sex as the server.

Who serves, and from where

Service rotates through all four players. Each pair serves every other game; each individual serves every fourth. The order is fixed at the start of a set and cannot be changed until the next one.

Within a game, the serve alternates diagonally between the two receiving boxes — and the first serve of a game goes to the receiver's left-hand box. Receiving order is also fixed for the set: whoever takes the first serve of the first game keeps taking the first serve of every game until the set ends.

Serve out of turn and the correction is simple: whoever should have served does so as soon as anyone notices. Points already played stand. If the game finished before anyone noticed, the order just carries on as it was until the set ends.

How to call the score out loud

Server's score first, always. "Thirty–fifteen" means the serving pair has two points and the receiving pair one. Say it before each serve — it is the single easiest way to avoid the argument that otherwise arrives at 4–4 in the second set.

Social formats you'll meet

Club nights often use a format rather than a match, because a format gets eight or twelve people playing together rather than four:

• Americano. Everyone partners everyone. Games are played to a fixed number of points — commonly 16 or 24 — and you keep your own running total of points won. The individual with the most points wins, not a pair.
• Mexicano. The same idea, but pairings for each round are set by the current standings — first plays with fourth against second and third — so the games stay close as the night goes on.
• Box leagues. Small groups of similar standard playing each other over a few weeks, with promotion and relegation between boxes. Usually Golden Point and often a single short set.

None of these are in the rulebook. They are club conventions, and the numbers vary between venues — which is why the first thing anyone says at a club night is how long the games are.

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Where this comes from

The scoring rules above follow the Rules of Padel published by the International Padel Federation, in the revision effective 1 January 2026, which sets out all three deuce systems. The social formats are club practice rather than regulation, and this page says which is which.

Common questions

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