Pickleball rules

Serving

In pickleball, players serve the ball underhand, starting on the right side. The ball is served diagonally into the opposite service box. The ball can either be served directly from the hand or dropped and bounced; in this case, the game continues with a net service. After receiving the ball, players must allow it to bounce before returning it to their opponent. A volley is allowed starting from the third hit. Alongside a bounce, this enables players to strike the ball on the serving side.

Scoring while serving

In this game, points can only be scored when the team is serving. Players on the serving team score a point if the receiver fails to return the ball, the ball lands outside the designated bounce area, hits a player, or is hit out of play. Additionally, players lose a point if they hit a volley from within the non-volley zone. The game ends when one team reaches 11 points; however, there must be a 2-point difference between the teams.

When one side scores, the same player continues serving, but from the opposite side. When a player loses a point, their teammate serves from the side they are currently on. If they also lose the serve, the service passes to the other team, starting with the player on the right side. At the start of a game, only one player serves before the service switches to the other team.
The score is as follows: 1-0-1 means the server has 1 point, nothing else, and it is the first server.

Singles

In singles, the player serves from the left side if the score is odd and from the right side if the score is even.

Click here to download the official pickleball rules (Automatically translated from English) for 2024.