Padel Rules & Scoring Explained for Beginners

How scoring works

Here is the good news: padel uses exactly the same scoring as tennis. If you know how a tennis match is scored, you already know padel.

Points in a game go 15, 30, 40, then game. A score of zero is called "love".
Winning a game takes four points — but you must lead by two. At 40-40, called "deuce", you need two points in a row.
Winning a set takes six games, again leading by two. At six games each, a tie-break decides the set.
Winning the match usually means winning two sets out of three.

Golden point. Many padel matches use a "golden point": when a game reaches 40-40, the very next point decides it — no need to lead by two. It keeps matches moving. Casual games often play normal deuce instead, so agree which you are using before you start.

How to serve

The padel serve is underarm and gentle — nothing like a tennis serve. Here is the sequence:

Stand behind the service line, on the correct side of the court.
Bounce the ball once on the ground beside you.
Hit it underarm, making contact with the ball at or below your waist.
Aim diagonally — the ball must land in the service box across the net from you.
As in tennis, you get two attempts to put the serve in.

Wall tip. A serve that lands in the service box and then touches the side glass is still good. But if it lands in the box and then hits the metal mesh fence, it counts as a fault.

The walls — the part that makes padel different

This is the one rule every new player needs to understand, and it is simple:

The ball must bounce on the floor before it touches a wall.

Once the ball has bounced on your side of the court, the walls become your friend. You can let it carry on, rebound off your own back or side glass, and then play your return. Balls that look impossible to reach are often easy once they come off the wall.

What you cannot do is hit the ball so that it strikes the opponents' wall before it has bounced on their floor. If you do, you lose the point.

When is the point over?

A point ends when any of these happens:

The ball bounces twice on one side of the court.
A team hits the ball into the net.
The ball is hit out of the court — over the walls and out.
A shot hits the opponents' wall or fence before bouncing on their floor.
A player hits the ball twice, or touches the net.

A few more rules worth knowing

Return of serve: the receiver must let the serve bounce once before hitting it — you cannot volley a serve.
Volleys: at any other time you may hit the ball before it bounces. Volleying at the net is a big part of the game.
The let: if a serve clips the net cord and still lands in the right box, it is simply replayed.

Padel rules and scoring