Padel scoring is a crucial part of the game – here’s all you need to know.
Whether you’re thinking of taking up the sport of padel or enjoy watching it on TV, understanding how to score in padel is key to understanding the basic rules of padel.
If you’ve played another racket sport before, you may also be wondering how the padel scoring system differs from tennis, squash and other related sports.
If so, you’ve come to the right place! So, how do you keep score in padel?
In short, padel scoring works as follows:
Padel matches consist of three sets, each with a minimum of six games played to four or five points.
Players are required to win at least two sets to win a match and six games to win an set.
To win a padel game, players must win four points (or five points in the case of deuce).
Understanding this will be enough to play your first game of padel.
But, as with any sport, there is of course a little more to the official padel rules and some nuances that players of all ages should know.
Let’s take a look at the complete padel scoring system and how you can make sure you’re on top of things if you find yourself as the padel scorekeeper!
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How Does Padel Scoring Work?
Research has found padel to be the fastest-growing sport globally, and there are many reasons why people love it!
One of the advantages of padel – and perhaps one of the reasons for its rapid growth – is how straightforward the padel scoring system is.
This is especially true if you come from a tennis background.
“Point, set and match”
If you are familiar with the point, set, and match levels of tennis, you will have no trouble picking up the padel scoring rules.
In fact, you basically already know how to score in padel (even though the court is smaller)!
While the padel serving rules and even the balls used differ, the padel scoring system is very similar to tennis, which is why it is picked up so quickly by new players.
This familiar scoring system helps to make your first few padel games fun, as there is nothing more frustrating than playing a game you don’t understand.
For new padel players who aren’t familiar with tennis scoring, there will be a couple of words to learn – not to mention the unexpected way of counting.
Don’t worry – you’ll pick it up quickly!
The scoring for padel is called by the following rules:
- Zero points is known as “love”
- The first point is called as “fifteen”
- Scoring a second point gives you a score of “thirty”
- The third point is “forty”
- And the fourth point is “game”
You always call the scores of both teams, for example, “fifteen – love” or “thirty – fifteen”.
Now, as with tennis, there is one small caveat to this.
In the case of a tie where both teams reach forty, the score becomes “deuce”. At this point, a team needs to score two points to win the game.
When one point is scored, that team moves to “advantage”. If they score the next point, they win the game.
If, however, they lose the following point, the score moves back to “deuce”.
This continues until one team scores two consecutive points to win the game.
As you can imagine – and as tennis players know well – this can continue for quite a while!
Scoring a padel game: in summary
A complete padel match consists of three sets comprised of six games apiece.
We know it can be a lot to take in at first, but the points above can be summarised as follows:
Each game is won by the first team to reach four points (scored as “forty”) or, in the case of “deuce”, by the first team to score two consecutive points.
At the end of the game, the score resets to zero as a new game begins.
That’s all you really need to know when it comes to scoring individual games.
Of course, padel scoring goes beyond games, so it’s important to understand sets and matches too.
In the next section, I delve deeper into the padel scoring rules for each of these units and go into further detail on how the overall match is won.
Scoring Padel Sets
Each padel match is made up of three sets. Each set consists of at least six games, each won or lost based on the scoring system we looked at above.
To win a set, a team must win a total of six games.
That means that the minimum number of games that will be played to complete an entire set is six (i.e. if one team wins every game).
However, it can be many more than this.
While the number of sets in a match is fixed, the number of games will depend on how many games each pair of players – or each player, in the case of singles matches – wins.
In order to win a set, the winning team must also win with a two-game difference or more in the game score.
That means that if one team wins six games but the other has won five, the leading team has not yet won.
In this case, the competing padel teams play additional games to determine the victor with a two-point advantage.
Once again, this can continue for a long time if the teams take turns winning a game!
How Many Sets Are Needed To Win A Padel Match?
So, if the sets are the highest padel scoring measure, you may wonder how many sets you need to win the match and how many sets are played in each match.
Three sets are typically played in a padel match. If they wish to win the match, an individual or doubles team is required to win the best of the three sets played.
This rule means that players must win at least two of the three sets in order to win the padel match.
What Is A Golden Point In Padel?
As we’ve already seen, if both teams or players have reached 3 points (a score of 40 each), it is called a deuce.
Rather than using the tennis scoring system of “advantage” and “game”, it is also possible to play a special ‘golden point’ to determine the winner of the game at this point.
This may be preferable in cases where players are equally strong and you don’t want to worry about the back-and-forth that can happen when a two-point advantage is needed.
So, what is a golden point in padel, and what are its rules?
In this way, the golden point is used as a kind of tiebreaker to decide the winner of a game based on just one service.
In the case of a golden point, the ongoing order of service is usually disregarded.
Instead, the umpire does a coin toss to decide which team will serve.
The serving team can then choose the serving player, but may not switch sides for the service.
The receiving team may then choose whether the deciding point is served from the left side (to the right service court) or the right side of the padel court (to the left service area).
Fun fact: While it is part of the official rules laid out by the International Padel Federation, the golden point concept was only introduced to padel recently.
It was only officially incorporated into competitive padel in 2020 to keep padel games shorter and more fast-paced, thus promoting the sport’s development across the world and in big competitions.
Is There Advantage In Padel Now?
The golden point rule replaced the ‘advantage’ concept in professional padel in 2020.
Prior to this, the case of a deuce was settled using the advantage concept as it is in tennis.
Playing every padel game with an advantage point naturally lengthens the match, which is why the all-or-nothing golden point rule replaced it.
In casual games, however, many players still choose to play the advantage – especially those who are familiar with some of the elements of tennis.
Scoring padel: in summary
While you may not feel confident enough to umpire a sporting event, hopefully by now you have a good idea of how to score in padel.
To summarise: each padel match is scored in sets, games, and points. Individuals or teams must win two of the three sets played to win a match. Each set is completed when a team wins six games and must be won by a margin of two games or more. Games consist of four points each: scored 15, 30, 40, and the winning points, respectively.
If keeping track of the score in padel sounds daunting to you, why not try out a padel score keeper like this one?
It can be mounted onto your padel racket, allowing you to keep an eye on the points, games, and sets that have been played.
Otherwise, just trust that it will get easier in time.
It is customary for each player serving to call out the current score before their first serve, and this helps everyone keep track of the game points.
The most important thing is that you understand how padel scoring works – even if you struggle to keep score yourself.
