Rules
In Pickleball, the game starts with an underhand serve from the right side of the court, with the ball being played diagonally to the opposite service court. Both the defending and serving sides must allow the ball to bounce before returning it. Only on the third hit can the ball be returned immediately, either by playing a volley or by letting the ball bounce first.
Only Server scores
Points can only be scored by the serving side. A point is awarded if the defending side fails to return the ball, hits the ball out of bounds, fails to let the serve bounce, volleys from the non-volley zone, or gets hit by the ball. The game concludes when one of the parties reaches 11 points with a 2-point lead.
Both players of a team serve
After scoring a point, the same person continues to serve but switches to the other side of the court. If a player loses a point, their partner takes over the serving duty from the side of the court where they are positioned at that moment. If this subsequent serve also fails to score, service is handed over to the opponent, who starts serving from the right side. Only exception: at 0-0 when the first team serving loses a point, the serve is handed to the opponents. That’s why the game always starts with 0-0-2.
Keeping score
The scoring is recorded as follows: 1-0-1 indicates that the serving side has 1 point, the other side has no points, and this is the first server. In singles play, the serving player serves from the left side when they have an odd number of points and from the right side when they have an even number of points.