Pickleball Singles Rules: Serving, Scoring and Sides

What’s the same as doubles

• The court. Singles is played on the full 20 × 44-foot court; there’s no narrower singles court as in tennis.
• The serve. Underhand (or a drop serve), from behind the baseline, diagonally across into the service court, clearing the kitchen.
• The two-bounce rule. The serve must bounce before the receiver hits it, and the return must bounce before the server hits it. After that, either player can volley.
• The kitchen. No volleys while touching the non-volley zone or its line.
• Scoring. Only the serving side scores. Games are usually to 11, won by 2.

What’s different

One server

In doubles, each side gets two servers before a side out (except at the very start). In singles there’s just you: win the rally and you score and serve again, lose it and the serve goes to your opponent.

Where you serve from

Your own score decides where you stand:

• Even score (0, 2, 4…): serve from the right.
• Odd score (1, 3, 5…): serve from the left.

You switch sides after every point you win. The receiver lines up diagonally across. Because it follows the server’s score, you can always check you’re on the right side: if your score is 7 and you’re serving from the right, something’s off.

Calling the score

Two numbers: server’s score, then receiver’s score. A game starts at “0-0,” not “0-0-2.” If you serve at 5-3 and win the rally, the next call is “6-3,” served from the right.

Rally scoring

The rulebook also allows rally scoring as a provisional option, where every rally scores a point no matter who served. Tournaments that use it say so in their entry details; otherwise, assume the traditional scoring above.

Keep score on your phone

The score tracker has a singles mode: tap who won each rally and it calls the score and shows which side to serve from.