All racket and paddle sports have different serving rules. With the current Pickleball craze taking off across the US, Canada and the rest of the world, you might be taking it up as well and getting aquainted with the rules. In those efforts, it is worth it to understand who serves when, especially if you’re playing a doubles game with a group. But its not the most simple thing, so here we will explain how to follow a correct serving rotation in Pickleball doubles, including who serves first.
Who serves first in Pickleball doubles ?
The way to officially determine who serves first in Pickleball doubles is, well, however you want to!
The USA Pickleball website states the following:
“Any fair method can be used to determine which player or team has first choice of side, service, or receive. ..”
Fair methods to determine which team serves first could include methods such as rock-paper-sissors or a flip of the coin. Any method that gives each team a 50-50 shot at getting the first serve is good in by USA Pickleball’s rules!
What is the proper serving sequence in Pickleball doubles?
Pickleball’s serving rules are are pretty straight-forward. In Pickleball doubles, after the fair method determination of who serves first (i.e. flip of the coin) the team who wins the coin toss will be the first serving team. The serving team will start the game and will serve and score points until the serving team commits the first fault.
After this first fault, the serving privelige will shift to the opposing team where both players of the opposing team will get a chance to serve and score points until each commits a fault. Then, the serving privelige will return to the initial team, where both players will get a chance to serve. From there the game will continue as such (2 serving chances for team A followed by 2 serving chances for team B.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, whichever team serves first in Pickleball doubles will be determined by a flip of the coin or rock-paper-scissors. The team that serves first will serve 1 time, and then hand over privelige to the opposing team where the game will continue by giving both players on any given team chances to serve at each time rather than alternating teams every time a fault is committed.