How Do You Score Points, and What Is the Final Objective of The Game?

The pickleball scoring system comprises three numbers.

The first is the number of points your team has; the second is your opponent’s score, and the third can be a one or a two.

The third number always confused me because I never knew when I was The One or The Two. This number represents the serving order after a team achieves a side out.

Whichever player is on the right box when the side out occurs will be the first server, also called The One.

To start a pickleball game, a coin is tossed. The coin toss winner can choose whether to serve or receive a serve first.

The first server serves from the right side of the court to the diagonally opposite side of the court. If they score a point, they switch sides to the odd side (left court) and serve again. The process continues until the server commits a fault.

When this happens, a side-out happens if it's a single-player game. However, the second player of the serving team gets their chance to serve if it is a double game.

The serving continues until the second player commits a fault, after which their opponent gets two opportunities to serve and score points.