- Beginners
- Social matches
Who serves now, and from which side?
PadelRef, the padel scoreboard with a voice, marks who serves and from which side on every point with a gold dot and a letter, R or L, and can say it out loud after each point.
Free to score, voice free to try. No accounts, no cloud.
- The gold dot marks the serving team, and the letter the side: R right, L left.
- In the tie-break it follows the rotation for you: one serve, then two and two.
- With "Announce who is serving" on, the voice says it after every point.
Grows with you
At first, let the voice say who serves after every point. Once it's in your head, turn "Announce who is serving" off and keep just the score - the gold dot stays on screen.
Why “who serves?” is so hard to keep track of
In padel the serve changes side every point and changes pair every game. The tie-break makes it harder: the first server serves one point, then each pair serves two in a row. And after a set decided by a tie-break, the next set is opened by the pair that received its first point. Four players, no umpire - one lapse and nobody is sure.
How PadelRef answers it
PadelRef doesn’t guess: its rules engine works it out every point, from who served first and the match format (more on the board itself in Features).
- On screen. A gold dot in the serving team’s corner and a letter beside it: R (right) or L (left). In a tie-break or super tie-break the phase banner appears and the gold dot follows the rotation.
- Out loud. Turn on “Announce who is serving” in the voice settings and after every point the app adds who serves next and from which side: “Thirty - Fifteen Team A serves from the left.” During a tie-break it sounds like this: “5 - 4 Team B serves from the left.”
- On the star point. It’s the new format in the 2026 FIP rules: deuce is played with advantage up to twice, and if the game comes back to deuce a third time, a single point decides it. The rules chip on the board goes from “1st advantage” to “2nd advantage” and then to “Deciding point”, and the voice adds “Star point.” after the deuce call. On that point the pair whose turn it is serves, as usual, but the receiving pair chooses the side - which is why the gold dot shows no R or L.
If you entered the players when you set up the match, the voice names the player who serves instead of the team.
When someone taps the wrong side
Undo the last point and the board - serve included - goes back to where it was. No rebuilding the game between the four of you.
For matches between friends
With nobody officiating, “whose serve is it?” is the question that stops play most often. With the phone where everyone can see it, the answer is on screen before anyone asks, and the match goes on. New to padel? Start with the scoreboard for beginners.
The rule, explained
Frequently asked questions
Which side do you serve from in padel?
In padel the first point of every game is served from the right, then the side alternates every point. The exception is the deciding point of a golden-point or star-point game, where the receiving pair chooses the side it receives on. PadelRef marks the side with an R or an L next to the gold dot; on the deciding point the dot stands alone, because the side is the receivers' call.
Who serves first in a tie-break?
A tie-break is opened by the team whose turn it was to serve the next game. They serve one point, and from then on each pair serves two in a row. PadelRef follows the rotation on its own.
Who serves after a tie-break?
The next set is opened by the pair that received the first point of the tie-break. PadelRef applies this rule automatically, so nobody has to remember.
How is the first server decided?
In PadelRef you choose the first server when you set up the match: by coin flip, Team A, Team B, or play a point for it.