Pickleball Serving Sequence: Who Serves When in Doubles

In pickleball doubles, both partners serve before the serve passes to the other team — except at the very start of the game, when the first-serving team gets only one server. The first server serves until their side faults, the second server takes over, and when the second server faults it is a side-out. Before every serve you call three numbers: your score, their score, and whether you are server 1 or 2.

Serving order is the part of doubles that confuses new players longest. Walk through one full rotation and it clicks.

One turn, step by step

Here is a normal service turn once the game is underway, for a team that has just won the serve.

1. The player on the right (even) side serves first — this is server 1.
2. Server 1 keeps serving, switching sides with their partner after each point, until the team loses a rally.
3. On that fault, the serve passes to the partner — server 2 — who now serves.
4. Server 2 serves, switching with each point, until the team loses a rally.
5. That second fault is a side-out: the serve crosses the net to the opponents.

So a doubles team gets two “lives” per service turn — one per partner — and the serve only leaves your side after the second server faults.

The one exception: the 0-0-2 start

At the very beginning of the game, the team that serves first is limited to a single server. They call the score “0-0-2” (or casually “0-0-start”), meaning they are already on the second server, so one fault ends their turn and hands the serve straight over.

This exists to balance the game. The first-serving team already has the small edge of serving first; letting them use both servers before the other side ever serves would compound it into a real head start. The single-server first turn cancels that out. It applies only to the opening turn of the game — every service turn after that gives both partners their serve.

Calling the three numbers

Before each serve you say three numbers in order: your score, their score, your server number.

• First number: your team’s points.
• Second number: the opponents’ points.
• Third number: 1 or 2, whether you are the first or second server on this turn.

“7-4-2” means your side has 7, theirs has 4, and you are the second server — so a lost rally here is a side-out. That third number is the one beginners forget, and without it nobody knows whether a fault ends the turn or just passes to your partner. Our full scoring guide drills the call in more depth, and singles scoring uses only two numbers because there is no second server.

Position: who is on the right?

Serve order follows the score, not fixed sides. When your team wins the serve, the partner on the right (even) court serves first. As you score points and switch sides with your partner, your server number stays the same until you fault — switching courts does not turn server 1 into server 2. The receiving team, meanwhile, never switches sides during your service turn; they hold position and let the correct player take the return under the two-bounce rule.

Where players go wrong

The three habitual errors: forgetting the server number so a side-out surprises everyone; giving the first-serving team two servers on the opening turn; and switching sides when you did not actually score. Get the sequence — server 1 faults to server 2, server 2 faults to a side-out — into muscle memory and the rest follows.

If the legal serve motion itself is still shaky, our pickleball serving rules guide covers the underhand contact, the correct box and foot placement, and the beginner rules tie the sequence together with scoring and the bounce rules.

Remember the shape and you are set: both partners serve, second-server fault is a side-out, and the first turn of the game is the lone single-server exception.