Pickleball Singles Rules: How 1v1 Differs From Doubles

Pickleball singles is the same game as doubles — same court, same kitchen, same two-bounce rule, same side-out scoring to 11 — with three differences that change how it plays: there is only one server, your serving side is set by your own score, and you cover the whole court by yourself. If you already know doubles, you are most of the way to singles.

The differences are small on paper and huge in the legs. Here is exactly what changes.

What stays the same

Do not overthink it. Singles keeps almost everything:

• The court is the full 20 by 44 feet, kitchen included — nothing shrinks.
• Games go to 11, win by 2, with tournaments sometimes using 15 or 21.
• Only the serving player scores (side-out scoring).
• The serve is underhand and diagonal, and the two-bounce rule still applies — serve bounces, return bounces, then volleys are allowed.
• The non-volley zone rules are identical: no volleying while touching the kitchen.

The three real differences

1. Your score decides your serving side

This is the rule newcomers to singles get wrong most. There is no left-and-right rotation with a partner, so your position is tied directly to your own score:

• Even score (0, 2, 4, 6…) — serve from the right/even court.
• Odd score (1, 3, 5…) — serve from the left/odd court.

There is a neat side effect: if you lose track of the score, the side you are standing on tells you whether your score should be even or odd. The receiver simply lines up diagonally across to return.

2. One server, two numbers

Because you are a team of one, there is no first or second server, so you call only two numbers before serving: your score, then your opponent’s. “6-4” means you have 6, they have 4. Lose the rally on your serve and it is an immediate side-out — the serve crosses the net with no partner to hand it to.

3. You cover everything

No partner means the entire court is yours. This is the difference you feel, not read. Singles turns pickleball into a running game, and it reshapes strategy around it — deep serves to push your opponent back, sharp angles to make them cover ground, and returns aimed to buy yourself time to recover to the middle.

Singles vs doubles at a glance

Element	Singles	Doubles
Court size	Full court	Full court
Servers per turn	1	2 (except first turn of game)
Numbers called	2 (your score, their score)	3 (add server number)
Serving side set by	Your own score	Team score + server position
Scoring	Side-out, to 11, win by 2	Side-out, to 11, win by 2
Court coverage	Whole court, alone	Split with partner
Dominant style	Power, movement, deep serves	Soft game, kitchen patience

Strategy shifts worth knowing

Singles rewards the aggressive server. A deep, well-placed serve immediately puts your opponent on the back foot and buys you the initiative. The gentle, patient dinking wars that define doubles are rarer here — you are more often looking to move your opponent side to side and finish when they leave a gap.

That does not mean the soft game is useless. A good third-shot drop still gets you to the net, and a well-disguised dink can wrong-foot a runner. But raw speed and stamina carry more weight in singles than in any other format, which is one reason DUPR keeps your singles and doubles ratings separate.

If you are moving into singles from doubles, drill your serve depth and your recovery footwork first — those two habits win more 1v1 games than any fancy shot. And if you are still learning the shared rules, our pickleball rules for beginners guide covers the serve, the two-bounce rule and scoring that both formats share.