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Can the ball bouce twice in the serve?

Today we want to answer a question that many neophytes in this sport have:

Is it considered a point or if the ball bounces twice in the opponent's court when making a serve?

In RULE 6. SERVE OR SERVICE of the Regulations of the Royal Spanish Padel Federation the following is indicated:

“ The hit ball must pass over the net towards the service reception box located in the other field, in a diagonal line, causing the first bounce to occur in said box, which includes the lines that they delimit it, and in the first place he will perform the service on the service reception box that is located to his left and, after the point, the next service on the one on his right, proceeding from this moment alternately”.

At no time is anything indicated about the second pot, and if we go to RULE 8. REMAINDER OR RETURN OF SERVICE, in section A it indicates that:

"The remaining player must wait for the ball to bounce within his service reception box and hit it before it bounces on the ground a second time."

Based on these two rules, we can reach two conclusions:

  • The first, and responding to the theme of this article: if the ball bounces twice in the reception box of the opponent's serve, the point will be considered valid, as long as it does not touch the net (the serve would be repeated). ) or touch the side net after the first bounce which would be a service fault.
  • The second is that if the player who is receiving hits the ball before it bounces, it will be a point for the serving pair, regardless of whether the ball bounced outside the service box or against the wall.< /li>

What is the reason for this confusion with the rule?

This confusion comes from the sister sport of paddle tennis such as ping-pong, where the ball cannot bounce twice in the rival field, but only once.

Is the drop serve ethical?

This serve is often called a “drop serve”, or more disparagingly as a “chicken serve”. It is a fully valid serve, but the unwritten rules of ethics and courtesy of this sport establish that this serve should not be abused, since it can be offensive to the receiving pair, especially in more amateur games.

Another point against this serve is that, if the receiver is able to reach the return, serve, he will gain the initiative of the point since he will be able to be in the net from the beginning of it.

We can also see another type of “strange” but less common serve, such as the lob serve. This consists of serving by making a balloon with enough height so that when the ball bounces in the rival's quadrant, it bounces with a lot of height and goes out of the track thus winning the point, but this, as we say, is rarer to see and at the same time more difficult to execute.

We hope to have resolved your doubts, for you we have already left the ethical part of performing said serve.

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