Golden point in padel: what it is, when it applies and how to play it

You heard “golden point” on a broadcast or at your club and want to know what it actually means. Short answer: when a game reaches 40-40, instead of playing advantage you play one single point, and whoever wins it wins the game. The receiving pair chooses which side the serve comes from.

The long answer is more interesting, because the golden point is neither a club habit nor a TV gimmick. It is written into the official rulebook of the International Padel Federation (FIP) as one of three valid scoring methods, alongside traditional advantage and the Star Point the professional tour introduced in 2026.

What the FIP rulebook says about the golden point

The FIP rulebook, revision of 1 January 2026, which you can read in full in our padel rules, devotes the scoring rule to three official methods. The golden point is the third, and the text defines it like this:

Scoring: love → 15 → 30 → 40 → game. If both pairs reach 40, “deuce” is called and a single deciding point called the golden point is played.

Three rules follow from that, and you need all three:

1. One point decides the game. No advantage, no going back to deuce: win the point, win the game.
2. The receiving pair chooses the side, right or left. The server has no say.
3. Nobody changes position. Choosing a side means choosing which service box the serve lands in, not shuffling players around. If your partner plays the left and you choose to receive on the right, whoever plays the right returns.

Mixed doubles adds a fourth: “the player of the same sex as the server shall receive the deciding point.” There the receiving pair has no choice at all.

Advantage, Star Point and golden point: the three methods

The usual confusion is thinking the golden point has replaced advantage. It has not: all three methods coexist in the rulebook, and which one applies depends on the tournament. The text itself calls advantage “the most common in competition”.

Method 1, with advantage. The classic system inherited from tennis. At 40-40 deuce is called, the next point is advantage and you need two points in a row to close the game. A single game can last as long as both pairs can stand it.

Method 2, Star Point. Advantage with a cap. The rulebook spells out the sequence: “deuce 1 → advantage 1 → deuce 2 → advantage 2 → deuce 3 → a deciding point called the Star Point is played.” You get two chances to close the game on advantage; if you reach deuce a third time, the next point is a golden point under a different name. The side choice and the ban on switching positions are identical.

Method 3, golden point. No advantage. The first 40-40 is already the deciding point.

Notice that the Star Point ends in a golden point: if you know how to play one, you know how the other ends too.

When each method applies

The rulebook does not assign a method to each competition; the organiser decides. What it does is limit the choice to those three. In practice:

• Professional tour (Premier Padel, CUPRA FIP Tour, FIP Promises): Star Point from the 2026 season. The FIP General Assembly approved it unanimously on 28 November 2025, it debuted at the FIP Bronze Melbourne (5-11 January 2026) and reached Premier Padel at the Riyadh P1 (9-14 February 2026).
• Federation and club tournaments: whatever the national federation or the tournament regulations set. Before a match that matters to you, ask the referee which method is in force.
• Social games: whatever you agree before the first serve. The golden point is the practical choice when the court is booked by the hour.

Where it comes from: the professional tour

The golden point reached professional padel with World Padel Tour in 2020. The circuit announced it in January that year; its managing director, Mario Hernando, framed it as a way to “make the game more dynamic and attractive” and to shorten matches for broadcasting. It debuted on 29 February 2020 in the qualifying rounds of the Marbella Master, the first event of the season.

Premier Padel was born in 2022 with traditional advantage, and when it absorbed World Padel Tour for the 2024 season the golden point left the top level: a player consultation returned a majority for going back to advantage. The tour played that way through 2024 and 2025, but the debate never closed, with matches running past two hours on slow courts and players such as Paquito Navarro, Martín Di Nenno and Juan Lebrón asking for the golden point back.

The 2026 Star Point is the middle ground of that argument. The FIP presented it as a system that balances the essence of the game with its evolution, and its president, Luigi Carraro, said it improves the spectacle without losing padel’s identity.

How it changes the tactics

The rulebook deals the cards unevenly: the server has the serve, the returner has the choice. Each side plays with what it is given.

If you are serving

Coaches such as Hugo Cases agree on one thing first: the first serve rules. A second serve on a golden point hands the returner a free swing and forces you to defend the net from the first shot. A placed first serve with less pace beats gambling on power and ending up on a second.

Before serving, tell your partner where it is going: down the T, into the glass or at the body. They need to know which gap opens up to close the first volley. After the serve, no heroics: deep bandeja, volley to the feet, wait for the ball you can finish. Over a single point an unforced error costs more than a winner earns.

If you are returning: how to choose the side

This is the real decision. Three criteria come up again and again in the sources consulted:

• The moment. Whoever just missed two balls should not be returning, however good their return is on paper. Confidence right now outweighs the pair’s overall statistics.
• The match-up. Pick the side where your returner is more solid, but also look at which side the server is more dangerous from. If their serve into the glass from the right hurts you, it may pay to receive on the left even if it is your weaker side.
• The formation you force. Diego Muñoz Marín, a researcher at the University of Extremadura, adds the least intuitive piece: when the servers are pushed into the Australian formation, the receiving pair wins the point more often (55% versus 45% against a conventional formation). With no better reason, force the Australian.

Frequently asked questions

Is the golden point an official rule or a club agreement?

Official. The FIP lists it as scoring Method 3 in its rulebook, revision of 1 January 2026. What is not official is that every tournament uses it: each competition picks between advantage, Star Point and golden point.

Who chooses the side on a golden point?

The receiving pair. They decide whether the serve goes into the right or the left box, and both players keep their usual positions: they cannot swap so the other one returns.

Does Premier Padel play golden points?

Since 2026, not quite: it plays the Star Point, which allows two advantages and settles the game with a deciding point the third time the score reaches deuce. That final point is played exactly like a golden point.

What happens on a golden point in mixed doubles?

The player of the same sex as the server returns. The receiving pair cannot choose who returns and cannot change positions.

Once you know the rulebook, the other half is recognising the people it applies to. Every day a tour player hides behind six clues in the men’s classic challenge. See how many guesses you need.