💬 Discussion 💬
Why does everyone choose to serve first in padel? I actually think serving last is better
I played my first padel tournament, and I always chose to receive instead of serve
Everyone I played against chose to serve first, but I actually prefer serving last, I feel like I have more control at the end of the set
\+ in the first game people arent warmed up or totally focused so more likely to break straight out the gate, or if you are not focused at least you are not serving your first game
I have very little experience so would like to know, in up and down tournaments I understand since if the match is stopped in 15/20mins then whoever serves first has an advantage but for tournament matches it seems to not be an advantage
Curious what better players think
https://youtu.be/jPDVAH7Wk4oComments (12)
u/FlatulistMaster5h ago
The starting first edge can be shown mathematically, as long as it is true that serving gives you an edge.
Call p the probability that the serving team wins any given game. In pro padel this is roughly 0.6, or more.
The first server serves games 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 and the second server gets 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12. If the set ends after an odd number of total games (6-1, 6-3, 6-5), the first server has played one extra service game. If it ends after an even number (6-0, 6-2, 6-4), they've served equally.
That one extra service game is the whole thing. It's one additional coin flip weighted at 60% in your favor.
You can verify this exactly. Model the set as a Markov chain on (your games, their games) with transitions based on who's serving.
18
omg thats crazy, thanks so much this makes sense, think Ill start serving from now on lol, thanks
1
u/Masty19926h ago
The warm up argument is fairly irrelevant since both sides aren’t properly warmed up by that logic.
Psychologically it’s difficult to always be chasing the game. If someone breaks your serve when your team served first, you get a shot at breaking theirs and clawing it back straight away, whereas the other way around it seems like a huge challenge.
What do you think are the benefits to serving last?
8
Ohhh that makes a lot of sense, I actually havent thought of it that way. For me during tournaments specially first game of a set its always a bit nerve racking and i think players at intermediate level dont play at their optimum level due to being the first game so there is more likeliness of breaks so 1. I dont want to serve first because of that, 2. we may have a higher chance to break.
Again im a beginner and not sure this is correct, but having them serve first seems to give me a very small edge even if its just psychological, but I would like to understand this discussion more just so im informed and reach some sort of revelation that makes more sense than what im guessing
1
u/HairyCallahan6h ago
I don't think there is any benefit in serving last. You will always be chasing the other team and that's (for most) harder to do psychologically. But at long as you and your partner prefer this, just keep doing it. It may throw some guys off so that you can poach the first game 😁
6
Makes sense, thanks for your input! In your case if you get the chance you always want to serve first? Independent of your warm up?
1
u/HumbleWorkerAnt5h ago
in the video you say 'i think there's less pressure for us to break if they start' but logically that makes no sense. The pressure in Padel is to hold serve. The pressure to break only comes into play when you've lost your serve and are a break down. So using your own logic, serving second gives you *more* pressure to hold serve than serving first, and you don't want that.
Psychologically, being down 0-3 or 2-5, despite only being 1 break, is definitely worse than being down 1-2 or 3-4
3
For me the scores dont affect much as long as its one break e.g. 0-3 and 1-2 is the same for me. I see your point of serving second to hold serve gives more pressure than first, but for me I think more in terms of breaking rather than holding the serve, I think having them serve first we have less pressure to break. I guess now thinking about it the pressure if we serve first depends on whether we win our first game or not.
Maybe im contradicting 😅 like I said wanted to hear from more experienced better players
1
u/HumbleWorkerAnt4h ago
> I think having them serve first we have less pressure to break
yeah that was my point. in Tennis/Padel there is no pressure to break unless you've already lost your serve. You literally cannot lose in these sports if you maintain your serve, the game just goes on. So the "pressure to break" only comes into play once you've lost your serve, and that means the pressure to hold serve is much bigger than to break.
At the end of the day, you're free to do whatever you feel like, but objectively it will always be an advantage to serve first.
1
u/Masty19924h ago
Another commenter mentioned that serving team has about a 60% chance of winning the point, so it seems a little over the top to focus on it so heavily given that it’s not that rare to score on someone else’s serve
1