Common pickleball tournament formats
By the pickletourney team. Updated Sunday, October 4, 2026. Rules and numbers below come from the sources listed at the end; the rest is general advice.
Event pages tend to name the format and leave it at that: "double elimination," "pool play," "best 2 of 3." If those terms are new to you, here's what they mean under the 2026 USA Pickleball rulebook.
How a game is scored
A standard game goes to 11, and you have to win by 2. With standard scoring, also called side-out scoring, only the serving side can win a point.
Some events use rally scoring instead. There, whoever wins the rally gets the point, whether they served or not. The rulebook still lists rally scoring as a provisional option. It can't be used in double-elimination doubles, Golden Ticket events or the National Championships.
Match lengths
With standard scoring, sanctioned events can choose from these:
- Best two of three games to 11, which is what USA Pickleball recommends
- Best three of five games to 11
- One game to 15, or one game to 21
- One game to 11, in round robins with 6 or more teams
Rally scoring opens up more choices. Games can go to 11, 15 or 21, played as one game, best two of three, or best three of five.
All of them are win by 2, except team play, which may use win by 1.
In a one-game match, or the last game of a longer match, you switch ends partway through. That happens at 6 points in a game to 11, at 8 in a game to 15, and at 11 in a game to 21.
Under rally scoring, the director may approve games to 7 points when the weather is bad. Then you switch ends at 4.
Bracket types
USA Pickleball approves six formats. The tournament sponsor or director usually picks which one an event uses.
Double elimination. Lose once and you drop to the consolation bracket. Lose again and you're done. The consolation winner then plays the winner of the main bracket. If the consolation side wins that match, one more match to 15 decides first place. The team that loses the last consolation match takes third.
Single elimination with consolation. The main bracket decides first and second place. Your first loss sends you to the consolation bracket, and a second loss ends your event. The last two teams standing in consolation play for third.
Round robin. Everyone in your group plays everyone else. Most match wins takes first. Ties go first to the head-to-head record between the tied teams, then to the best point difference across all games. If that still doesn't settle it, the rulebook has three more tiebreakers. A team that withdraws, retires or forfeits has its results dropped from the standings and can't play in the playoff or medal matches.
Pool play. The field gets split into smaller groups called pools. Each pool plays a round robin, and the results set the seeds for an elimination playoff.
Non-pool play. Everyone plays a round robin to set the seeds, then moves on to a single- or double-elimination playoff. Playoff matches are best two of three to 11, or one game to 15 or 21.
Team play. Players are on a team roster, and the matchups can include gender singles, gender doubles and mixed doubles.
How many matches you get
At sanctioned events you're guaranteed at least two scheduled matches per event. The one exception is single elimination with no consolation bracket, which the rulebook lists for pro and senior pro brackets. In that format, one loss and you're out.