In badminton, doubles is a team of two players against another two players on a badminton court. In this blog, I will share some basic rules of doubles in badminton, including serving, scoring, and boundaries.
At the beginning of the game, when the score is 0 vs 0, the server must stand on the right side of the service court. The receiver must stand at a diagonal from the server in the opposite service court. The receiver’s partner is not allowed to hit this initial shot.
For the rest of the game, when the server’s score is even, the server stands on the right side of the service court, whereas when the server’s score is odd, the server stands on the left side. When the server wins, they get a point and the same server can serve again from the alternate side. However, when the receiver wins, the receiver gets a point and becomes the new server. The same rules apply again: they serve from the left if their score is odd and from the right if their score is even.
You can see the boundaries of the serving and receiving areas from the image below:
If the server hits the shuttle outside of the service court boundaries, the receiver should allow the shuttle to fall on the floor. This way, the receiver automatically gets a point and becomes the new server. However, if the receiver hits the shuttle that would otherwise go out of the boundaries, the game continues.
After the initial serving and once the receiver hits the shuttle back, the boundaries of the service court expand to the green-colored area shown in the image below:
In general, badminton scoring goes up to 21 points, wherein a point is scored from each round. However, if the score reaches 20 vs 20, then the first side that gets a two-point advantage wins the game. If both sides reach 29 vs 29 without getting that two-point advantage, then the first side to reach 30 is the winner.
Here you go! These are some basic rules you should be aware of if you want to get into playing doubles in badminton.