The announcement of the introduction of Star Point in padel professional has relaunched the debate around scoring formats. Presented as an evolution intended to improve the readability of matches and better control their duration, this new decisive point poses a central question: does this mechanism already exist in other sports?
The answer is nuanced. If the Star Point does not formally exist elsewhere, its principle is inspired by rules already applied in certain disciplines, in particular badminton.
The Star Point: a new rule in padel
At this stage, the precise contours of the Star Point have not yet been officially released. Nevertheless, the concept mentioned is based on a simple idea: identifying a key moment of the gamedecisive, capable of resolving a balanced situation without it dragging on.
Unlike the Gold Point (Non-Ad)which immediately eliminates the advantage at 40–40, the Star Point would be part of an intermediate logic, maintaining a phase of balance before imposing a clearly identified decisive point.
This combination would be a first in padel… and more broadly in modern sport.
Badminton, the closest reference to Star Point
The badminton is today the sport that comes closest to this hybrid logic. Its scoring system combines sporting fairness and control of the duration of matches.
A set is played at 21 points. In the event of a tie at 20–20, players must decide between two points difference. However, in order to prevent the set from dragging on, a ceiling is fixed : If the score reaches 29–29, the next point automatically becomes decisive. The first player or team to 30 wins the set.
This final point is not a classic advantage, nor an immediate golden point. This is a regulatory locktriggered only after a prolonged phase of equality.
An inspiration, but not a copy
The parallel between badminton and Star Point is based on a common idea: leaving several opportunities for players to decide between themselves, while refusing infinity. On the other hand, the logics differ on a structural level.
In badminton, the decisive point comes by ceiling the scoreon the scale of the set. In padel, the Star Point would apply across the board gamewith an assumed desire to reinforce the dramatic tension at a specific moment.
The padel also adds a dimension of stagingdesigned for television and the public, absent from badminton.
Why other sports don’t go as far
Tennis offers two distinct models, but never combined. The classic advantage system allows theoretically infinite equality, while the No-Ad imposes an immediate decisive point. No hybrid format exists within the same game.
Volleyball and table tennis also require two points apart, with no final cap. Meetings can therefore continue indefinitely. As for football or hockey, the principle of the golden goal applies only in overtime, without link to a repeated tie sequence.
A regulatory innovation for padel
If the Star Point confirms a logic mixing equilibrium phase, possible benefits et decisive point imposedthen padel would become the first sport to formalize such a combination in the same game unit.
It would therefore be neither a simple Punto de Oro renownednor a transposition of tennis, but rather a hybridization inspired by badmintonadapted to the constraints and ambitions of padel professional.
The Star Point is not born ex nihilo. It is part of a global reflection already observed in other sports, notably badminton, on the need to preserve fairness while controlling the duration and readability of competitions.
Its real novelty lies in its ability to transform a key point into clearly identified eventstructuring the game, the spectacle and the sports narrative at the same time. It now remains to know its final regulations to measure its real impact on professional padel.
Franck Binisti discovered padel at the Club des Pyramides in 2009 in the Paris region. Since then, padel has been part of his life. You often see him touring France going to cover major French padel events.
