Analysis of the gold point and its relationship with performance in male and female professional padel players

Abstract

This study aimed to analyse the influence of the “no-ad scoring” or “gold point” rule on performance in professional padel, observing the differences between winners and losers, as well as between gender, game rounds and sets. For this, all the quarter-final, semi-final and final matches were analyzed, both in the male category (n = 100) and female (n = 74) of 15 tournaments of the World Padel Tour circuit in 2021. A total of 838 “gold points” were analyzed. The results show a higher percentage of games with gold points are played in women's padel than in men's padel (28.19 ± 9.24% vs 23.48 ± 10.51%; p<.001), with differences depending on the game round and the match set (p=.001). Winner pairs score significantly more gold points than losing pairs, both male (3.17±1.79 vs 2.24±1.87) and female (4.01±2.01 vs 2.54±1.72). Additionally, female winning pairs win significantly (p <.05) more gold points than male winning pairs. In conclusion, winning the gold point may be a key factor of performance in padel. In female players more differences are observed between winning and losing couples. In addition, in women's padel there is greater equality in the games score, due to the higher % of games with gold points. However, as the rounds progress, the men's padel is more equal even with respect to the score of the set, due to a higher number of games played, especially in the semifinals and final.