Padel rules explained

Padel looks like tennis played inside a glass box, and that is a good enough picture to get you on court. The rules that actually decide points, though, are its own: the serve goes underhand, the walls are part of the playing surface, and a ball that has left the court is sometimes still very much in play.

The court and the teams

Padel is played in doubles on a court twenty metres long and ten metres wide, enclosed by glass at the back and along part of the sides, with metal mesh above and around the rest. A net splits the court in two: it sits at about eighty-eight centimetres in the middle and a few centimetres higher at the posts. On each half, a service line runs parallel to the net and a centre line divides the area between them into two service boxes.

Singles courts exist, but they are narrow and rare. Almost every court you book at a club is a doubles court, and almost every game you play there will be four players.

How the scoring works

Scoring is identical to tennis. Points run fifteen, thirty, forty, game. At forty-all the game goes to deuce, and a team must then win two points in a row to take it. Six games win a set, with a margin of two, and at six games all the set is decided by a tiebreak. Matches are usually the best of three sets.

Because the scoring is familiar, most people who have played any racket sport can keep score in their first session. What takes longer is the rhythm: rallies in padel are long, and a game can swing several times before anybody reaches forty.

The serve

The serve is where padel breaks most clearly with tennis, and it is the rule beginners get wrong most often.

The server stands behind the service line, bounces the ball once on the ground, and strikes it at or below waist height. Contact has to happen below the waist, with the ball at or under that line at the moment you hit it. There is no overhead serve and no advantage in being tall.

The ball must travel diagonally over the net and land in the service box opposite. Once it has bounced there it may touch the side glass and the point continues. If it touches the metal mesh after the bounce, the serve is a fault. As in tennis, you get two attempts, and a serve that clips the net cord and still lands in the correct box is replayed.

The consequence of an underhand serve is that the serving team has far less of an advantage than in tennis. Holding serve in padel is normal, but it is nothing like automatic.

The walls are part of the game

This is the part that makes padel padel. After the ball has bounced on the ground on your side, it may rebound off your own back glass or side glass, and you can still play it. Good players expect that rebound and use the space behind them rather than crowding the back wall.

The order matters. A ball coming from your opponents must bounce on your ground first. If it strikes your glass or mesh before it has bounced, the point is theirs. Going the other way, your shot has to clear the net and bounce on their ground before it touches anything else; a ball you hit straight into their back glass on the full is out.

When the ball is out

A ball is out when it fails to bounce on the ground inside the opponents' half, when it bounces twice on your side, when it touches you or your partner, or when it leaves the court over the surrounding fence. Touching the net with your racket, your body or your clothing while the ball is in play also loses the point.

Many clubs have doors or gaps in the side fencing, and where the club allows it, a ball that has bounced in and then flown out of the court can be chased down and returned from outside. It is spectacular and it is legal, but it is not the shot to build your game around.

Lets, faults and the golden point

A let is any point replayed without penalty: the serve that clips the net cord and lands in, a ball from the neighbouring court rolling across yours, an interruption nobody caused. When in doubt at club level, replaying the point is the normal and uncontroversial choice.

Many competitions and most club leagues use the golden point: at deuce, instead of playing advantage, the next point decides the game, and the receiving team chooses which side takes the serve. It keeps matches inside their booking slot, which is why it has spread so widely. Agree with your opponents before the first game whether you are playing it.

Learning the rest on court

The written rules take ten minutes to read and a few sessions to feel. If you are booking your first court, read the beginner guide as well, and if you want to know how the clubs on this site are ordered, that is explained on how we rank.