1. The court
A padel court is 10m wide and 20m long — about a quarter the size of a tennis court. The whole court is enclosed by walls: glass at the back and on the sides nearest the net, metal mesh at the corners. The walls are in play — your ball can rebound off your own walls before you hit it, and your shot can rebound off the opponents' walls after it bounces.
The net is 88cm at the center and 92cm at the posts — a few centimeters lower than a tennis net. The service line is 3 meters from the net, dividing the back area into two service boxes.
2. Scoring
Padel uses the same scoring as tennis:
- Points: 15 → 30 → 40 → game
- Deuce at 40-40. First to win two points in a row after deuce wins the game (some clubs play “golden point” — sudden death at deuce).
- Sets: first to 6 games (win by 2), with a tiebreaker at 6-6.
- Matches: best of 3 sets.
3. The serve
The serve is the single biggest rule difference from tennis. In padel:
- You serve underarm, after the ball bounces.
- Drop the ball from waist height, let it bounce, then strike it at or below waist level.
- The serve must land in the diagonal service box, like tennis.
- The receiver can let the ball bounce off the back glass before returning — and almost always should.
- If the serve hits the side wall (mesh) after bouncing in the box, it's a fault. Back wall (glass) is fine.
- You get two serves, same as tennis.
4. Wall play
This is where padel gets interesting. After the ball bounces on the floor on your side, it can hit your back or side walls — and you are allowed to hit it after the rebound. You are not allowed to play the ball directly off your wall before it has bounced on the floor.
- Your ball can hit your opponents' walls after it bounces on their floor — that's a legal shot.
- Your ball cannot hit your opponents' walls before bouncing on their floor — that's out.
- You can play the ball back into your own wall (a contrapared) as long as it then goes over the net into the opponents' court.
For the full wall-play mental model, see our wall-play guide.
5. Faults and out-of-play
- The ball bounces twice on your side — point lost.
- The ball hits the metal mesh on the opponents' side without bouncing first — out.
- The ball goes over the side fence — out (unless you played it from outside the court and back in).
- You touch the net with your body or racket — fault.
- The ball touches you or your partner — fault.
6. The “out-of-court” winner
Advanced players can hit a smash so hard it bounces inside the court and then flies over the side fence (called por tres) or back fence (called por cuatro). It's a legal winner. But you also can — by rule — exit through the gate, run around outside the court, and play the ball back in before it bounces twice. This almost never works, but it's legal and looks spectacular.
7. Position and switching sides
- Padel is always doubles. Teams stay on their chosen side of the net for the set.
- Within a team, you pick a side (left/right) and stay there through the game.
- You change ends after odd-numbered games (1st, 3rd, 5th, etc.) within a set, same as tennis.