List your club

Home › New to padel? Rules, scoring and the walls explained

New to padel? Rules, scoring and the walls explained

Padel is a racket sport for four players: two pairs on an enclosed court 20 metres by 10 metres. You score like tennis, serve underarm, and can keep the ball in play after it comes off the glass walls. In Britain padel is governed by the LTA, which also runs tennis.

The court

  • Size: 20 metres long and 10 metres wide, fully enclosed.
  • Net: 88 cm high in the middle, rising to 92 cm at the posts.
  • Walls: glass back walls, glass panels at the start of each side wall, and metal mesh (“the cage”) around the rest. Doors on the sides let you run out after a ball in some situations.
  • Lines: a service line 6.95 metres from the net in each half, and a centre service line splitting the area in front of it into two service boxes. The lines only matter for the serve; in a rally the walls are the boundary.

Almost every club game is doubles. Some clubs also have narrower singles courts; every court finder table lets you filter for them.

The serve

  1. Stand behind the service line and let the ball bounce once before you hit it.
  2. Hit it underarm, at or below waist height, keeping at least one foot on the ground.
  3. Serve diagonally into the service box opposite, like tennis.
  4. After it bounces in the box, the serve can hit the glass and stay in play. If it hits the mesh before a second bounce, it’s a fault.
  5. You get two serves. A serve that clips the net and lands in the box is a let and is taken again.

The receiver must let the serve bounce before returning it.

The walls

The walls are what makes padel different, and the rule is simpler than it looks: the ball must bounce on the floor first, then it may hit a wall.

  • On your side: if the ball bounces on your side and then comes off the glass (or, in a rally, the mesh), it’s still in play. You can hit it after it comes off the wall.
  • Playing it off your own wall: you may hit the ball into your own glass so it rebounds over the net, as long as it then lands in the opponents’ court. Your own mesh doesn’t count: a shot that touches it is lost.
  • On their side: your shot must bounce in the opponents’ court before it touches their walls. A ball that hits their glass or mesh on the full is out.
  • Out of the court: if a ball bounces in the opponents’ court and leaves through a door or over the wall, they can run outside to play it back, where the court allows it.

Faults: when you lose the point

  • The ball bounces twice on your side before you return it.
  • Your shot hits the opponents’ walls or mesh before bouncing in their court.
  • Your shot touches the mesh or the floor on your own side.
  • The ball touches you or your partner, including your clothing.
  • You hit the ball twice, or both you and your partner hit it.
  • You volley the serve instead of letting it bounce.

Scoring

Padel uses tennis scoring: points go 15, 30, 40, game; six games with a two-game lead wins a set, and a tie-break decides a set at 6–6. Matches are usually the best of three sets.

What happens at 40–40 depends on where you play:

  • Advantage: play on until one pair wins two points in a row, as in tennis.
  • Golden point: an optional rule with one deciding point at the first deuce; the receiving pair chooses which side to receive on. It keeps games short.
  • Star Point: introduced by the International Padel Federation (FIP) from 1 January 2026. Two advantages are played as normal; if the game reaches deuce a third time, one deciding point (the Star Point) settles it, and the receiving pair chooses the side. The LTA uses it in its top two grades of British tournament and lets referees apply it at the others.

Before a social game, agree which one you’re playing.

Racket and ball

  • Racket: solid, with no strings, and a hitting surface perforated with small holes. It can be no longer than 45.5 cm, and it has a wrist cord that the rules require you to wear.
  • Ball: looks like a tennis ball but is slightly smaller, with lower internal pressure.

Many clubs hire out rackets and sell balls, so you may not need your own kit to try it; the club page says where we found it.

Your first game

Sources