Padel is always played two against two, on an enclosed court measuring 20 by 10 metres, where the ball can bounce off the walls without the point being lost. The scoring is borrowed straight from tennis, but almost everything else — the court, the serve, the racket — runs on rules of its own, set by the International Padel Federation (FIP). Someone coming from tennis recognises half the game within the first hour and gets completely lost in the other half.
The court: 20 by 10 metres, enclosed on every side
A padel court measures 20 metres in length and 10 metres in width, with a tolerance of 0.5%. The net divides it in two at a height of 0.88 m at the centre and 0.92 m at the posts — slightly lower than in tennis. A service line runs 6.95 m from the net, and a perpendicular line down the middle splits the court into two service boxes, just like tennis. All lines are 5 cm wide.
What changes the game completely is what surrounds the court: glass at the back and along part of the sides, metal mesh fencing on the rest. The glass walls on the short sides typically reach 3-4 m in height — enough to turn every corner of the court into playable space rather than a mere obstacle. On covered courts, the regulations require at least 6 m of clear space above the playing surface, so a high shot has somewhere to go.
The serve is underarm, not like tennis
There is no overhead serve in padel. The ball has to be let bounce once on the server's own side, then struck underarm, below waist height, sent diagonally into the opposite service box — the same direction as a tennis serve, but a completely different motion. Each player gets two attempts per serve, exactly as in tennis: if the first is a fault, a second follows.
That difference is what unsettles a tennis player the most. Without an overhead serve, the ball's initial speed is much lower and the server's advantage smaller than in tennis — which is why padel rallies run longer and the game stays closer to the net.
The serve alternates between teams after every game, as in tennis, and within a team the two partners serve in turn, game by game. The server's feet have to stay behind the baseline at the moment of contact — stepping over the line before hitting the ball makes the serve a fault.
Scoring works exactly like tennis
Points run 15, 30, 40, game, with the advantage rule kicking in at deuce (40-40) — whichever team wins two points in a row takes the game. A set is won at six games with a lead of at least two; at 6-6 a tiebreak is played, counted 1, 2, 3… up to seven points with a two-point lead. A match is usually played to the best of three sets.
A variant found in professional play — including some Premier Padel tournaments — replaces the advantage rule at 40-40 with a "golden point": the next point decides the game outright, with no repeated deuces. It is not the standard rule for a casual match, but it is worth knowing if you hear the term watching a broadcast.
The wall rule: the ball can bounce, but not however it likes
This is where padel actually reveals itself. The ball has to bounce on the court before touching any wall — that is the base rule, and it applies to the serve as much as to any other shot in the rally. Once it has bounced on the ground, the ball can carry on and hit the back or side glass and stay in play; it just has to be returned before it touches the ground a second time.
What is not allowed: if the ball hits the metal mesh fence directly, without bouncing on the court first, the point is lost. The same applies if it touches the glass before it has bounced on the player's own side. The distinction between glass and fence matters in practice — the glass keeps the ball alive, the fence takes it out.
The racket has no strings
Unlike a tennis racket, a padel racket is a solid, perforated bat with no strings at all. The hitting surface is covered in round holes, typically 9-13 mm across in the central area, which let air pass through and cut resistance on contact. FIP regulations cap the dimensions at 45.5 cm in length, 26 cm in width and 38 mm in thickness, with a typical weight between 350 and 390 grams.
For a beginner, that means a far more forgiving racket than a tennis one — there are no strings to lose tension, and the flat surface makes ball control more predictable.
Why it is always played two against two
Padel was invented in 1969 by Enrique Corcuera in the backyard of his home in Acapulco, Mexico — he built an enclosed court because there was not enough space for a full tennis court. His wife, Viviana, wrote the first set of rules, and the format was doubles from the start. The small, enclosed court, built for four players, has defined the sport ever since: official competition has no singles format in padel, unlike tennis.
In practice, that means you cannot book a padel court to play one against one — you need three other people, or a club that puts together groups for someone showing up alone. The game spread from Mexico to Spain in 1974 and to Argentina in 1975, and the doubles format inherited from Corcuera's backyard has not changed in any official competition since.
Sporta MD currently covers football, basketball, volleyball and tennis — there are no padel courts in the app. This article exists because a clear explanation of padel's rules is hard to find, and the sport is growing fast in Chișinău.