Padel Rules for Beginners: Everything You Need Before Your First Match

If someone has just invited you to your first padel match, the thing you're probably worrying about is making some obvious mistake in front of three strangers. Good news: padel has fewer rules than it looks, and most of them stick after a single match. Here are the basics — court, scoring, serve and walls — as defined by the International Padel Federation (FIP), plus the things people actually get wrong on court.

Short answer: padel is played in pairs on an enclosed 20 × 10 metre court where the glass walls and the fence are part of the game. Scoring works exactly like tennis (15, 30, 40, advantage). The serve is always underarm — you bounce the ball on the ground first and hit it at or below waist height, diagonally. A ball may only touch a wall after it has bounced on the floor on the other side.

Contents

• The court and the net
• How scoring works
• How to serve in padel
• The walls and the fence
• When you lose the point
• The most common beginner mistakes
• How to get into your first match

The court and the net

Padel is played in pairs — two against two. The court is a rectangle 20 metres long and 10 metres wide, enclosed by a mix of glass walls and metal mesh fencing. Unlike tennis, that enclosure isn't just a boundary: it's part of the game.

The net across the middle is 10 metres long and stands 88 cm high in the centre, rising to 92 cm at the posts. A service line runs 6.95 metres from the net on each side, and the area between the net and that line is split into two boxes by a centre line — those are the boxes you serve into.

In practice: the court is smaller than a tennis court and the racket is short and stringless — the rules cap its total length at 45.5 cm. The ball looks like a tennis ball but has its own specification: 6.35–6.77 cm across and 56–59.4 grams. Thanks to the walls, rallies last longer than you'd expect, which is what makes padel forgiving to start with.

How scoring works

Scoring is borrowed from tennis, so if you've ever watched a tennis match you already know it:

What you win	How
Point	15, 30, 40 — then the game
Game	Four points, but with a two-point margin; at 40–40 it goes to "deuce" and advantage
Set	Six games with a two-game lead; at 5–5 you play it out to 7–5
Tie-break	At 6–6, first pair to 7 points with a two-point margin — the set ends 7–6
Match	Two sets out of three

At 40–40 ("deuce"), the pair that wins the next point has the advantage; win the one after that and the game is theirs, lose it and you're back to deuce.

You change ends after the first, third and every subsequent odd game, and every six points in a tie-break.

You also get a maximum of 20 seconds between points — rarely enforced in a friendly game, but worth knowing before your first tournament match.

Shorter formats for a casual match

Casual matches often don't finish a full set — you play for as long as the court is booked. The official rules allow shortened scoring for exactly this, and there's nothing stopping you agreeing on one before you start:

• Golden point — at 40–40 a single deciding point is played, and the receiving pair chooses which side receives it.
• Mini set — a set to four games (still with a two-game lead), tie-break at 4–4.
• Super tie-break — instead of a third set, a tie-break to 10 points with a two-point margin.

Picking a format up front is the simplest way to make sure the match fits the court booking.

How to serve in padel

The serve is the rule beginners break most often, because it's the biggest departure from tennis. In padel the serve is always underarm:

1. Stand behind the service line, diagonally opposite the box you're serving into.
2. Bounce the ball on the ground behind the service line — you can't hit it out of the air.
3. Strike it at waist height or below at the moment of contact.
4. Keep at least one foot on the ground as you serve.
5. The ball has to land in the diagonally opposite service box.

As in tennis you get two attempts: miss the first serve and you take a second. Miss that one too and it's a double fault — the point goes to your opponents.

When a serve is a fault

• The ball doesn't land in the correct service box.
• After bouncing in the correct box, the ball hits the metal fence — that's a fault even though it landed in.
• You strike the ball above waist height, or straight out of the air without bouncing it.
• You step over the service line before making contact.
• You miss the ball entirely when trying to hit it, or it hits you or your partner.

If the ball bounces in the correct box and then hits the glass wall and stays in play, the serve is good — your opponent simply plays it as normal. And if a serve clips the net but still lands in the right box, the serve is replayed.

The receiver has to let the serve bounce in their box and hit it before the second bounce. Touch it out of the air and the point goes to the server.

The walls and the fence

This is the part that makes padel padel. The core rule fits in one sentence: the ball has to touch the floor before it touches a wall.

What that means in a rally:

• Your side: when your opponent hits, the ball lands on your half, bounces off the floor and can carry on into your back or side wall. Letting it come off the glass and playing it then is completely legal — and it's the single most useful thing a beginner can learn.
• Their side: your shot has to land on the floor of their half first. If it hits their glass or fence before touching the ground, you lose the point.
• Your own wall as a tool: the rules explicitly allow you to play the ball off your own wall and have it travel over to their side from there. It looks clumsy, but it's a perfectly legal way to rescue a difficult ball.
• Volleys: you're allowed to hit the ball out of the air before it bounces, except on the serve and the return of serve.

On courts with a safety zone around them, where out-of-court play is authorised, you're allowed to go out through the gate and return the ball from outside — provided it bounced correctly inside the court first. If it leaves over the back wall, the point is lost. On courts without a safety zone, a ball that leaves the court always ends the point, so check with the club which applies to the court you're on.

When you lose the point

You lose the point if:

• the ball bounces twice on the floor before you return it,
• you fail to get the ball over the net,
• the ball ends up outside the court without bouncing inside first,
• your shot hits the wall or fence on your opponents' side directly, without bouncing,
• the ball hits you or your partner,
• you touch the net or cross onto your opponents' side,
• you hit the ball twice, or both of you hit it at once,
• you serve two faults in a row,
• you drop your racket or the safety cord on your wrist snaps.

The most common beginner mistakes

Serving out of the air. The most common mistake of all — pure tennis reflex. Always bounce the ball first.

Running away from the wall. New players panic when a ball heads for the back glass and try to hit it before it gets there. The opposite is right: back off, let it come off the glass, and play it calmly.

Hitting too hard. The court is small and enclosed, so a big shot usually rebounds off the wall straight back to your opponent. Control and placement are worth more than power.

Playing your own half with no plan. Padel is a team game. Agree up front on who covers the middle — most lost points come from both players watching the same ball.

How to get into your first match

The rules are the easy part; the hard part is finding three other people free at the same time. That's what an open match is for: a court that's already booked but still short a player, which you join on your own. There's more on how that works in our guide to finding padel partners and starting an open match.

If you're just starting out, the shortest route to a first match looks like this:

1. Download the PadelDropIn app from the App Store or Google Play.
2. Browse the padel club directory and find a court near you.
3. Join an open match marked for beginner level — every match shows its level range up front, so you know before you sign up.
4. Bring court shoes and water, and if you don't own a racket yet, ask the club whether they rent equipment so you don't have to buy one right away.

Court fees are still paid at the club, the same way as always — PadelDropIn helps you find the people and the match, it doesn't change how you pay.

After a handful of matches the rules stop being something you think about and it's just a game. For more on levels, gear and on-court etiquette, follow the PadelDropIn blog.

Sources

• Rules of Padel — International Padel Federation (FIP), edition in force from 01.01.2026. Checked 1 September 2026.
• Official padel rules and scoring explained — LTA Padel, the official padel governing body in Great Britain. Checked 1 September 2026.