Padel rules: how to play padel in 2026

By Alejandro Portillo GuerreroUpdated 11 October 20268 min read

Padel is played as doubles on an enclosed 20 × 10 m court. Points are scored like tennis. You serve underarm after a bounce, diagonally into the opposite box. On your side, the ball must hit the floor once before it touches the glass. After that it can come off any wall and is still in play, and you can use your own glass to get it back over. Here are the rules of padel, taken from the official FIP rulebook (revision in force from 1 January 2026), with a checklist for your first game.

Padel rules at a glance

The court and equipment

The playing area is 20 m long and 10 m wide, measured inside, and a net splits it in half. The net is 0.88 m high in the centre and at most 0.92 m at the ends. Service lines run parallel to the net, 6.95 m from it. A centre line divides the space between the net and each service line into two equal service boxes.

The court is fully enclosed. The back walls are 4 m high: 3 m of wall (usually glass) topped by 1 m of metal mesh. On the sides, wall panels at each end meet mesh along the middle. The walls give a true bounce and the mesh does not, which is why the rules treat them differently.

Rackets are solid and perforated, with no strings, at most 45.5 cm long. A wrist cord of up to 35 cm is mandatory.

How to serve in padel

1. Stand behind the service line, between the centre line and the side wall, without touching either line with your feet.
2. Bounce the ball on the ground inside your serving area. New in 2026: the ball must not cross the service line or the imaginary extension of the centre line before you strike it.
3. Hit it at or below waist height, with at least one foot on the ground. Overhead serves are not allowed.
4. The ball must clear the net and land first in the service box diagonally opposite. The lines count as in.
5. Serve the first point of each game from the right-hand side, then alternate sides after every point.

A serve is a fault if it breaks any of the rules above, or if:

• you miss the ball completely;
• it bounces outside the box;
• it hits you or your partner;
• after bouncing in the box, it touches the metal mesh before bouncing again. Hitting the glass is fine.

After one fault you serve again. Two faults in a row lose the point. If the serve clips the net and lands in the box without then touching the mesh, it is replayed.

The return and the rally

The receiver must let the serve bounce inside the box and hit it before it bounces a second time. If the serve hits the receiver or their partner before it bounces, the serving pair wins the point. The receiver and both partners can stand anywhere on their own side.

After the return, either pair may volley. The serving and receiving order is fixed for each set and can only change at the start of the next one.

How the walls work

The walls are what make padel different from tennis. The principle: floor first, then walls.

• On your side: after the ball has bounced on your floor it can hit your back glass, side glass or mesh and still be in play. You can hit it on the rebound off the glass.
• Using your own glass: you can hit the ball against your own walls so that it travels over the net. It counts if it then bounces on the opponents’ floor. If it hits your own mesh or your own floor instead, you lose the point.
• Into their court: your shot must bounce on the opponents’ floor before it touches their walls or mesh. Hitting their glass on the full (even off the net) loses the point. A ball that bounces right in the corner where wall meets floor is good.
• Out of the court: if your shot bounces in their court and then leaves the court, you win the point. If it gets stuck in the mesh or comes to rest on top of a wall, you also win the point.

That last case gives padel its showpiece smash. It is called por tres (x3) when the ball bounces and flies out over the side wall, and por cuatro (x4) when it goes out over the back. (Yes, that is where PorTres gets its name.) Courts with space around them can allow players to run out and play a ball that left over the side wall or through the door, but only where the event permits it.

When you lose a point

From Rule 13 of the FIP rulebook, the cases you will actually meet:

• the ball bounces twice on your side before you return it;
• your shot hits the opponents’ walls, mesh or anything outside the court before bouncing on their floor;
• your shot hits your own mesh or your own floor;
• you, your racket or anything you carry touches the net or its posts, or the opponents’ side, while the ball is in play;
• you hit the ball before it has crossed the net to your side;
• you hit the ball twice, or both partners hit it;
• after one of you hits it, the ball touches you or your partner;
• the opponents’ shot hits you or your clothing (anything except your racket) before you play it;
• you serve a double fault;
• your safety cord breaks or the racket slips out of your hand.

Scoring in a nutshell

Points go 15, 30, 40, game, and the server’s score is called first. At 40–40 (deuce) the FIP rulebook gives three official methods:

• Advantage: win two points in a row from deuce to take the game.
• Golden point: one decisive point at deuce. The receiving pair chooses whether to receive on the right or the left, and the players may not swap positions. This is the norm in most social and club play.
• Star Point: advantage can be played at most twice. At the third deuce one decisive point is played, and the receiving pair chooses the side. It has been used on the FIP circuits since 1 January 2026, and the LTA has made it mandatory at Grades 1–2. Full details are in our Star Point guide.

At 5–5 you play on to 7–5. At 6–6 a tie-break decides the set. The first pair to 7 points with a 2-point lead wins it, and the set goes down as 7–6. Matches are best of three sets. The rulebook also allows a super tie-break to 10 in place of the third set, and many events use it. Pairs change ends whenever the total number of games played in the set is odd, and every 6 points in a tie-break. Tie-break serving and other formats are in our padel scoring guide.

What changed in 2026

Compared with the 2021 text, the revision in force from 1 January 2026 changes:

• Serve: the ball may not cross the service line before it is struck.
• Safety cord: the cord was already mandatory. Now, if it breaks or the racket slips out of your hand, your pair loses the point immediately.
• Warm-up: the warm-up with your opponents is now 3 minutes instead of 5.
• Star Point: a third official deuce method (see above).

Your first game: a checklist

1. Agree on the deuce rule (golden point is the usual social choice) and the format: a full match, one set or a timed slot.
2. Spin a racket or toss a coin. The winners choose to serve, receive or pick an end, or ask the other pair to choose first.
3. Each pair decides who serves and who receives first, and who plays the right and left sides.
4. Put the wrist cord on. A dropped racket now loses the point.
5. Serve from the right: bounce the ball, hit it at waist height or lower, diagonally across.
6. Wait for the bounce on the return, then let the glass help you.
7. Call the score with the server’s score first, and change ends after games 1, 3, 5 and so on.

Playing an Americano night? Same rules on court, but each round is a fixed number of points. See how to organise an Americano, build the rounds with our free Americano generator, or try Mexicano for courts matched by level.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• FIP — Reglas del Pádel (rev. 01.01.2026)
• FIP — Reglamento de Juego del Pádel (rev. 28.05.2021, for comparison)
• LTA Padel — Competition Referee and Organiser Guide 2026
• The Padel Brief — New padel rules 2026
• Tennis Warehouse — Padel terminology (x3, x4)

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