“Padel tennis” redirects here. Not to be confused with Paddle tennis.

Padel (Spanish: pádel), sometimes called Padel Tennis, is a racket sport typically played in doubles on an enclosed court slightly smaller than a doubles tennis court.^[1][2] Although Padel shares the same scoring system as tennis, the rules, strokes, and technique are different. The balls used are similar but with a little less pressure. The main differences are that the court has walls and the balls can be played off them in a similar way as in the game of squash and that solid, stringless bats are used. The height of the ball being served must be at or below the waist level.

History[edit]

The sport is thought to have been invented in Acapulco,^[3] Mexico by Enrique Corcuera in 1969,^[4] after he modified his squash court to incorporate elements of platform tennis.^[5]

Many well-known professional padel players have previously competed in tennis, including former WTA Tour players Roberta Vinci and Lara Arruabarrena.^{[citation needed]}

Rules[edit]

• Players: Usually played as doubles on a 10 by 20 metres court (32′ 10″ by 65′ 7″) Singles use a 6 by 20 metres (19′ 8″ by 65′ 7″) court instead.
• Serves: Serves are always underhand. Balls that hit the walls around the court after bouncing on the ground are still in play.
• Scoring: Padel is scored in the same way as tennis.
• Balls: Padel balls are required in official matches; these are similar to tennis balls but are slightly smaller. Padel is usually played casually with regular tennis balls.
• Rackets: Padel rackets are made of a composite material without strings. The hitting surface is perforated. The racket is similar to the one used in platform tennis but has its own specifications.
• Court: The court has a floor made of concrete, plastic or artificial grass. It is designed similarly to a tennis court, only smaller – measuring 10×20 m, with a 0.88m (34.6 inches) high net in the middle. The court is surrounded by 4 meter high walls made of glass or brick, or a fence when outside

Scoring[edit]

Padel follows the same scoring as the tennis scoring system with the following exception:

• In the 2020 season, World Padel Tour introduced the “Gold Point” or “Golden Point”, a new scoring method for main tournaments (Master Final, Master, Open and Challenger) organized by the World Padel Tour.^[6] This method of scoring has been widely adopted throughout non-professional tournaments as well.
  • The golden point in Padel:
    • The golden point occurs when the score reaches deuce during any game.
    • The receiving team chooses whether the service will come from the right or left of the court.
    • The team that wins that one single point will win the game.

Court[edit]

The padel rules state that the playing field should be a rectangle 10 metres (32 ft 10 in) wide (back wall) and 20 metres (65 ft 7 in) long (side wall) (with a 0.5% tolerance), enclosed by walls. At the middle of the playing field there will be a net dividing the court in two, the net has a maximum height of 88 cm in the center raising to 92 centimetres (36 in) at sides (with a 0.5 centimetres (1⁄5 in) tolerance).

The superstructure is made from connecting 3m high x 2m wide panels, with an additional 1m mesh height over the glass back walls (10m walls). This additional 1m height is continued for 2m from each corner over the side walls also. This means that the back walls and service corners are actually 4m in height, with the remaining side walls are 3m in height.

Glass panels make up th