Padel Rules Explained: Everything You Need to Know

Padel's rulebook is short, and the official version (FIP — Federation Internacional de Padel) fits on a few pages. The reason it feels confusing the first time is that the walls are in play, which adds a layer of geometry that no other racquet sport has. Once you internalize that, everything else is straightforward.

This is every rule that comes up in a recreational match, with the edge cases.

The basics

Padel is played in doubles on a 20m × 10m enclosed court. A point starts with one team serving from behind their baseline. The ball must land in the diagonal service box across the net. Once the ball is in play, both teams trade shots until someone fails to return the ball before it bounces twice on their side, hits a wall before bouncing on the floor, or sends the ball out of the court.

You win the point if your opponent:

• Misses the return entirely.
• Lets the ball bounce twice on their side of the court.
• Hits the ball into the net on their side.
• Hits the ball into a wall on their side before it bounces on their floor.
• Hits the ball over the surrounding fence (in most courts; a ball that goes "over the wire" is out).
• Touches the net or the opponent's court with their body or paddle.

The serve

Serves in padel are underhand and have to obey three rules:

1. You bounce the ball first. Drop it on your side of the court behind the baseline. You can't hit it out of the air.
2. Contact happens at or below the waist. "At or below the waist" means the ball must be at waist height or lower at the moment your paddle hits it. Some leagues phrase this as "below the navel"; the practical effect is the same.
3. The ball must land in the diagonal service box across the net. It can hit the back glass after it lands, but it cannot hit the side fence on the receiver's side. If it lands in and then hits the side fence (the metal mesh), it's a fault.

You get two serves per point, just like tennis. Lets — when the serve clips the net but otherwise lands in — are replayed without penalty (unlike pickleball, where lets count as in).

The walls (the part everyone gets wrong)

Walls are the rule that makes padel padel. Here's how they actually work.

Your own walls. After your opponent hits the ball, it crosses the net and lands on your side. Once it bounces on your floor, you are allowed to let it ricochet off your back wall, your side walls, or both — and then return it. The ball can hit one wall, two walls, even three walls after the first floor bounce. As long as you hit it back over the net before it touches the floor a second time, the point continues.

Opponent's walls. You cannot hit the ball directly into your opponent's wall on the fly. The ball must bounce on their floor first. If you hit a winner that strikes their back glass before bouncing, you lose the point.

Hitting your own wall. You can intentionally play the ball off your own wall to send it back over — uncommon but legal. This is the "contrapared" shot.

Out of bounds

This is the one thing the casual rulebook glosses over. There are two kinds of "out" in padel:

• Over the wire. If the ball clears the surrounding fence (typically 4 meters tall) without hitting it, it's out. The point goes to the team that hit it out — wait, no. It goes to the other team. Sending a ball over the fence loses you the point.
• Through a gap. Some courts have an opening at the door for player entry. If the ball goes through that gap, it's out and you lose the point.

A ball that hits the surrounding fence on the receiver's side after bouncing on the floor is in play. The receiver can play it.

Double bounce, double touch, body hits

• Double bounce: if the ball bounces twice on your side before you hit it, you lose the point. (Walls don't count as bounces — only the floor does.)
• Double touch: you cannot hit the ball twice with the paddle on the same return. One contact only.
• Body hits: if the ball hits any part of you or your partner before you return it, you lose the point. Doesn't matter if it would have gone out.
• Touching the net or opponent's court: if your paddle, body, or clothing touches the net while the ball is in play, you lose the point. Reaching over the net to play a ball is allowed only if the ball has already crossed to your side and the wind or spin brought it back.

Lets and replays

Three things are replayed instead of penalized:

1. A serve that clips the net but lands in the correct service box.
2. A point where an external object enters the court (a ball from another court, a child, a dog).
3. A genuinely contested call where neither team is certain the ball was in or out.

The third one matters in social play: in padel, there are no line judges. Players make their own calls on their side of the court. If you're not sure, replay the point. Don't litigate.

Scoring (the short version)

15, 30, 40, game. Six games to win a set, win by two. Tiebreak at 6–6. Two sets to win a match.

Many recreational leagues use golden point at deuce — sudden death. Receiving team picks the service side. We cover the full scoring system, including super tiebreaks and pro variations, in Padel Scoring Explained.