How do you run a padel tournament at your club?

Every other decision follows this one. Multiply courts by the number of slots between your start and your hard finish, and you have the total number of matches your event can hold.

A club evening from 18:00 to 21:00 on four courts, with 20-minute slots and five minutes to change over, gives you roughly seven rounds — 28 match slots. A Saturday morning on two courts gives you about 12.

Write that number down before you announce anything. Nearly every overrunning tournament started as a format chosen first and counted second.

Americano works when people sign up as individuals. Partners rotate every round, everyone collects their own points, and a late arrival or a no-show costs you one rotation rather than the draw.

Mexicano is americano that re-pairs by the standings each round, so the top of the field keeps meeting itself. It stays competitive longer but you cannot print the schedule in advance.

Team americano keeps pairs together and still plays to a points target — the format for people who signed up with a partner but want a social evening.

Round robin is the fairest with up to eight pairs and the most expensive in court time. Knockout is the fastest to a champion and the cruellest to anyone who drove an hour. Groups plus knockout is the compromise most club tournaments land on: three or four matches guaranteed, then a bracket.

Open registration on the event page and let players enter themselves. In a pairs format each entry carries a team name and two people: one player starts the team, the other joins it by the same name.

The case that breaks most sign-up sheets is the single player. Give them a way to say looking for a partner so they land on a list you can pair up before you draw, instead of messaging you privately at 22:00 the night before.

Decide early whether entries are automatic or need your approval. Automatic fills the field faster; manual approval lets you balance levels, which matters more in a club than in a ranking event.

Full sets are honest and unpredictable, and unpredictable is what wrecks a schedule. For anything running to a clock, choose one of two shorter shapes.

Points per round — americano and mexicano play a round to a fixed number: 16, 21, 24 or 32. The target is really a timer, and it makes every court finish together, which is the whole point when partners have to rotate.

Golden point at 40–40 removes the deuce spiral. It is the FIP and Premier Padel standard, so nobody at your club will find it strange. For draws, a super tie-break to 10 instead of a third set saves roughly one round of court time across the event.

Publish the first round before anyone arrives, on paper by the door and on a screen if you have one. Then hold one rule: a match is not finished until the result is recorded.

The quickest way to keep that rule is to let the players do it. A QR code on each court opens the score panel for that match, so whoever is at the net enters the result and the next round is not waiting for you to walk around with a clipboard.

Keep one court free of the schedule if you can. It absorbs the overrun that always happens in round two and it gives late arrivals somewhere to warm up.

In a table format, rank by matches won, then by the difference in games or points. In americano the ranking is personal: every point a player wins in every round is added up, so the winner is whoever performed best across shifting partners.

Announce the tie-break rule before the first ball, not after the last one. Two pairs level on matches is the single most common argument of a club tournament.

Publish the final table the same evening while people are still in the bar. It is the cheapest marketing your next event will ever get.