What are the padel rules every player should know?

The serve is underarm, and that single rule shapes the whole game.

Stand behind the service line, bounce the ball once on the floor and strike it at or below waist height, into the service box diagonally opposite. You get two attempts, exactly as in tennis.

After it lands in the box, the ball may hit the back glass and stay in play. If it lands in the box and then hits the mesh fence, it is a fault. A serve that touches the net and still lands correctly is a let and is replayed.

Because nobody can serve for a winner, the serving pair has no automatic advantage. In padel the receiving pair often takes the net first.

The rule is easier than it looks: the floor first, then the walls.

A ball that comes over the net must bounce on your floor before it touches any of your walls. Once it has bounced, it can hit the back glass, the side glass or the mesh, and you may still return it — the walls are part of the court, not out of bounds.

A ball that flies over and hits your glass before bouncing means the point is yours. A ball you hit that reaches the opponents' wall on the full, without bouncing on their floor, means the point is theirs.

On your own side you may also play the ball off your own wall deliberately — the contrapared — to lift it back over the net.

The ball is out when it lands outside the lines on the floor, or when it hits the fixtures — lights, ceiling, the outside of the structure — before landing.

The padel-specific case is the ball that bounces on your floor and then flies out of the court over the fence. It is not automatically over: if the court has a door and you can get outside in time, the ball is still live and you may play it back. That is the salida, and it is the shot that makes highlight reels.

A smash that sends the ball out over the side fence is called a por 3, over the taller back fence a por 4. Both are only winners if nobody gets outside to return them.

A pair loses the point when:

• the ball bounces twice on their floor;
• they fail to return it over the net into the opposite court;
• they hit the ball before it has crossed to their side;
• the ball touches a player or their clothing;
• they touch the net, the post or the opponents' side while the ball is in play;
• they hit the ball twice, carry it, or play it with anything other than the racket;
• the ball hits the opponents' wall on the full, without bouncing first.

The two that cause most club arguments are the double bounce — remember that wall contacts do not count — and touching the net while a ball is still live.

The count is tennis: 15, 30, 40, game. Six games with two clear win a set, 6–6 goes to a tie-break to seven, and a match is best of three.

What differs is what happens at 40–40. Most competitions now play a golden point: one deciding point, and the receiving pair chooses which side takes it. Club play may still use advantage — ask before the first serve rather than at 40–40.

Many tournaments also replace the third set with a super tie-break to 10. It is a scheduling decision, not a rule change, and it should be announced before the draw.

Most padel is played without an umpire, which makes a handful of conventions worth stating.

The pair on whose side the ball landed makes the call, and doubt goes to the opponents. Wall rebounds are judged by the pair defending them, since they have the only view worth trusting.

Call the score out loud before every serve. In a doubles game where partners rotate and the pace is high, half of all disputes come from two pairs holding different scores in their heads.

At sanctioned events a chair umpire takes over all of this and announces the score after every point. For everything else, the rule is simply that the argument costs more time than the point was worth.