Padel Glossary

The point played after deuce. Win it and you take the game; lose it and the score returns to deuce. Advantage is the traditional way to close a game and is still standard in club play, while professional padel decides deuce with a single golden point.

A social format where partners rotate every round and each player collects points individually. Everyone plays with and against most of the field, and the ranking at the end is personal rather than by pair. It is the default format for a club evening because latecomers and uneven numbers hurt it far less than a fixed draw.

The shot played off a ball that has bounced and come back off the glass. Instead of retreating, the player lets the wall do the work, waits for the rebound and drives the ball back down the court. Reading the rebound is the single skill that separates padel from tennis for most beginners.

The defensive overhead that keeps a pair at the net. Struck with slice at around shoulder height, it sends the ball deep and low without the risk of a full smash, so the hitters hold their position instead of being pushed back. The name means "tray", after the flat path of the racket.

A free pass into the next round when a draw has fewer pairs than slots. Seeded pairs normally receive them, so the bracket fills to a power of two. In a JudgeMate knockout draw the byes are placed automatically when you generate the rounds.

A soft, low ball played from the back of the court into the feet of the pair at the net. It buys time and forces a rising volley rather than an attack. Against a strong net pair the chiquita is often the only way back into a point.

A return played after the ball has come off your own side wall, or a shot hit deliberately into your own glass to send the ball back over the net. Legal, spectacular and usually a last resort.

A padel court measures 20 metres by 10 metres and is enclosed. The back walls are glass and the rest of the perimeter is metal mesh, and every surface is in play once the ball has bounced on the floor. A single court is half the width of a tennis court, which is why the game lives on angles.

The drop shot: a short, softly played ball that dies just over the net. It works best against a pair pinned at the back by a deep bandeja, and it is the shot most often given away by a change in swing speed.

The score at 40–40. From there a pair either needs two points in a row (advantage scoring) or a single deciding point (golden point), depending on what the event has chosen before the match.

A smash struck so the ball dies against the back glass instead of rebounding into court. The name means "sleepy": the bounce stays low and close to the wall, leaving no room for a bajada.

The ball may bounce only once on the floor of your side before you return it. Wall contacts do not count as bounces, so a ball that lands, hits the glass and comes back is still live; a second bounce on the floor ends the point.

A ball that touches two walls after bouncing, typically back glass then side glass. The double rebound kills pace and changes the angle, so returning it is more about reading the geometry than hitting hard.

The bracket or table that decides who plays whom. In padel it can be a knockout, a round robin, groups feeding a knockout, or a rotating americano. In JudgeMate the draw is generated from the confirmed entries, and the match sheets, courts and standings all hang off it.

A pair on the start list. In doubles formats the entry, not the individual player, is what the draw moves around: it carries the team name, both players and any seeding. A pair with only one player declared never reaches the draw.

The International Padel Federation, founded in 1991, which publishes the Rules of Padel and sanctions international competition. National federations adopt its rulebook and add local competition regulations on top.

A serving error where the server touches or crosses the service line, or the centre line extension, before striking the ball. It is judged the same way as any other service fault: first serve lost, second serve means the point.

The hook: an overhead played across the body when the lob has gone behind the shoulder, usually on the backhand side. It is a recovery shot rather than a weapon — the aim is to stay at the net rather than to win the point outright.

The transparent back and part-side panels of the court. Once the ball has bounced on the floor, the glass is in play for both the defending and the attacking pair. A ball that hits the glass on the full, before bouncing, loses the point.

The lob, and the most-played tactical shot in padel. A good globo lifts the opposing pair off the net and turns defence into attack; a short one hands over a smash. Club matches are decided by globo quality far more often than by power.

At 40–40 a single point decides the game, and the receiving pair chooses which side takes it. This is the FIP and Premier Padel standard and it caps match length, which is why most tournaments use it. JudgeMate lets you switch between golden point and advantage before a match starts.

Pairs first play a group table, then the best of each group meet in a bracket. It guarantees every pair several matches and still ends with a final. JudgeMate supports two or four groups with one or two pairs advancing, and closes the group stage into the bracket in one step.

A single-elimination bracket: lose once and you are out. Fastest way to a champion and the harshest on anyone who travelled far, which is why club events often run groups first and a knockout after.

A serve that touches the net and still lands in the correct service box is replayed. A let is not a fault, so the server keeps the same serve.

The metal mesh fence around the court. It plays differently from glass: the rebound is dead and unpredictable, which is why players aim their smashes to finish near the mesh corners rather than the flat glass.

An americano variant where each round pairs players by the current standings: leaders meet leaders, and the bottom of the table plays its own bracket. It keeps matches competitive as the evening goes on, at the cost of a fixed schedule you can print in advance.

The net is 0.88 metres high at the centre and 0.92 metres at the posts. The dip in the middle is what makes cross-court angles and the chiquita playable.

A doubles racket sport played on an enclosed 20 by 10 metre court with a solid, stringless racket and an underarm serve. It borrows tennis scoring and adds the walls, which is why rallies are longer and placement beats power.

In americano and mexicano a round is played to a fixed number of points instead of games, typically 16, 21, 24 or 32. Every point counts towards the personal ranking, so the target number is really a clock: it decides how long the evening runs.

A smash struck so the ball leaves the court over the side fence after the rebound. The name refers to the fence height it clears. It stays a legal shot for the opponent to chase, if the court has a door and the player is quick enough to get outside.

The same idea as a por 3 but over the taller back fence — the biggest smash in padel and the loudest point of any club night. Both are only winners if nobody plays the ball back from outside the court.

The professional circuit backed by FIP, launched in 2022, which became the main tour after World Padel Tour wound down. Its rule choices — golden point, best of three sets — are what most club tournaments copy.

At sanctioned events a chair umpire runs the match from beside the net and calls the score after every point. Most club and league padel is self-officiated: the players call their own side, and the organizer only steps in for a dispute.

Every pair plays every other pair, and the table decides the winner. It is the fairest format on a small field and the most expensive in court time, since the number of matches grows fast with each extra pair.

An overhead hit with heavy topspin so the ball kicks high off the floor and the glass. It is used to push a pair back rather than to end the point, and it sits between the bandeja and the flat smash in risk.

Playing the ball from outside the court. Where the court has openings, a player may run out through the door, take the ball after it has left the court and put it back over the net. The point continues as normal.

Ranking the strongest entries so they are placed apart in the draw and cannot meet in the first round. In JudgeMate you set a seed number on each entry and the bracket is generated around it.

The serve is underarm. The server bounces the ball once behind the service line and strikes it at or below waist height into the diagonal service box. Two attempts are allowed, and a serve that lands correctly and then hits the mesh is a fault, while one that hits the glass stays in play.

The area between the net and the service line on each side of the centre line. A serve must land in the box diagonally opposite the server before any wall contact counts.

A set goes to six games with a two-game margin. At 6–6 a tie-break decides it, and a match is normally best of three sets.

The table that ranks pairs or players during an event. In group and round robin play it is built from matches won, then set and game difference; in americano it adds up each player's points across the rounds. JudgeMate recalculates it from confirmed results, so it moves as the evening runs.

A first-to-ten tie-break, win by two, played instead of a full deciding set. It shortens a club night by a whole round of court time and is the usual choice when the draw has to finish by a fixed hour.

Americano with fixed pairs: partners stay together for the whole event and each round is still played to a points target. It suits pairs who signed up together but want the pace and the mixing of an americano schedule.

Played at 6–6 in a set, first to seven points with a two-point margin. Serve changes after the first point and then every two points, and pairs change ends every six points.

The viper: an overhead hit with heavy side slice, taken further towards the side wall than a bandeja and aimed to skid low off the glass. More aggressive than a bandeja, less risky than a flat smash, and the shot that most separates advanced club play from beginners.

The volley, played before the ball bounces. Padel is won at the net, so the volley is less about power than about depth and placement — a volley that sits up invites a lob, and a lob invites the whole point back.

A match awarded because one pair does not appear or withdraws. The result still has to be recorded so the table and the bracket stay consistent — in JudgeMate you confirm it like any other result.