Padel court
An enclosed court, much smaller than a tennis court, walled with glass and mesh so the ball can be played off the walls.
Overview
A padel court is a small, fully enclosed court used for padel, a racket sport that blends elements of tennis and squash. Glass and metal-mesh walls surround the court, and the ball can rebound off them and stay in play, much as in squash.
A net divides the court in two and the surface is usually artificial turf. Padel is almost always played as doubles.
Good to know
- The walls are part of play: the ball can be taken off them after it has bounced.
- A padel court is somewhat smaller than a tennis court, roughly three-quarters of the area.
- The serve is played underarm and must land diagonally in the opposite service box.
- The solid, stringless padel bat is quite different from a tennis racket.
Where it’s used
Sports that use padel court:
Related facilities
Padel court dimensions
The exact size and markings of a padel court under FIP rules — the 10 by 20 metre rectangle, the service lines, the line width, and the free height the rules require above it.
Padel walls and enclosure
The feature that makes padel its own sport — the glass and mesh enclosure, the two permitted side-wall layouts, and why the wall material is specified by how the ball bounces off it.
How it connects
The meaning-bearing relationships that place Padel court in the wider knowledge graph — each one with the reason it exists.
Frequently learned together
Taught side by side in the same stage of a learning path.
- Padel racketBoth are taught in the “What you’ll need” stage of the Padel learning path.
- The padel netBoth are taught in the “What you’ll need” stage of the Padel learning path.
- The padel ballBoth are taught in the “What you’ll need” stage of the Padel learning path.
- The padel racketBoth are taught in the “What you’ll need” stage of the Padel learning path.
- Padel court dimensionsBoth are taught in the “What you’ll need” stage of the Padel learning path.
Explore across the knowledge base
Follow the threads that connect Padel court to the rest of SocialSportHub.
Equipment
- Padel racketA solid, stringless racket perforated with holes, used to play padel. The lack of strings gives padel its distinctive shorter, flatter shots.
- The padel netThe net that divides a padel court — its two different heights, the maximum post height, the white strip that tops it, and why the posts sit at the lateral limits.
- The padel ballThe padel ball's own specification — diameter, weight, bounce and internal pressure — and the separate altitude ball the rules provide for above 1,000 metres.
- The padel racketWhat the FIP rules fix about a padel racket — the maximum length, width and thickness, the mandatory cord, and the perforation limits that define the hitting surface.
- Football (soccer ball)A round, inflated ball used to play association football and futsal. Futsal uses a smaller, heavier ball that bounces far less on a hard court.
Techniques
- Padel BandejaA controlled overhead shot in padel, hit with slice and moderate pace to keep the player at the net without over-committing.
- Playing the walls in padelThe skill that separates padel from every other racket sport — reading a rebound off glass, positioning behind the bounce rather than at it, and using your own back wall to attack.
- Movement and recovery in tennisWhy tennis footwork is mostly about getting back rather than getting there — the split step, the recovery position that is not the centre of the court, and sliding on clay.
Learning paths
Rules
- Ball in play and the wallsWhat counts as part of the court in padel and how the walls change a rally — which surfaces the ball may use, the order it must use them in, and the returns the rules explicitly permit.
- The padel servePadel's underarm serve, set out exactly — the bounce before the strike, the waist-height limit, where the server's feet must be, and the wire-mesh fault that has no tennis equivalent.
- Foot faultA serving fault called when the server's foot touches the baseline or court before striking the ball.
- Out-of-court play in padelThe rule that lets a padel player leave the court to keep a rally alive — when it is authorised, what the court must provide for it, and why it depends on the safety area.
Go deeper with Padel court
Everywhere else on the platform that covers Padel court — assembled from what actually references it, so nothing here is a dead end.
Learn it
Structured courses and paths on the platform that cover this directly.
How this page is maintained
- Content type
- Facility
- Provenance
- Tier A — evergreen educational
- Verified external sources
- 0
- Content updated
- 2026-09-12
Evergreen, first-party explanation — it makes no claim that needs an external source. How we handle sources and reviews.