Padel vs tennis: the key differences

Padel uses tennis scoring and a similar ball, but the court, the racket, the serve and the walls make it a different game. Here's how they compare, from the official 2026 rulebooks.

Side by side

	Padel	Tennis
Court	10 x 20 m, fully enclosed	23.77 m long; 8.23 m wide (singles), 10.97 m (doubles); open
Walls	Glass and mesh, in play after the bounce	None
Net height	0.88 m centre, 0.92 m at the ends	0.914 m centre, 1.07 m at the posts
Racket	Solid, no strings, max 45.5 cm, wrist cord required	Strung, max 73.7 cm
Ball	6.35 to 6.77 cm, 56.0 to 59.4 g	6.54 to 6.86 cm, 56.0 to 59.4 g
Serve	Underarm: bounce, then hit at or below the waist	Hit before the ball lands, usually overhead
Second serve	Yes	Yes
Format	Doubles	Singles or doubles
Scoring	15, 30, 40, game; sets to six	15, 30, 40, game; sets to six

The court and the walls

A padel court is 10 x 20 m and completely enclosed: the end walls are 4 m high (3 m of wall plus 1 m of mesh), and the sides are glass and mesh. Once the ball has bounced on your side it can come off the walls and stay in play, which is what makes padel rallies so different. A tennis court is open, and the ball is dead once it passes you.

The lined area of a padel court is about 77% of a tennis doubles court: 200 m² against about 261 m². You may read that a padel court is a third of the size of a tennis court, but that doesn't match the rulebook dimensions.

See our court dimensions guide for the full measurements.

Rackets and balls

A padel racket is solid and perforated, with no strings, a maximum length of 45.5 cm and a compulsory wrist cord. A tennis racket is strung and can be up to 73.7 cm long. The shorter racket is one reason padel is quick to pick up.

The balls weigh the same, and a padel ball is slightly smaller. The LTA describes padel balls as less pressurised, with a lower bounce. Don't use tennis balls for padel: they bounce too high off the turf and glass. Our best padel balls guide explains the options.

The serve

In padel you bounce the ball behind the service line and hit it at or below waist height, diagonally into your opponent's box. In tennis you hit the ball before it lands, usually overhead. Both sports give you a second serve, and in both the serve must bounce before it's returned. The details are in our padel rules guide.

Scoring

Both use 15, 30, 40 and game, with sets to six games and a tie-break. The difference is at deuce. In tennis it's advantage, or "no-ad" in some formats. In padel, the 2026 FIP rules let organisers choose between advantage, Golden Point (one deciding point at deuce) and the new Star Point. Our rules guide explains each one.

Singles or doubles

Tennis is played as singles or doubles. Padel is played as doubles, so you always need four people. Social formats like Americano make it easy to join a game on your own.

Padel and tennis in Britain

• The LTA says 1.5 million people now play padel in Britain, on 2,445 courts (October 2026), and two-thirds of padel players also play tennis.
• The LTA reported 5.8 million adults playing tennis in summer 2025. That figure covers adults only, so it isn't directly comparable with the padel number, which includes juniors.
• The LTA put the average off-peak price of a padel court at £27 an hour, about £7 each for four players (March 2026).

Which should you play?

If you want a sport you can enjoy from your first session, padel's smaller court, underarm serve and walls make rallies easier to keep going. Tennis takes longer to learn but lets you play singles and has far more courts, including free ones in parks. Plenty of people play both. New to padel? Start with how to play padel.

Last checked: 1 November 2026