During friendly matches and most amateur tournaments padel matches are played without an umpire. The qualifying rounds of World Padel Tour don’t have a referee either. This means that the players will have to judge certain things themselves in an amicable manner. Let’s talk about some of these things to keep an eye out for and how to behave.
- At the start of the match, it is usual to wish the other players a good match, and at the end, all players are expected to approach the net and shake hands amicably, with both sides congratulating the others and thanking them for the match.
- If one of the players hits a shot whereby the ball hits another player, it is usual to apologize, while the person who got hit will acknowledge the gesture, knowing it’s part of the game.
- Each player is responsible for all decisions in her half of the Court. She should be completely honest on all “calls” but, if in doubt, she should give her opponent the benefit of the doubt and play the ball as good.
- It is your obligation to call all balls on your side, to help your opponent make calls when the opponent requests it, and to call against yourself (with the exception of a first service) any ball that you clearly see out on your opponent’s side of the net.
- Any “out”, “let” or “fault” call must be made immediately (ie. made before either an opponent has hit the return or the return has gone out of play); otherwise the ball continues in play. “Calls” must be verbal and clearly audible to the opponent, followed by a signal if necessary. “Lets” may be called by any of the participating players.
- When returning service, the partner of the receiver should generally call the service line for her.
- If players cannot agree on the score, they should calmly discuss the points/ games that are the areas of disagreement. If they cannot reach an agreement they should replay only the points or games in question. All points or games which the players agree on stand eg. cannot agree on whether the score is 40-15 or 30-30, but agree on the winner of the first, second and fourth points. Therefore only the third point needs to be replayed.
- Where a ball interrupts play, either by rolling/bouncing onto the court, and/or creating a visible interruption behind the court, a let should be played. If it happens a second time, the couple to whom it happens loses that point.
- If a player hinders her opponent it can be ruled involuntary or deliberate. If you experience behavior that you consider deliberate hindrance, call the tournament organiser to watch over a few points and take a decision.
- Any hindrance caused by a player that is ruled deliberate will result in the loss of a point.
If there are any situations that you’re unsure about, let me know and I’ll do my best to clear any doubts.
Hi Jean
Can you link to a reference for rule number 4 about calling the ball out when it’s not and then continue playing?
It’s a known discussion in Denmark where I’m from, and I can’t really find a written rule about it.
I always look up: Official Padel Rules – International Federation Of Padel (FIP) (chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://padelmania.ro/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Official-Padel-Rules.pdf)
Thanks in advance.
I appreciate your post – I am a (tournament) tennis player who is now playing padel
I took up Padel while living Mexico – and rules and etiquette are not really ?? a thing here even in tournaments (forget rec playing)
Especially talking yelling commenting when the ball is on the OTHER SIDE OF THE NET.
In tennis – this would get you talked to – then hinderances would be called – and no one would play with you – because this is cheating essentially.
I am Still trying to find one set of rules for Padel – like USTA is the rules for tennis whether you play Wimbledon or at a public park – those are the DEFINITIVE RULES
does Padel have such a thing ??
not that they would follow ‘RULES’ in Mx ‘rules’ are a fluid notion very gray here
thank you
I feel you Jennifer, unfortunately, these kinds of things are more prevalent in padel. On the other hand, cheating is not as institutionalized as in tennis, so there are pros and cons. There are rarely long debates on whether a ball was in or out, for example.
The official padel rules in English can be found here.
hello.
The rules of etiquette are something that is often unspoken, meaning they are not written down anywhere. It’s the interpretations and behaviours you can get that bother your competitors, frankly, when we compete at whatever level it is, we’re not too bothered by it as long as you don’t go outside the rules because it doesn’t really bother you to perform badly in terms of etiquette, it’s all in inverted commas.
thanks
Question, what happens a lot during padel games is that my opponent is playing offense and think they hit a point, so they celebrate shouting about this great point but I have still time to play the ball back. It irritates me a lot this behavior, is this something in general ethics for on court? Thanks
I would avoid playing with this player. It is technically a fault as you cannot disturb the opponent when the ball is in his play on his side. However there is a matter of interpretation and in my experience in friendly matches and amateur tournaments you won’t get anywhere, therefore best just to avoid these uneducated players.
Hi Jean!
Thank you for your blog post! They are very helpful.
Just a quick question. Can you please explain a bit better what is meant by points 1 and 2?
Thank you very much,
Matteo