Padel Court Dimensions Explained

A padel court is 20 meters long and 10 meters wide. That's the entire playing area. Everything else — the walls, the net, the service boxes — fits inside that rectangle. Here are all the numbers that matter, in one place.

The playing area

20m × 10m (65.6ft × 32.8ft) — that's roughly 660 square feet of playing surface. Compare to a doubles tennis court, which is 36ft × 78ft = 2,808 sq ft. A padel court is about 24% the size of a tennis doubles court.

The court is divided across the middle by a net. Each side is 10m × 10m. Each side is then divided into a service zone (the front 6.95m from the net) and a back zone (the remaining 3.05m to the back wall). The service zone is split down the middle by the center service line, creating two service boxes per side.

The center service line stops at the service line — it does not extend all the way to the back wall. This matters in play because the back zone is one continuous space, not a left and right.

The walls

This is where padel diverges from every other racquet sport. The court is enclosed on all four sides.

Back walls. 3 meters tall, 10 meters wide, glass. There is one behind each baseline. The back wall is fully in play after the ball has bounced on the floor on that side.

Side walls. 4 meters tall total — 3m of glass at the back transitioning to mesh at the front, or sometimes a stepped pattern that creates a 2m + 2m glass section. Specifications vary by court manufacturer (the most common are Mondo, Padelcreations, and Royal Padel), but all official courts must have at least 3m of glass on the back portion of the side wall, with the rest being mesh.

Mesh fencing. Above the walls, the court is enclosed by metal mesh up to a total height of 4 meters. The mesh is also in play after the ball has bounced — it functions like the wall, just with a much deader rebound.

The asymmetry — glass at the back, mesh at the front — is intentional. It means balls hit deep into the corners come off the wall predictably (glass = clean rebound), while balls played near the net come off mesh with a softer, less predictable bounce.

The net

• 88cm tall at the center (about 34.6 inches).
• 92cm tall at the posts (about 36.2 inches).
• 10m wide, post to post, exactly matching the court width.
• The net posts sit on the side walls, not on independent stands.

For comparison, a tennis net is 91.4cm at the center and 107cm at the posts (3ft and 3.5ft). The padel net is slightly lower across the board, which combined with the smaller court is part of why volley exchanges feel faster than in tennis.

The service boxes

Each side of the court has two service boxes, formed by:

• The service line — runs parallel to the net, 6.95m back from it.
• The center service line — runs perpendicular to the net, dividing the service zone in half. It stops at the service line.

Each service box is 5m wide × 6.95m deep. Note that the service boxes do not extend all the way to the back wall — there's a 3.05m strip between the service line and the back wall that is not part of any service box.

A serve that lands in the service box and then bounces into the back wall is in. A serve that hits the back wall before bouncing on the floor is out (the ball has to land in the service box first).

Door placement

Most padel courts have a single doorway on one side wall, near the center of the court (often offset slightly toward one side). The door is part of the court — it's typically a hinged section of the mesh — and counts as part of the surrounding fence. A ball that goes through an open door is out.

The door placement is the one dimension that varies most between manufacturers. Some put the door dead center, some have two doors (one on each side), and some put it at the back corner. There's no FIP standard that pins this down.

Surface

The standard padel surface is artificial grass with silica sand infill, typically 12–14mm pile height. This gives the court a slightly softer, slower playing characteristic than a hard court — closer to clay than to a tennis hard court in terms of pace.

Two other surfaces exist:

• Concrete / hard court — used on a small percentage of US outdoor courts. Faster ball, harder on knees.
• Carpet / panel system — used in a few experimental indoor facilities. Plays consistently, but expensive to install.

For our take on how the surface choice changes the game, see Indoor vs. Outdoor Padel.

Lighting

Indoor courts and outdoor courts with night play have 400+ lux of illumination across the entire playing surface, with no shadows on the back walls. Most facilities run six to eight LED fixtures per court. This isn't a strict FIP requirement but it's the de facto standard for serious clubs — anything below 300 lux makes the ball hard to track at speed.

Padel court vs. tennis court — the side-by-side

| Measurement | Padel | Tennis (Doubles) | |---|---|---| | Playing length | 20m (65.6ft) | 23.77m (78ft) | | Playing width | 10m (32.8ft) | 10.97m (36ft) | | Total area | 200 sq m | 261 sq m | | Net height (center) | 88cm | 91.4cm | | Service box (one) | 5m × 6.95m | 4.11m × 6.4m | | Walls | Yes — fully enclosed | No |

Why the dimensions matter

The 20m × 10m number isn't arbitrary. It's the size at which:

• Two players can comfortably cover the entire court.
• A defensive lob to the back wall has time to develop into a counterattack via the wall ricochet.
• The angles for a smash are tight enough that placement matters more than power.

Bigger and the wall game stops working (lobs are too slow, smashes from the net are unreturnable). Smaller and the rallies become a reflex contest rather than a strategic one. The 2:1 length-to-width ratio is part of what makes padel feel like the sport it is.