AUSTRALIAN PADEL FEDERATION - GREAT PADEL NEWS FROM DOWN UNDER

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http://www.australianpadelfederation.org.au/


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What is Padel?

21st Century Racquet Sport

The game of Padel has been likened to ‘tennis with walls' and 'squash in the sun’.
It is a sport that combines the best elements of tennis, squash and racquetball.
It has gained tremendous popularity due to its simplicity and similarities to already existing racquet sports.
Padel is played in doubles on an enclosed court measuring 10m wide by 20m long.
The rules allow for the use of the back and sidewalls, resulting in longer rallies.
The balls used are tennis balls, the scoring the same as tennis, all the serves are underhand.

Padel is a fun game to play and appeals to a wide population.
Children enjoy playing as it is easy to learn, promotes teamwork, whilst improving their hand-eye coordination.
It is a family game.
Men and women and youth can compete together without physical strength being the sole determinate of the winner.
The smaller court size brings everyone closer, making social conversation a much more integral part of the game.
In short Padel is a great game for players of all ages and skills as it is both quick and easy to pick up and is less physically demanding than similar sports like squash.
Most players get the grasp of the game within the first 20 minutes of playing and find it easy to achieve a level of proficiency so that they can enjoy it because the game is not as dominated by strength and serve as tennis.

Rules Of Play - Brief Padel Rules

Format

All play is doubles format

Scoring

Padel has the same scoring system as in Tennis.

Service

In Padel, all play begins with an underhand serve from the right service court into the opponents court. This is played diagonally as in tennis.
The server must allow the ball to bounce once before hitting it and the ball must be hit below waist level.
The serve must land in the opponents service box. If the ball bounces in the service box and strikes the side or back wall, it is a valid serve and must be played by the opposing player. If the ball lands in the service box and hits the wire fencing, it is considered a fault.
The server must keep at least one foot on the ground when hitting the serve. The server’s feet must not touch or cross the service line when serving.
In Padel, as in tennis, the server has two opportunities to complete the serve.

Play

The following are considered fair play situations in the sport of Padel:

• The court lines are considered in play only during the initial serve. After that they are not a factor in determining the outcome of each point in the game between opposing players.
• All players are permitted to play a ball off any of the walls on their own side of the court.

Loss of Point

The opposition wins a point when any of the following events occur:

• The ball bounces twice in any area of your side of the court.
• The ball hits the wire fencing, posts or any other fixture before going over the net or landing on the opponents court.

Out of Bounds

The ball is considered out of bounds and a point is given to the opposing players if the ball hits the wire fence or walls before bouncing on the opponents side of the court.

Overhand Strokes

The ball can be taken in the air by any player except on the initial serve and return of serve.




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