Padel Court Dimensions and Layout Explained

Knowing the exact measurements of a padel court is more useful than it might first appear. Understanding where the lines sit and how much space the walls give you changes how you position yourself, how you read your opponents, and how you start to think about tactics. For coaches introducing new players to the game, having the numbers to hand makes explaining net approach and wall play considerably easier. This article lays out every dimension you need — court footprint, net height, service boxes, wall heights, and playing surface — all in one place.

The court footprint

A standard padel court is 20 metres long and 10 metres wide, giving a total playing area of 200 square metres. The court is always played doubles — four players share that space, two on each side.

For anyone coming from tennis, the contrast is immediate. A tennis doubles court measures 23.77 metres long by 10.97 metres wide. So a padel court is nearly 4 metres shorter and just under a metre narrower. On paper the difference sounds modest, but the enclosed nature of the padel court — surrounded by glass walls and metal mesh — makes the playing area feel considerably more compact. The walls are live playing surfaces, not boundaries, which means every centimetre of that 200-square-metre space is genuinely in play.

That compactness is part of what makes padel so accessible. You cover roughly half the ground of a tennis court, the rallies keep the ball in play longer, and the game rewards positioning and teamwork over pure athleticism. If you are getting started with padel, understanding the court footprint helps explain why the sport is so much easier to pick up quickly than tennis — the space is manageable right from the first session.

The net

The net divides the court exactly in half, stretching 10 metres across the full width. At the centre of the net, the height is 88 centimetres. At the two side posts, the net rises slightly to 92 centimetres.

That 4-centimetre difference across the width of the court has a practical effect on play. The lower centre of the net is why experienced players aim their crosscourt dinks and drop shots towards the middle — there is marginally more clearance to work with, and the angle opens up a slightly wider corridor. It is a small edge, but at a competitive level it matters.

Compare this to tennis: a tennis net stands 91.4 centimetres at the centre and 106.7 centimetres at the posts. Padel's net is lower overall, particularly at the sides, which contributes to the flatter, faster ball flight that characterises rallies in padel compared to tennis. The net posts in padel sit 0.5 metres outside the side walls, attached to the court's metal frame rather than freestanding, which gives the court structure its rigid, consistent shape.

Service boxes and the service line

The service line is one of the defining lines on a padel court. It runs parallel to the net at exactly 6.95 metres from the net, on each side. Combined with the centre line — which runs perpendicular to the net and service line — this creates four service boxes, two on each side of the net.

During a serve, the ball must land diagonally in the opposite service box — the same basic principle as tennis. The server stands behind the service line to deliver the serve, bouncing the ball and striking it underarm at or below waist height. Once the rally begins, the service line becomes largely irrelevant to positioning, though players at the net will often keep it in mind as a rough guide to their own court depth.

The 6.95-metre service line distance means the service box itself is 6.95 metres deep and 5 metres wide (half the court's 10-metre width). That is a reasonably large target, which is why serve-and-volley tactics are standard in padel — the serve is less of a weapon than in tennis, and players move quickly to the net behind it. You can read more about how the serve fits into the broader flow of the game in our guide to how to play padel.

The walls

The walls are what make padel unique among racket sports, and their exact dimensions are worth understanding before you step on court for the first time.

The back walls — the two glass panels at each end of the court behind the baseline — are 3 metres high. Above each back wall sits a further 1 metre of metal mesh, bringing the total enclosure height to 4 metres. The glass section is transparent so that spectators can watch the game from behind the court, but it is also the primary rebound surface. Balls that travel deep past the baseline players will often rebound off the back glass and remain in play.

The side walls run along each long edge of the court and are typically a combination of glass panels and metal mesh, with the configuration varying between different court manufacturers. The portion of the side wall closest to the back wall tends to be glass (to allow the characteristic side-wall-to-back-wall rebound shots), while the portion nearest the net is usually lower mesh. This variation in wall height along the sides is one reason understanding the specific court you are playing on makes a difference — the rebound angles shift depending on where the ball strikes the wall.

Wall play is one of the most distinctive aspects of padel, and if you are new to it, our padel wall rules guide walks through exactly what is and is not permitted during a rally. The short version: the ball can bounce off any wall after it has bounced on the floor, and this is entirely within the rules of padel.

The playing surface

Most padel courts in the UK use artificial grass with a sand infill — the same basic surface technology used on modern 3G football pitches, but cut shorter and designed for a padel ball's bounce characteristics. The sand is brushed into the fibres of the grass to add weight and stability to the surface, which slows the ball slightly compared to a hard court and gives the surface a small amount of grip underfoot.

A minority of courts — particularly older installations or those built inside converted sports halls — use concrete or a hard acrylic surface. These play faster: the ball skids through lower and quicker, and there is less give underfoot. Footwear matters more than many new players realise. On artificial grass, a padel-specific shoe with an omni-directional sole gives the best grip; on hard courts, a herringbone or all-court sole works better. Wearing running shoes on an artificial grass padel court is a reliable way to lose your footing on the first sharp lateral move.

The surface also affects ball bounce off the walls. On artificial grass courts the ball loses more pace between bounces, which gives players a fraction more time to retrieve deep wall shots. On hard courts the pace carries through, and those same shots arrive faster.

Where to find a court

Now that you know exactly what a padel court looks like, the next step is finding one near you. Our UK court directory lists padel venues across England, Scotland, and Wales, with booking links for each site. The dimensions covered in this article are standardised across all ITF and World Padel Tour-approved courts, so wherever you play in the UK, the measurements will be the same.

For a full introduction to the rules and scoring system, the rules of padel guide covers everything from serve sequences to let calls and wall play in detail.