Padel Serve Rules: Height, Bounce, Feet and Faults
Padel serve rules as played in England and the UK: the bounce, the waist-height limit, where the feet go, glass against fence, lets and every service fault.
By CricketTaken EditorialPublished Padel in England22 min read
- Serves allowed per point
- 2
- Service line from net
- 6.95 m
- Contact height
- At or below the waist
- Net height at centre
- 0.88 m
Watch the first ten minutes of any beginners' session at an LTA-registered padel venue in England and the same thing happens on every court. Someone who has played tennis for twenty years walks to the back, throws the ball above their head, and is stopped by the coach before the racket comes through. The padel serve does not work like that. The server stands behind the service line, drops the ball so that it bounces on the floor, and strikes it at or below waist height so that it crosses the net diagonally and lands in the opposite service box.
There are two attempts at each point, as in tennis. At the moment of contact at least one foot must be on the ground and neither foot may be touching the line. That is the rule as the International Padel Federation writes it in the Rules of Padel, the text the LTA uses for the game in Britain, and the rest of this page is about its edges: what counts as the waist, what the ball may hit after it lands, and when a net cord is replayed.
Where the server stands and why every game starts from the right
The service line runs across the court 6.95 metres from the net. Behind it, between that line and the back glass, is a strip 3.05 metres deep, and the server has to be in it. More precisely, the server stands with both feet behind the service line, in the half of the strip that lies between the centre line and the side wall. The centre line runs at least 20 centimetres past the service line and then stops; for the purposes of the serve it is treated as carrying on to the back glass, and the server stays on their own side of that imaginary extension.
Nothing obliges the server to stand in any particular spot within that area. Most stand close to the centre line when they mean to serve down the middle and a pace or two towards the glass when they want more angle. Standing hard against the side wall is legal and nearly always a mistake, because it leaves the longest possible run to the net afterwards.
Right first, then left
The first point of every game is served from the right-hand half, into the box on the receivers' right. The second is served from the left, and the server goes on alternating until the game is finished. The result is that the side can always be read from the score. When an even number of points has been played in the game, the serve comes from the right; when the number is odd, from the left. Deuce is always served from the right and an advantage point always from the left.
There is no deeper reason for starting on the right than that lawn tennis did, and padel took its arrangements from lawn tennis without altering what did not need altering.
A server who sets up on the wrong side by mistake has not committed a fault. The error is put right as soon as somebody notices it, the points already played stay on the board, and the server moves to the side the score calls for. A first-serve fault already made from the wrong side still counts, so the server continues with one serve left.
Where the partner goes
The rules say nothing whatever about the server's partner, who may stand anywhere on their own side of the net. Nearly always that means at the net, on the opposite half from the server. Sometimes it means on the same half, which looks peculiar to a newcomer and is explained further down.
The bounce and the contact point: what waist height means in the padel serve rules
The ball is not thrown up. It is let go, or pushed gently downwards, so that it bounces on the floor inside the server's own half of the strip behind the line. The server then hits it as it rises or at the top of its bounce. A ball struck directly out of the hand, with no bounce, is a fault. So is one that was bounced on or in front of the service line.
The second requirement is the famous one. At the instant of contact the ball must be at or below the level of the server's waist. The rulebook does not offer an anatomical definition, and it does not need much of one to do its main job, which is to make an overarm or even a sidearm action impossible. A ball that has bounced off the floor from a hand held at hip height simply does not rise far enough for anyone to get over it. The serve is necessarily an underarm or low sidearm swing, the racket head travelling forwards and slightly upwards, and the ball leaves on a rising path that has to clear a net 0.88 metres high at its centre and a little higher towards the posts.
The waist is judged where it is at the moment of the hit. A server who bends the knees and drops the hips has lowered the limit along with the body. The rule gives a tall player a marginally higher contact point than a short one, and nobody has thought this unfair enough to change.
How hard the limit is to see
It is hard to see, and that is the honest thing to say about it. From the far end of the court, through a net, a receiver cannot judge whether a ball was met at the waistband or a hand's breadth above it. Anyone officiating a serious match should work from the current edition of the rulebook, the one that took effect in January 2026, and not from memory.
At a club the practical position is simpler. A ball bounced from a relaxed arm and hit at the top of its rise will be comfortably legal. The servers who stray are the ones who fling the ball down hard to make it bounce high, then meet it at the ribs with something close to a tennis slice. That serve is a fault. It is also the most commonly ignored fault in the English amateur game.
The swing that never happened
A server who bounces the ball and decides not to hit it has done nothing wrong, provided no swing was made. The serve is treated as delivered at the moment the racket strikes the ball, or at the moment the server swings with the intention of hitting it and misses. A complete miss is a fault. Catching a bad bounce and starting again is not.
Any spin may be put on the ball. Slice is close to universal, a few players hit flat, and topspin is rare because the contact point makes it awkward.
The foot rules: one foot down, no walking, no line
Three requirements govern the feet, and all of them are judged at the moment the ball is struck or in the motion leading up to it.
The first is contact with the ground. At least one foot must be on the floor when the racket meets the ball. A jump serve, in which both feet have left the ground, is a fault.
The second is that the server may not walk, run or jump in the course of serving. The current text puts it as a duty to take up position behind the line and remain there until the ball has been served; earlier editions spelled out that small movements of the feet which do not change that position are allowed, and a shift of weight or a shuffle is still treated that way. What is prohibited is the walking start: beginning a couple of paces back and striding into the ball so that the body is already moving towards the net when contact is made. Every player wants to do this, since the entire point of the serve is to get forward quickly.
The third concerns the lines. Neither foot may touch the service line, and neither may touch or cross the imaginary continuation of the centre line into the other half. The line belongs to the service box in front, not to the strip the server occupies.
Once the ball has left the racket, all of this lapses. The server may step over the line, run and go wherever the point requires. The art of a good service action is to be legally still at contact and moving a tenth of a second afterwards.
Who is supposed to notice
A foot fault is nearly invisible to the two people with most interest in it. The receivers are most of the length of the court away and looking at the ball. In an umpired match the official watches the feet. Everywhere else, the foot rules are observed on trust, and the usual breach is a toe on the line by a player who has no idea it is there. Mentioning it quietly at a change of ends is the accepted way of dealing with it; calling a foot fault on an opponent from the other end of the court in a friendly is not, and is unlikely to be believed.
Where the serve must land and what it may hit next
The target is the service box diagonally opposite the server: the rectangle bounded by the net, the service line, the centre line and the side wall. A ball that lands on any of the lines is in, because the lines form part of the box. A ball that lands in the wrong box, beyond the service line or in the net is a fault.
Landing in the box is the first half of a good serve. The second half is what the ball does next, and here the padel serve rules contain their one real oddity.
| After bouncing in the correct box, the serve | Ruling |
|---|---|
| Touches nothing else before the receiver hits it | Good serve |
| Hits the side glass | Good serve; the receiver plays it off the wall |
| Hits the back glass | Good serve; the receiver plays it off the wall |
| Hits the side glass and then the back glass | Good serve |
| Hits the wire fence before bouncing a second time | Fault |
| Leaves through the court opening where out-of-court play is not authorised | Fault |
| Bounces a second time untouched | Point to the server |
Glass after the bounce is good. Wire after the bounce is a fault. In an ordinary rally the two surfaces are treated alike once the ball has touched the floor, and the wider logic of that is set out in our guide to the rules of padel and the wall rule in particular. The serve is the single exception.
Why the fence is treated differently on the serve
Look at where the wire actually is. On a standard court the glass on each side reaches forward only four metres from the back corner. The service line is 3.05 metres from the back wall, so for nearly the whole length of the service box, from the net to within a metre of the service line, the side of the box is bounded by mesh and not by glass.
That geometry explains the rule. A serve that lands deep in the box carries on past the service line and meets glass, from which it rebounds truly, and the receiver has a fair chance to play it. A serve hit short with a great deal of angle would land in the front of the box and run straight into the wire, where it would stop dead or squirt off unpredictably. If that were a good serve, it would be the only serve anyone hit. The rule removes it. For the exact position of every panel, see our guide to padel court dimensions.
One further detail is worth having. The ball must travel from the racket over the net to the box. Nobody tries to serve off their own back glass, and the rule gives no encouragement to the idea: the serve is defined as a ball sent across the net into the diagonal box, and the rebound off a player's own wall that is allowed later in the point has no place in starting it.
The let serve: when the net cord is replayed and when it becomes a fault
A serve that touches the net is not automatically anything. What it is depends entirely on where the ball goes afterwards.
- Did it crossA serve that hits the net and falls back, or stays in the net, is a fault.
- Did it hit a receiverIf the ball touches the net and then strikes either receiver before it bounces, the serve is a let.
- Where did it landA ball that drops outside the correct service box is a fault. Inside the box, go on to the next question.
- Did it reach the fenceIf it bounced in the box and then touched the wire before a second bounce, it is a fault.
- OtherwiseThe serve is a let and is taken again, with no attempt used up.
The order in which the questions are asked under the Rules of Padel. The first answer that applies settles the serve.
The fourth step is the one tennis players do not expect. In tennis a net-cord serve that lands in the box is a let and there is nothing more to consider. In padel the fence rule still applies to it. A ball that trickles over the tape, lands in the front corner of the box and rolls into the mesh has not earned a replay. It is a fault like any other serve that finds the wire.
A let does not cost an attempt. If the first serve is a let, the server still has two. If the second serve is a let, the server takes the second serve again and only that. There is no limit on the number of lets that may be served in succession, though three in a row tends to produce an apology.
The net posts are treated as part of the net for this purpose where they stand inside the playing area.
The other service let
A serve delivered before the receiver is ready is also a let. The server is expected to check, and a receiver who is still walking back or has a hand raised is not ready. There is a limit to this courtesy. A receiver who makes any attempt to return the ball is taken to have been ready, and cannot claim the let after hitting the return into the net.
Lets during a rally are another matter. When a ball from the next court rolls across, or the ball in play splits, the whole point is replayed and the server begins again with a first serve regardless of whether the original first serve had been a fault.
The complete list of service faults
Gathered in one place, the ways of losing a serve are these.
| Fault | What it covers |
|---|---|
| The miss | The server swings at the ball intending to hit it and fails to make contact |
| No bounce, or a bad one | The ball is hit out of the hand, or bounced on or beyond the service line or in the wrong half |
| Above the waist | The ball is higher than the server's waist when it is struck |
| Foot fault | A foot touches the service line or crosses the centre line's extension, both feet are off the floor, or the server walks, runs or jumps into the serve |
| Wrong landing | The ball goes into the net, or lands anywhere other than the diagonal service box |
| The fence | The ball bounces in the correct box and touches the wire before bouncing again |
| The partner | The served ball hits the server's partner, or the server, or anything either is wearing or holding |
| The open door | The ball bounces in the box and runs straight out through the court opening on a court without authorised out-of-court play |
One fault leaves the server with a second serve, hit from the same side. Two lose the point, and the server moves across for the next one.
The partner at the net
The partner fault is rarer than it sounds and more embarrassing than any of the others. It arises almost only on serves aimed down the middle, when the partner is standing close to the centre line and the ball is hit a fraction too straight. It is a fault and not a lost point, so if it happens on a first serve the server still has a second.
A fault is not a let, and a let is not a fault
The two get confused because both stop the point before it has begun. The difference is the attempt. A fault consumes one of the server's two chances. A let consumes nothing. A serve that clips the net and lands long is a fault and not a let, whatever the server hopes, and that is the call club players most often get wrong in the server's favour.
The receiver's side of it
One player receives each serve, and it is the player whose side of the court the ball has been served to. The receiving pair settles at the start of a set which of them takes the right-hand box and which the left, and holds to that arrangement until the set ends.
Where they stand is up to them. The receiver usually waits a step or so behind the service line, far enough from the side glass to deal with a ball coming off it. The partner typically stands level, on the other half. No rule prevents the partner from standing at the net or anywhere else on their own side, and occasionally a pair does it to unsettle a server.
The receiver's one obligation is to let the ball bounce. The serve may not be volleyed. If the receiver hits it before it lands, the server wins the point, and the server also wins the point if the ball strikes either member of the receiving pair, or anything they wear or carry, before it has bounced. This holds even when the receiver was standing outside the service box and the serve was plainly going to miss. The ball was still live. A receiver who sees a serve heading for their own chest should get out of the way.
After the bounce the receiver has choices that a tennis player does not. The return may be played at once, on the rise. Or the ball may be allowed to go on, strike the side glass or the back glass or both, and be played as it comes off, at any moment before it touches the floor a second time. Against a heavily sliced serve into the side wall, waiting is usually the right answer.
Calling the serve
With no umpire, the receiving pair calls the serve. They say "fault" or "out" if the ball lands outside the box and they are also the ones in a position to see whether it reached the fence after bouncing. The call has to be immediate. Custom gives the server the benefit of any doubt, so a serve that might have caught the line is played as good.
Serving order through a set and in the tie-break
Each player serves one complete game at a time, and the four take turns in an order fixed at the start of the set: a player from the first pair, then one from the second, then the first player's partner, then the remaining player. That sequence repeats until the set is over and may be rearranged only when a new set begins.
When the wrong player serves, the correction follows the same quiet principle as a serve from the wrong side. The player who ought to have been serving takes over as soon as the mistake is found. Points already played count. A single fault served by the wrong player just before the discovery is disregarded, so the proper server starts with two serves. If an entire game has been completed out of turn, the altered order stands for the remainder of the set, since trying to unpick it would cause more confusion than leaving it.
The tie-break has a pattern of its own. The player next in the rotation serves the first point, once only, from the right. Each player after that serves two consecutive points, the first from the left and the second from the right, in the normal order. Our page on padel scoring, the golden point and the tie-break sets the sequence out point by point.
That page also covers the one occasion on which the server does not decide which side to serve from. On a golden point, or on the deciding point of a star-point game, the receiving pair names the box, and the server goes to whichever side that requires. In a mixed match there is no choice to make: the deciding point is received by the player of the same sex as the server.
Why the serve is not a weapon in padel
Tennis is built on the serve. Padel was designed, or at any rate has ended up, so that it barely matters, and three features of the rule are responsible.
The ball is struck from below the waist, so it must travel upwards to clear the net and cannot be driven steeply down into the court. It has to bounce in the box, which takes more pace off it. And behind the receiver is a sheet of glass that returns any serve too fast or too deep to be reached on the first attempt. An ace in the tennis sense, a ball that passes the receiver untouched, requires the serve to bounce twice before the receiver can reach it, and against a competent player that almost never happens.
So the serve does a different job. It starts the point in a way that allows the server to reach the net, because the pair at the net controls the rally. Everything good servers do is aimed at the quality of the return, not at winning the point outright.
The three serves worth having
The standard serve is sliced towards the side glass. Hit by a right-hander from the right-hand side, the spin carries the ball into the wall after the bounce and keeps it low as it comes off, so the receiver has to dig the return out from near the floor and close to the glass. The second option goes down the middle, at the corner where the centre line meets the service line. It gives the receiver no wall to worry about and no angle to work with, and it tends to produce a return through the centre that the server's partner can cut off. The third is aimed at the receiver's body, which jams the swing.
Speed is close to irrelevant. Placement, a low bounce and enough time to reach the net are what count, and a serve hit at two-thirds pace that lets the server arrive in position is better than a fast one that leaves them stranded at the service line when the return comes back. The reasoning behind taking the net at all is the subject of our guide to padel tactics, positions and the lob.
Both partners on the same side
Players specialise in one side of the court, right or left, and would prefer to stay there. The serve, which alternates sides every point, gets in the way. The solution exploits the fact that the rules place no restriction on the server's partner. When the server has to serve from the half that is not their own, the partner stands at the net on that same half, and after striking the ball the server runs diagonally forward to the other. It is entirely legal. It is also the reason a pair of good club players can look, to someone watching through the glass for the first time, as though they have lined up wrongly.
The mistakes players arriving from tennis make most often
Much of padel in England has grown up inside tennis clubs under the LTA, which means a large share of the people learning the serve here are unlearning another one first. The same errors recur.
| Tennis habit | What the padel rule requires | Result if ignored |
|---|---|---|
| Tossing the ball into the air | The ball must bounce on the floor before it is hit | Fault |
| Contact at shoulder height or above | Contact at or below the waist | Fault |
| Stepping into the court through the serve | No walking or running, and no foot on the line at contact | Fault |
| Assuming any net cord that lands in is a let | A net-cord serve that then reaches the fence is a fault | Fault, not a replay |
| Expecting a serve into the side netting to count | Wire after the bounce is a fault; only glass is good | Fault |
| Serving as soon as the server is ready | The receiver must also be ready | Let |
The toss is cured in a session. The waist takes longer, because the tennis player's low serve, the sliced one, is still met at chest height and feels modest to the person hitting it. The foot on the line lasts longest of all, since in tennis a server stands behind a baseline with the whole court in front, and in padel the line sits in the middle of the half-court where nothing in a tennis player's experience says a line should be.
There is a subtler adjustment as well. A tennis player's second serve is a nervous, spun-in version of the first. In padel the two are close to identical, because the first serve was never trying to win the point. Experienced players hit the same slice both times and seldom miss with the second. Someone who is double-faulting regularly at padel is trying to do too much with the ball.
The opposite error belongs to the receiver. Tennis teaches a player to take the return early and in front of the body. Against a serve heading for the side glass that instinct produces a rushed half-volley from an awkward position, when letting the ball reach the wall and come back would have given a comfortable swing. A fuller account of what carries over between the two games and what does not is in our comparison of padel and tennis.
Why padel serves underarm at all
The rulebook gives no reasons. The court gives them instead.
A padel court is 20 metres by 10, noticeably smaller than a tennis court, and it is enclosed, with a wall ten metres behind the net. An overarm serve struck into that space would leave the receiver almost no time, would come off the back glass at head height towards opponents with no room to retreat, and would reduce the game to the serve and whatever followed it. The inventors of every small-court racket game have reached the same conclusion. Pickleball also requires an underarm serve, though it reaches the result by a different route and lets the ball be struck straight out of the hand as well as after a drop, where padel insists on the bounce; the two are set side by side in our guide to padel against pickleball.
The bounce is padel's particular refinement. Requiring the ball to come up off the floor, instead of dropping it from the hand onto the racket, caps the height of contact without anyone having to measure it and makes the action easy to learn. A complete beginner can produce a legal padel serve in a first session, which cannot be said of tennis and goes some way towards explaining how quickly the game has spread across Britain.
What that buys is a sport in which the rally starts on level terms and the first shot is an invitation, not an attack. The serve is the only shot in padel that nobody is trying to stop a player from hitting well, and the advice that follows from that is simple: learn one reliable slice, hit it to the glass, and move in behind it.
Further guides to the rules, venues and governance of the game sit in the England section and alongside our wider tennis coverage.