Stand on a padel court for the first time and the numbers on paper don’t quite match the feeling underfoot. Twenty metres sounds long. Ten metres sounds wide. But once the glass is around you and the net is up, the court feels different – more contained, more tactical, less open than you’d expect.
This guide covers every measurement that matters: length, width, wall heights, net specs, floor surface, and ceiling requirements. We’ve also included two quick-reference tables so you can scan the numbers fast, then read on for what they mean when you’re hitting balls around.
The numbers at a glance
The standard padel court is 20 metres long and 10 metres wide. That’s the playing surface – the walls, posts, and any run-off area are additional.
| Measurement | Metres | Feet |
|---|---|---|
| Court length | 20m | 65ft 7in |
| Court width | 10m | 32ft 10in |
| Total playing area | 200 m² | 2,153 ft² |
| Net height (centre) | 0.88m | 2ft 11in |
| Net height (posts) | 0.92m | 3ft 0in |
| Back wall – wall section (usually glass) | 3m | 9ft 10in |
| Back wall – mesh above wall | 1m | 3ft 3in |
| Back wall – total height | 4m | 13ft 1in |
| Side wall – wall section height | 3m | 9ft 10in |
| Side wall – wall section length (from each back corner) | 4m | 13ft 1in |
| Service line from net | 6.95m | 22ft 10in |
| Minimum ceiling height (indoor) | 6m | 19ft 8in |
All measurements follow the FIP (Federación Internacional de Pádel) standard. UK courts built to LTA specifications follow the same figures, with a construction tolerance of ±0.5% on court dimensions.
What the 20×10 metre court feels like
On paper, 20×10 isn’t that different from a tennis singles court, which runs to roughly 23.77×8.23 metres. But the experience of playing in both spaces is nothing alike.
The walls are the reason. On a tennis court, a ball flying wide is gone – it crosses a line and the point ends. On a padel court, once that ball has bounced, it hits glass and comes back. Your court awareness shifts: instead of tracking one trajectory, you’re reading a second one off the back wall. The enclosed space makes the court feel smaller than 200 square metres because, once a shot has bounced, the glass and mesh keep it in play rather than ending the point.
The 10-metre width matters most when you’re at the net. Partners in a doubles team cover roughly 5 metres each, and with the walls narrowing the angles at the sides, most winning volleys go cross-court through the middle – not to the far sideline. Players who come from tennis often expect more room out wide. There isn’t much. The court rewards compact movement and positional discipline more than wide coverage.
The 20-metre length creates a real back-court game. The service line sits 6.95 metres from the net, leaving about 3 metres of depth between the service line and the back wall. Defenders pinned at the back wall are roughly 10 metres from the net – close enough to drive the ball hard, far enough that lobs work well. If you’re used to squash or tennis, the depth feels right; if you’re coming from pickleball, the court is longer than you’d expect.
Doubles only is the design intention. The court dimensions were set for four players: two at the net, two defending from the back, using wall-play to extend rallies and create opportunities. The format works because of the enclosed scale – the court is big enough to require movement, small enough that defence off the glass is viable rather than desperate.
For more on how the scoring and play structure work once you’re on that court, the complete guide to padel rules covers everything from serving to the golden point.
The walls and their dimensions
Every padel court has four walls, and they’re not all the same height or material. Getting this wrong in your head causes tactical confusion – especially on the side walls.
Back walls are the most uniform. Each back wall stands 4 metres tall in total: 3 metres of solid wall at the bottom – usually glass, though the FIP rules also allow other hard materials such as brick or concrete – topped by 1 metre of metal mesh. The glass section is what players use for defensive retrieval – a ball that bounces in your half and then comes off the back glass can still be played, if you read the rebound early enough. The ball must always bounce on the court first: if it hits the glass or the mesh on the full, before bouncing, it’s out and the player who hit it loses the point. Most recreational clubs use standard tempered glass for the back panels, though panoramic courts use a single uninterrupted panel.
Side walls are only solid at each end. On the common modern layout, a 3-metre-high wall runs 4 metres along the side from each back corner, and metal mesh fills the rest of the side, including the stretch either side of the net. Older stepped courts run the wall at 3 metres for the first 2 metres from the back, then at 2 metres for the next 2 metres, before the mesh takes over. Either way, the side near the net is mesh. Once a shot has bounced in the opponents’ court it may hit that mesh and stay in play; if it bounces and then goes over the side, the hitter wins the point, unless the court allows out-of-court play.
The practical effect is that back-corner play uses the full 3-metre wall, while near the net there is mesh rather than wall. The solid walls at the back are where most defensive wall play happens.
Net height and service boxes
The padel net is lower than a tennis net and lower than most players expect. At the centre it sits at 0.88 metres – just under 3 feet. At the posts, it rises slightly to 0.92 metres. That gentle sag toward the middle is intentional: it creates a specific low crossing point that makes cross-court drives consistent and rewards players who aim low over the centre.
The service boxes are created by the centre line and the service line. The service line runs parallel to the net at 6.95 metres from it – so each service box is 6.95 metres deep and 5 metres wide (half the court width). The server must land the ball in the diagonally opposite service box, bouncing it on the ground first and making contact at or below waist height.
If you want the full breakdown of how the serve works – including the fault conditions and second serve rules – the padel serve guide explains it all in one place.
Floor surface and ceiling height
Padel courts use artificial turf as their playing surface, almost universally. The SAPCA Code of Practice, which the LTA points court builders to, specifies a sand-dressed or sand-filled artificial grass with a pile height of 10–15mm, monofilament yarn preferred. The sand infill adds stability and affects how the ball bounces – a well-maintained surface with the right sand density gives a predictable, medium-height bounce that supports the wall game. A surface that has lost its sand or packed down unevenly produces a lower, skidding bounce, especially off the back glass.
This is the real answer to why the ball feels faster bouncing off the glass at some clubs. What’s happening at the point of first contact with the floor matters more than the glass itself. A worn surface with low sand content gives the ball less vertical lift before it travels into the glass, producing a flatter trajectory off the wall. Premium venues replace or refresh their sand content seasonally. Budget venues don’t.
For indoor courts, the minimum ceiling height is 6 metres above the playing surface. This is an FIP standard, enforced at all official venues. Below 6 metres, lobs become physically unplayable – the ball hits the ceiling before it can arc and drop, which eliminates a core defensive shot from the game. When evaluating a new venue, 6 metres of clearance is the quality signal – courts that have it were built with padel in mind, not retrofitted into an awkward space.
Padel vs. tennis court dimensions
The courts are closer in size than most people realise, but they play completely differently.
| Padel (doubles) | Tennis (doubles) | Tennis (singles) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Length | 20m | 23.77m | 23.77m |
| Width | 10m | 10.97m | 8.23m |
| Area | 200 m² | 260.7 m² | 195.6 m² |
| Net height (centre) | 0.88m | 0.91m | 0.91m |
| Walled/enclosed | Yes | No | No |
The padel court is about 23% smaller in area than a tennis doubles court, and slightly bigger than a tennis singles court. But comparing raw area misses the point: a padel court is fully enclosed by walls and mesh – effective playing space is dramatically smaller because the walls and mesh keep a bounced ball inside the court.
The lower net (0.88m versus 0.91m) is a small difference in measurement but a meaningful one in practice – it keeps drives flatter and rewards net play more than tennis does. Cross-court angles are shallower and the enclosed width makes wide winners harder to hit, pushing most point-ending shots through the middle of the court over the corners.
For a full comparison of how the two sports play beyond the measurements, our padel vs tennis guide covers technique, difficulty curve, and which one suits different types of player.