A 5 minute read, written in October 2026 and read over again on 17 October 2026

Padel court dimensions: the size of the court, net, lines and walls

A padel court is 20 metres long and 10 metres wide inside the walls, 200 square metres of playing area, with a net 0.88 metres high at the centre. Here are the rest of the padel court dimensions that matter, from the service lines and the stepped side walls to the clear height above the court.

The playing area: 20 by 10 metres

The International Padel Federation (FIP) sets the playing area at 20 metres long and 10 metres wide, measured on the inside of the walls. That is 200 square metres of surface, or roughly 65.6 by 32.8 feet for anyone working in imperial. The rules allow a small construction tolerance, but a court built for club play is typically right on the figures, because the walls are part of the game and a court that runs short or long changes how every ball comes off the glass. The surface is typically artificial turf dressed with sand, though the rules also allow other surfaces, such as porous concrete or synthetic materials, as long as the bounce is consistent.

The net

The net runs across the middle of the court, splitting it into two halves of 10 by 10 metres. It is 10 metres long, 0.88 metres high at the centre and 0.92 metres at the posts, so it dips by 4 centimetres from the edges to the middle. In imperial that is about 34.6 inches at the centre, a little lower than a tennis net, which stands at 3 feet, or 0.914 metres, in the middle. The posts stand at the sides of the court, and the net is held by a cable along its top edge, typically finished with a white band so players can read its height against the glass behind it.

Lines and service boxes

Only a few lines are painted on a padel court. A service line runs across each half 6.95 metres from the net, which leaves 3.05 metres between it and the back wall. A centre service line runs from the net to each service line, dividing that space into two service boxes, and it typically extends a short way past the service line so the server knows where to stand. All the lines are 5 centimetres wide. There are no sidelines or baselines in the tennis sense, because the walls do that job: the ball has to land inside the court on its first bounce, and after that the glass is in play. The serve is when the lines matter most, since it has to land in the diagonal box and the server has to stand behind the service line; the padel rules guide covers the rest.

The back walls: 4 metres in all

Each end of the court is closed by a back wall 10 metres wide. The bottom 3 metres are glass or solid wall, and a further metre of metal mesh sits above that, so the back wall is 4 metres high in all. The glass is what the game is built around: a ball that bounces in the court and then hits the back glass is still alive, and returning it off the wall is one of the first skills a new player has to learn. A ball that hits the mesh after the bounce is in play too, though it comes off far less predictably than it does off glass, and the guide to the ball hitting the fence explains which contacts are legal and which end the point.

The side walls, and why they step down

Side walls are where courts look least alike at first glance, but the rules are tidy. For the first 2 metres from each back wall, the side wall is glass or solid wall 3 metres high, the same as the back. For the next 2 metres it steps down to 2 metres high. Mesh continues above both sections to a total of between 3 and 4 metres, typically 4 metres in the corners and 3 metres further along. The rest of each side, the central stretch either side of the net, is mesh. The result is a glass corner at each end, which is where the classic double-wall rebounds happen, and open mesh near the net. Most courts also have openings in the side walls by the net, which is what makes it possible to chase a ball out of the court and play it back in; the guide to playing outside the court explains when that is allowed.

Height above the court

FIP sets a minimum clear height of 6 metres above the whole playing area, with nothing such as beams, lights or ducts reaching into that space. That is a minimum, not a target. Lobs are a large part of padel, and a low roof punishes the team that defends well, so courts built for professional tour events are typically considerably higher, and many indoor clubs build above the minimum for the same reason. For anyone planning a court in an existing building, the clear height is often a harder number to meet than the floor space.

Padel court size against a tennis court

A doubles tennis court is 23.77 metres long and 10.97 metres wide, about 261 square metres inside the lines. The padel court size, at 200 square metres, is a little over three quarters of that, and the gap grows once you add the generous run-off a tennis court needs behind the baselines and beyond the sidelines. A padel court needs little space outside its walls by comparison, beyond the structure itself and some room at the side openings, which is why clubs converting old tennis courts can often fit more than one padel court into the same footprint. For a tennis player, the bigger change is not the area but the walls: the court is almost 4 metres shorter, and the ball does not leave play when it passes you. The guide for tennis players covers what that does to your game.

What the numbers mean on court

Most of these measurements explain habits you will see at any club. The 6.95 metres from net to service line is why serving and following the ball in works so well: the server reaches a strong position at the net in a few steps. The 3.05 metres behind the service line is why returners stand close to the glass rather than on the line, using the wall for room. The 10 metre width split between two players gives each of them 5 metres to cover, which is why so many points are won through the middle rather than down the sides. And the 3 metres of glass at each end, with mesh above, is why a lob that clears the net pair and drops in deep is so hard to deal with. Knowing the padel court dimensions will not win you a point on its own, but it does make the patterns of the game easier to read.