Padel tournament formats and rules

Each player gets a new partner every round. The whole schedule is drawn up front so that everyone partners everyone as evenly as possible, then faces everyone as evenly as possible.

Matches are played to a fixed number of points, typically 16, 21, 24 or 32. Every rally counts, regardless of who serves. A 24-point match can end 15–9 or 12–12.

Each player is credited with their team’s score. If you win 15–9, you and your partner both get 15 points. The player with the most points wins.

With 8 players on 2 courts, 7 rounds means everyone partners every other player exactly once and faces each of them twice.

Like Americano, but only the first round is drawn at random (or by seeding). After every round the standings decide the next one: the top four play on court 1, the next four on court 2, and so on.

On each court, 1st and 4th play against 2nd and 3rd, which keeps matches close. (You can switch to 1st & 3rd vs 2nd & 4th.) The app avoids giving you the same partner two rounds in a row.

Mexicano is great when levels vary: everyone ends up playing people of their own level.

Every pair is one man and one woman. In Mixed Americano each man partners each woman as evenly as possible. In Mixed Mexicano, men and women are ranked separately and the best man pairs with the lower-ranked woman on each court.

Pairs stay together all tournament. Every team plays every other team once (a round robin). With an odd number of teams, or fewer courts than needed, teams take turns resting.

Fixed pairs, but each round is drawn from the standings: 1st plays 2nd, 3rd plays 4th, and so on, avoiding an immediate rematch.

Courts form a ladder, with court 1 at the top. After each round, winners move up a court and losers move down. Winners on court 1 and losers on the bottom court stay put. Pairs are split every round, so you always get a new partner.

By default the standings are ranked by wins.

Any number of players works. When players don’t fill the courts exactly, some rest each round. Whoever has played the most rests first, so nobody rests twice before everyone has rested once, and late arrivals aren’t benched straight away.

Resting costs points, so you can credit resting players with half a match’s points or with their own average per match.

By points: total points, then wins (a draw counts half), then point difference.

By wins: wins, then point difference, then total points.

Players equal on everything share the same position.

Add a player and they’re included in every round that hasn’t started. Withdraw a player and they’re taken out of those rounds, while keeping their results so far.

Correct a score at any time. In Mexicano and King of the Court, if an earlier score changes after the next round was drawn, you’ll be offered a redraw.