During this back-to-school period, there are good resolutions to be made. And today we're going to tackle service at padel. It's Frédéric Richeme, umpire of padel and tennis that sticks to it.

Yep, you might not know it, but your services might all be wrong. The regulations are however very clear, but they are not necessarily known to the player of padel or "it arranges some of them not to knowSome bad tongues would say. So hang in there, because there will be no more excuses after this article.

What is the rule in service?

Au Padel, the parties are self-arbitrated. So there may be some errors. Some can be corrected.

The French Tennis Federation tells us about the service in the "6 RULE - THE SERVICE ":

 As in tennis, the server must serve in the "square" diagonally opposite.

 - To engage the point, the two feet of the server must be behind the service line ("bottom" line, parallel to the net), and between the imaginary extension of the center line and the side window. The server must not in any way touch the service line or the imaginary central line with one of his feet.

 - At the time of typing, the server must have at least one foot on the ground.

- The service must be carried out "by spoon", at belt height, or below the waist, and after rebound; the rebound must be done in the server's half of the field and must be behind the bottom line (Be careful, a service is announced if the server misses the ball completely trying to hit it).

 - After the first rebound in the opponent's service box, the ball must not touch the mesh part, otherwise the ball is counted foul. Two tries are possible, if both are wrong the point is for the opponent.

To know more about the precise regulation of the service:

What is the rule of service at padel ?

Both feet behind the line and the impact under the belt

2 points of the settlement can sometimes be problematic:

1 / Some players do not start their engagement behind the baseline line. Worse some even have a foot on the other side of the field when playing Australian and we must hurry to cover the uncovered part. But the rule is:

 To engage the point, the two feet of the server must be behind the service line ("bottom" line, parallel to the net), and between the imaginary extension of the center line and the side window. The server must not in any way touch the service line or the imaginary central line with one of his feet.

2 / Then the player of padel must hit the ball at or below the waist. This is a rule that is not necessarily applied in clubs of padel. We do not necessarily know her.

And it must be said, top 20 players sometimes make this mistake. We remember a few arguments during tournaments of padel between top French players concerning this point of the rules.

The service must be "spoon" belt height, or below the waist, and after rebound; the rebound must be done in the server's half of the field and must be behind the bottom line.

What to do when there is a dispute about a service?

This is the question at padel... Because it is not necessarily obvious and the server may not realize it either, especially when it is a habit ...

Self-refereeing in this case seems impossible. On the professional circuit, it can happen that the judge chair intervenes (but very rarely fortunately).

In France, it is the referee of the competition who must do the necessary. But how ?

  • First observation: Not all referees know the rule.

This poses the problem of the training of referees of padel who for some are not players of padel but tennis and discover this sport at the same time as the management of the tournament. But that's another subject…

  • Second problem: The players self-referee.

How then can the umpire intervene? Should he punish the player? At what moment ? Should he stay referee the match?

Attention to interpretations of the rules

Go! It is very personal ... But the regulation must be even more precise perhaps to avoid litigation in the service.

Why ? In France, we speak of belt and internationally we speak of size (space between the top of the basin and the first coast). I prefer this term size because in France there are several interpretations of belt height.

But we all agree, the big ones will have a priori an advantage over the little ones ... Finally not always 🙂

Frédéric RICHEME

Fred Richeme is one of the actors of padel from the Toulouse and Pau region. This umpire is passionate about padel. And he offers you his opinions, his opinions on the life of the padel in France.