In this back-to-school period, there are good resolutions to make. And today, we are going to tackle the padel serve. It is Frédéric Richeme, padel and tennis referee who is taking on it.

Yes, you may not know it, but your services may all be wrong. The regulations are very clear, but they are not necessarily known to the padel player or else “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 in 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 padel player must hit the ball at or below the belt. This is a rule that is not necessarily applied in padel clubs. We don't necessarily know it.

And it must be said, players in the top 20 sometimes make this mistake. We remember a few disputes during padel tournaments 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 in 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.

Which raises the problem of training padel referees, some of whom are not padel players but tennis players and discover the sport at the same time as tournament management. 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 padel players in the Toulouse and Pau region. This referee is passionate about padel. And he offers you his opinions on the life of padel in France.

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