Cage Match: Padel is the racquet sport for tennis players looking for a new challenge

Count Carlos Alcaraz a big fan. With 16 courts, camps and tournaments, the sport is an integral part of Rafael Nadal’s academy in Mallorca. And no, we’re not talking about tennis. Madrid may have been centerstage for the professional tours this week, but Spain is also the spiritual home of padel. While the racquet sport is still in its infancy in the United States, it’s experiencing rapid expansion in availability and participation.

If you’re curious about playing one of the world’s fastest-growing sports, here’s what you need to know.

Court and Equipment

• A padel court is roughly a third the size of a tennis court (nearly 66 feet long and 33 feet wide) and enclosed by walls of glass and metal mesh which are in play. (Think squash meets doubles). The surface is typically a synthetic turf that provides a consistent, medium-paced bounce and good shock absorption.
• Instead of string, padel racquets are solid with holes. They’re made of carbon fiber and foam-filled, and are shorter and thicker than their tennis counterparts.
• The ball is similar to a tennis ball but slightly less pressurized, for more control and less power.

Scoring and Play

• Padel uses the same game and set scoring system as tennis.
• Serves are hit underhand and the ball must bounce before being struck.
• All shots must cross over the net and bounce first on the court surface; if it hits a wall before bouncing it is out.
• Almost all padel is played in doubles and rallies are generally much longer than in tennis.

Strategy and Tactics

This is the trickiest part of the game for seasoned tennis players. Tennis favors big serving and ground strokes and baseline play, whereas padel rewards finesse, angles and quick hands over brute force. With the smaller court and emphasis on net play, the action is often at close quarters requiring shorter, more compact strokes.

“The No. 1 thing is we have walls and the walls are very useful,” says Juan Martin Diaz, Chief Padel Officer at Reserve Padel. “Tennis players have to learn to let the ball pass and not hit on the rise.”

Diaz is considered one of the sport’s all-time greats—he’s affectionately called “GOAT” around the office—once holding the world No. 1 ranking with his partner (Fernando Belasteguin) for an unprecedented 13 consecutive years. At one point the duo didn’t lose a match for 21 straight months. When he works with tennis players—such as fellow Argentinian and former ATP Top 10er Guillermo Canas—Diaz encourages them to stop hugging the baseline and trying to half-volley shots from the back of the court and to use the walls as another partner on the court.

Part of the difficulty is tennis players have been trained to track the ball. Because of the caroms off the walls, positioning in padel is more nuanced. To paraphrase Wayne Gretzky’s assertion about his hockey sixth sense: In padel you don’t chase the ball, you anticipate where it will be.

“Tennis players focus on the first bounce,” says Diaz. “Padel players need to focus on the second bounce.”

Another critical difference is the approach to a few key shots. The serve still matters in padel—it’s the only time you have complete control over the ball—but because it’s done underhand off a bounce pace takes a backseat to spin and placement. Some players even choose to serve with their backhand because it’s their stronger stroke. Similarly, overhead smashes employ more spin and direction than sheer power.

The lob, or “globo” in padel, also takes on increased significance. Often used more out of necessity in tennis, it’s conceivable to play numerous points and games in a doubles match without hitting a lob. In padel, it’s rare to play a single point without hitting several.

“Normally people think it’s a defensive shot,” says Diaz, “but a good lob creates offense and an opportunity to attack. It’s very important for players to not think of it as a last resort or emergency shot.”

A good rule of thumb Diaz uses is if the ball is above your knee or there’s a high rebound off the glass, it’s a good opportunity to hit a lob. If it’s below the knee, you end up having to wrist the shot and it often won’t have the necessary height and depth to be effective.

In lieu of a lob, players frequently will hit the shot off the glass first—called the "contrapared"—because it creates more spin on the ball. In squash and racquetball, using the wall is typically a defensive shot; in padel the tactic is used to create height and depth and an opportunity to transition to the net.

Here are some of the other core padel shots:

Bandeja: A high, working volley hit with less pace with the objective of keeping the net positioning. It translates to "serving tray" because of the technique of having an open racquet face.

Vibora: A more aggressively hit, shoulder-level volley that resembles a side-arm pitch in baseball. The goal is to play it to an opponent’s feet or to create a low rebound off the glass with the spin it generates. It translates to "snake" because of the way the ball skids on the turf.

Rulo: An overhead smash in which the motion is more like a slow kick serve. The goal is to hit the shot into the cage so the ball jumps away on the rebound.

Bajada: An overhead played from the back of the court off a high-bouncing lob.

Chiquita: A "dink" shot with some underspin played just over the height of the net. You’re looking to create an angle and make the opponent at net bend low to hit the return shot. This often forces them to pop the ball up and create a transition opportunity for the defensive team that played the chiquita to move forward to the net.

Por Tres: An overhead smash with the objective of hitting the ball out of the court. It translates to "for three" because when the rebound off the back glass goes high enough over the side glass, it clears the 3-meter barrier. Professional players often anticipate the shot and leave the court to return it (check out the video below).

The court is smaller, the rallies are longer and the strategy is different. But once you play it, it’s easy to see why tennis players are getting hooked on padel.