Padel vs pickleball vs tennis: differences and which to pick

All three are racket sports, all three are played over a net and all three are filling courts across Mexico. But they feel very different from the first rally. This guide compares them point by point —court, serve, scoring, effort and cost— using the measurements in the official rulebooks (FIP for padel, the ITF for tennis and USA Pickleball for pickleball), so you can choose on information rather than on hype.

The short answer

• Padel: if you want something social, played in pairs, fun from day one and full of tactics. The walls make points last, and almost anyone can rally in their first match.
• Pickleball: if you want the easiest to learn, with little strain on the joints and plenty of socialising. It has the least court to cover.
• Tennis: if you are drawn to technique, want to play singles too and like a more physically demanding sport. It takes longest to click, but you cover the most court.

Nothing stops you playing all three: many people start with one and end up switching depending on who is free.

The court

Size explains almost everything:

• Tennis: 23.77 metres long by 8.23 wide for singles and 10.97 for doubles. About 261 square metres for doubles, with no walls: if the ball goes out, the point is over.
• Padel: 20 metres by 10, about 200 square metres, enclosed by glass or concrete walls and wire mesh. The walls are part of the game: the ball may come off them after bouncing on the floor.
• Pickleball: 13.41 metres by 6.10, only about 82 square metres, the size of a badminton court. Up to four pickleball courts fit on one tennis court.

Fewer square metres means less running and shorter points in distance, but not necessarily easier ones: in pickleball everything happens very close to the net.

The net

• Tennis: 91.4 centimetres at the centre and 1.07 metres at the posts.
• Padel: 88 centimetres at the centre and up to 92 at the ends.
• Pickleball: 86.4 centimetres at the centre and 91.4 at the ends.

Pickleball's is the lowest, which is why the soft game near the net matters so much.

Racket and ball

• Tennis: a strung racket and a pressurised felt ball. It is the most powerful stroke of the three and the one that takes most technique to control.
• Padel: a solid, stringless, perforated racket, shorter than a tennis racket. The ball looks like a tennis ball but carries slightly less pressure.
• Pickleball: a smaller, smooth solid paddle and a plastic ball with holes that flies more slowly. Points are decided more by placement than by power.

The serve

• Tennis: overhead, from behind the baseline, with two attempts. A good serve can win the point on its own.
• Padel: underhand, bouncing the ball and hitting it at waist height or below, also with two attempts. The serve starts the point but rarely wins it.
• Pickleball: underhand, with a single attempt. And under the two-bounce rule, the receiver and then the server must let the ball bounce before anyone volleys.

If the tennis serve intimidates you, padel and pickleball remove that barrier from day one.

Scoring

• Tennis and padel score the same way: 15, 30, 40 and game; sets to 6 games, win by two, with a tie-break at 6-6. In padel the golden point is very common: at deuce a single deciding point is played.
• Pickleball is different: in the traditional system only the serving team scores, games go to 11 points, win by two, and in doubles the score is called with three numbers. It is the most confusing part at first, but a couple of matches sort it out.

Singles or doubles

• Tennis: widely played as singles, and as doubles. You only need one other person.
• Padel: almost always doubles. You need four, but that is exactly what makes it so social.
• Pickleball: both formats, though doubles dominate at clubs and parks.

If lining up three other people is hard, tennis is the easiest to organise. If you want to meet people, padel and pickleball win.

Physical effort

None of them is "gentle" if you play seriously, but the kind of effort differs:

• Tennis: more running, more changes of direction and harder strokes. The most demanding on legs, shoulder and cardio.
• Padel: shorter movements, lots of knee bends and turns. The walls lengthen points, so it tires you too. A systematic review published in 2023 found the elbow is the most commonly injured area among padel players, followed by the knee, shoulder and lower back.
• Pickleball: the least running because of the court size, which makes it popular across all ages. It still asks for reflexes and agility at the net.

Whichever you choose, warming up and building intensity gradually is the best prevention.

The learning curve

• Pickleball: you are playing points within an afternoon. The finer technique (the dink, the third shot) comes later.
• Padel: you rally on day one, because the walls give you a second chance. Learning to read the rebounds and to play with a partner takes months.
• Tennis: the first months are about technique: a consistent serve, forehand and backhand. Harder at first, but a sport for life.

Cost

There is no official rate for any of the three: each club sets its own prices, and they vary by city, time slot and court type. What really changes the bill is how many people split it:

• In padel the court is almost always split four ways.
• In tennis it is often split two ways.
• In pickleball there are also courts in parks and public spaces, and several courts fit in the space of one tennis court.

In all three, the starter kit is a racket or paddle, balls and shoes suited to the surface. A beginner's pickleball paddle or padel racket is enough for the first few months.

So which should I choose?

Ask yourself three questions:

• Who will I play with? A group of friends: padel or pickleball. Just one person: tennis, or pickleball singles.
• What am I after? Socialising and quick fun: padel or pickleball. Technique and physical challenge: tennis.
• What is nearby? The best sport is the one with courts ten minutes from home and time slots you can actually make.

And if you cannot decide, book an hour of each. In three weeks you will know which one has hooked you.