Padel Court Dimensions Explained: The Exact Measurements Behind a Compliant Court

From the FIP-standard 20 × 10 m playing surface to the run-off zones and ceiling heights most first-time buyers underestimate — today we turn yesterday's market boom into a real site plan.

Yesterday we looked at the boom — a new padel court being installed somewhere in the world every 90 minutes. Today we go one level deeper, from market to blueprint. Because before any club owner signs a contract, the first technical question is always the same: how much space does a padel court actually need? Getting this wrong at the planning stage is the single most expensive mistake in the industry — and the most common one.

The FIP Standard: 20 × 10 Metres of Playing Surface

The FIP (International Padel Federation) regulations define a doubles padel court as 20 m long × 10 m wide — exactly twice the footprint of a badminton hall lane, and roughly the size of two tennis doubles alleys. Key internal measurements every buyer should know:

· Playing surface: 20 m × 10 m, with a centre line splitting the court into two 10 m × 10 m halves.

· Net height: 0.88 m at the centre, rising to 0.92 m at the posts.

· Back and side walls: 3 m of tempered glass (10–12 mm thick), with welded steel mesh extending the enclosure to a maximum height of 4 m.

· Door opening: typically around 1 m wide, positioned in the side or back wall.

In a panoramic model — the best-selling configuration for clubs that want open sightlines — the back wall becomes a single continuous stretch of glass with fewer structural posts, which changes the glass specification but not the court dimensions.

The Space First-Time Buyers Forget: Run-Off and Vertical Clearance

The 20 × 10 m figure is the playing surface, not the site surface. FIP guidelines recommend a free run-off zone around the enclosure, and in practice experienced operators plan for:

Add it up and a single padel court realistically occupies a 22–24 m × 12–14 m footprint — and multi-court venues need circulation, seating and locker-room space on top. This is exactly why the aerial photography from yesterday's episode showed courts packed so tightly: land, not demand, is the true constraint in most mature markets.

How Akeepo Turns Dimensions Into a Site Plan

This is where manufacturer support stops being a nice-to-have. Akeepo provides every project with scaled installation drawings mapped to the client's actual site — including foundation positions, anchor points, drainage falls and lighting placement — before a single container is shipped. For buyers with awkward plots (sloped ground, existing columns, height-limited indoor halls), the Akeepo engineering team adjusts court orientation and door positions so the FIP-compliant playing surface fits the site, rather than forcing the site to fit the court.

One rule of thumb from hundreds of completed projects: measure twice, order once. A laser measurement of the real usable area — not the developer's brochure figure — is worth more than any discount in negotiations.

Tomorrow in This Series

Episode 3 — "Padel Court Cost in 2026: A Full Breakdown, From Steel to First Serve." With dimensions settled, we move to the question every investor asks next: what does a compliant 20 × 10 m court really cost — structure, glass, turf, freight and installation line by line?

— The Akeepo Team · manufacturers of FIP-compliant panoramic padel courts, exported worldwide.