Padel Service Box Rules: Do You Serve Diagonally?

Quick Answer: Yes. Every padel serve must land in the service box diagonally opposite you, and the lines count as in. You serve from behind your own service line, on the correct half, with at least one foot behind that line, and the first serve of each game goes from the right.

Nobody asks this question until the first time a serve lands beautifully in the wrong box and their partner says nothing because they are not sure either. So: diagonally, always, with no exceptions and no shortcuts. What is worth knowing in detail is everything around that — where the box is, whether a ball on the line is good, and exactly how much of your foot the rules care about.

All of it comes from the International Padel Federation's Rules of Padel, edition effective 1 January 2026.

Yes, and there is no version where it is not

The serve has to pass diagonally over the net and bounce inside the service box on the far side. The first serve of every game is struck from the right-hand half of your court into the box diagonally opposite; after each point you switch to the other half, and keep alternating for as long as the game lasts. That pattern is the same whether you are serving at 0-0 or at 40-40, and it does not care who won the previous point — the full rotation is covered in serving order, sides and when you switch.

There is exactly one moment when somebody else gets a say. On a sudden-death deciding point — golden point, or the third deuce of a Star Point game — the receiving pair chooses which side the serve comes to. You still serve diagonally; they just pick the diagonal.

Where the service box actually is

Two lines make the boxes, and they are the only markings on a padel court besides the outer perimeter.

Two things follow from those numbers, and both surprise players arriving from tennis. First, the service box is enormous — roughly 5 m by 7 m, most of the front half of the court. Second, you serve from behind the service line, not from a baseline: the strip you stand in is the 3-meter-ish band between the service line and the back glass. Full court geometry, wall heights and net measurements are in padel court dimensions and markings.

That 20 cm stub of central line poking past the service line is not decoration. It exists so that you, standing behind the line, can see where the imaginary boundary of your own serving quarter runs.

Does the line count? Yes

The rulebook settles this in five words. A serve is a fault if the ball bounces outside the receiver's service box — "the lines are counted as good." A ball that clips the service line, the central line, or the line where the box meets the side wall is in.

The same logic runs through the rest of the serve. Land the ball in the box and let it carry on into the back glass and you have hit a good serve, and the receiver plays the rebound. Land it in the box and let it carry into the metal fence before the second bounce and it is a fault, however perfect the first bounce looked. The LTA's padel rules summary puts the same distinction in one line: if the ball bounces and hits the cage off a serve, the shot is out.

One more fault worth knowing on courts built without a safety zone: a serve that bounces in the box and then flies straight out through the gate is a fault too.

Your feet: one behind the line, inside your quarter

The current rulebook asks for less than people assume. At the start of the serve you need one foot behind the service line, positioned between the imaginary prolongation of the central line and the side wall — that is, inside the quarter you are serving from — and you have to stay there until the ball has been struck.

Until you hit the ball, your feet may not touch:

• the service line itself,
• the imaginary line extending from the central service line, or
• the reception box on your own side of the court.

And at the moment of contact, at least one foot must be in contact with the ground. So the two ways to foot-fault in padel are stepping on or over the service line early, and drifting sideways across the imaginary line into the other half of your own court. Neither is common; both are invisible unless somebody is watching, which in a friendly is nobody.

The bounce lives behind the line as well

This is the constraint most amateurs have never heard. You must bounce the ball on the ground to serve, inside the quarter you are serving from — and the ball may not cross the service line or the imaginary central line before you strike it.

In other words, you cannot bounce the ball forward past the line to steal a meter of angle, and you cannot bounce it across into your partner's quarter. Bounce, let it come up, hit it at or below waist height with a foot on the floor. Why the serve is underhand at all, and what the motion may and may not do, is the subject of why padel serves are underhand.

Two serves, and the two ways to lose the second one

You get two attempts, exactly as in tennis. A first serve that is not valid buys you a second; two consecutive faults loses the point.

What counts as a fault on either attempt:

• the ball bounces outside the box (lines good),
• it touches the metal fence after bouncing in the box, before the second bounce,
• it hits you, your partner, or anything either of you is wearing or carrying,
• you miss the ball completely when trying to hit it,
• you break any of the position, bounce, waist-height or standing-foot requirements above.

And what is not a fault: a serve that clips the net and still lands in the correct box. That is a let, you take it again, and a let on the first serve gives you both serves back. The complete list of replay situations is in what is a let in padel.

If you serve from the wrong side

It happens, usually at 30-30 when nobody has said the score out loud. The remedy is written down and it is generous: correct the position as soon as anyone notices, and every point already played stands. Nothing is replayed.

One carry-over, though. If you had already missed a first serve before the mistake was spotted, that fault still counts — so you resume with one serve, not two.

None of this needs an umpire, and it does not need a memory either. Say the score before every serve and glance at which half you are standing in; those two habits between them prevent every mistake on this page. If you would rather have something else hold the score, the free online padel scoreboard keeps it and shows which pair is serving, and there is a printable padel score sheet for crews that keep phones off the court. The rest of the serve — technique, faults, the underarm rule — is in padel serve rules, and everything else lives in the complete plain-English guide to padel rules.

FAQ

Do you have to serve diagonally in padel?

Yes, always. The serve must pass over the net and bounce inside the service box diagonally opposite the half you are serving from. The first serve of each game goes from the right-hand half, and you alternate halves after every point regardless of who won it. The only choice anyone else gets is on a sudden-death deciding point, where the receiving pair picks which side receives.

Does the line count as in when serving in padel?

Yes. The rulebook states that a serve is a fault when the ball bounces outside the receiver's service box, and that the lines are counted as good. A serve touching the service line, the central line or the line at the side wall is in play. The same applies to the outer lines during a rally.

How big is a padel service box?

Each service box is roughly 5 meters wide and 6.95 meters deep — the service line sits 6.95 m from the net and the central service line splits that area in half on a 10 m wide court. All lines are 5 cm wide, and the central line extends at least 20 cm beyond the service line so the server can see it.

Where do you stand to serve in padel?

Behind your own service line, in the quarter diagonally opposite the box you are serving into, with at least one foot behind the line and at least one foot on the ground when you strike the ball. You must stay in that position until the ball has been served, and your feet may not touch the service line or cross the imaginary extension of the central line beforehand.

What happens if I serve from the wrong side in padel?

Correct it as soon as anyone notices and carry on — every point already played stands and nothing is replayed. The one thing that carries over is a first-serve fault: if you had already faulted before the error was spotted, you resume with a single serve remaining.