How Many Padel Courts Can Fit On A Tennis Court?

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While padel is gaining popularity in many countries over tennis, club owners are looking to convert tennis courts to padel courts. But how many padel courts can fit on a tennis court?

On average two padel courts can fit on one tennis court, however competition padel courts relatively take up more space than recreational padel courts. One recreational tennis court can fit 2.64 recreational/commercial padel courts. One competition tennis court can fit 1.91 competition padel courts.

While you can fit only full padel courts (unless you are looking for single padel courts), the numbers change when we turn our focus to multiple tennis courts. Note that I assumed a minimum space of 1.5 meters between courts.

	Commercial Padel Court	Recreational Padel Court (incl out-of-court play)	Competition Padel Court (incl out-of-court play)
1 Recreational Tennis Court	2	1	1
2 Recreational Tennis Courts	4	4	3
3 Recreational Tennis Courts	7	6	5
4 Recreational Tennis Courts	10	9	8
1 Competition Tennis Court	2	2	1
2 Competition Tennis Courts	5	4	4
3 Competition Tennis Courts	8	7	6
4 Competition Tennis Courts	11	10	8

In order to find out how I’ve come to these numbers, please read on or jump directly to any of the subsections.

How Big Is A Padel Court?

Padel courts are 20 meters (65.6 ft) long and 10 meters (32.8 ft) wide measured from the inside. The total playing area within the court is 200 m² (2152.8 sq ft). The outside measurements of the court generally are 20.4m (66.9 ft) long and 10.4m (34.1 ft) wide.

Therefore the steel construction of the court is generally the demarcation of the court. This is indeed true for most commercial and recreational padel courts.

But then you might wonder why those professionals are running outside of the court. Good question indeed! Padel players are only allowed to run outside the court to return the ball if the court is designed accordingly. This so-called out-of-court play is only allowed if it meets certain requirements.

What Are The Space Requirements For Out-Of-Court Play In Padel?

First of all, for out-of-court play there need to be two points of exit/entrance without obstacles. This area needs to be at a minimum of 4 meters long (evenly distributed along the point of exit/entrance), 2 meters wide, and 3 meters high. Note that this 2 meters of width would be considered half of the spacing area between the two courts. For competition purposes, the LTA Padel recommends an area of 3 meters wide, 4 meters long, and 4 meters high. In this overview, you will find how many square meters a padel court is.

	Commercial Padel Court	Recreational Padel Court (incl out-of-court play)	Competition Padel Court (incl out-of-court play)
Total Area in Sq ft	2,418 sq ft	3,313 sq ft	3,761 sq ft
Total Area in m2	224.6 m2	307.8 m2	349.4 m2

How Much Space Is Required For Multiple Padel Courts?

In order to calculate the total area of a padel court there needs to be some space around the court, regardless whether out of court play is allowed. The concrete foundation that holds the steel construction is around 40 cm (1.3 ft) wide. This would mean that the surface including the foundation is 20.8m long and 10.8m wide. Nevertheless, it is good practice to keep a minimum of 3 meters between courts (if you don’t want to allow for out-of-court play). Using this working assumption, let’s do the math to figure out the total area.

Padel Court Construction: How much space YOU need

Number of Courts	Commercial Padel Court	Recreational Padel Court (incl out-of-court play)	Competition Padel Court (incl out-of-court play)
1 Court	224.6 m2	307.8 m2	349.4 m2
2 Courts	511.7 m2	615.7 m2	698.9 m2
3 Courts	798.7 m2	923.5 m2	1,048.3 m2
4 Courts	1,085.8 m2	1,231.4 m2	1,397.8 m2
5 Courts	1,372.8 m2	1,539.2 m2	1,747.2 m2
6 Courts	1,659.8 m2	1,847.0 m2	2,096.6 m2
7 Courts	1,946.9 m2	2,154.9 m2	2,446.1 m2
8 Courts	2,233.9 m2	2,462.7 m2	2,795.5 m2
9 Courts	2521.0 m2	2,771 m2	3,145 m2
10 Courts	2808.0 m2	3,078 m2	3,494 m2

Note that these calculations assume the courts are placed in a row, therefore there is spacing over the length of the court. If you want to put padel courts in a block formation, you need to consider additional spacing over the width of the courts.

In case you are interested in the measurements in square feet, you will find them in the overview below.

Number of Courts	Commercial Padel Court	Recreational Padel Court (incl out-of-court play)	Competition Padel Court (incl out-of-court play)
1 Court	2,418 sq ft	3,313 sq ft	3,761 sq ft
2 Courts	5,508 sq ft	6,627 sq ft	7,523 sq ft
3 Courts	8,597 sq ft	9,941 sq ft	11,284 sq ft
4 Courts	11,687 sq ft	13,254 sq ft	15,045 sq ft
5 Courts	14,777 sq ft	16,568 sq ft	18,807 sq ft
6 Courts	17,866 sq ft	19,881 sq ft	22,568 sq ft
7 Courts	20,956 sq ft	23,195 sq ft	26,329 sq ft
8 Courts	24,046 sq ft	26,509 sq ft	30,091 sq ft
9 Courts	27,135 sq ft	29,822 sq ft	33,852 sq ft
10 Courts	30,225 sq ft	33,136 sq ft	37,613 sq ft

How Big Is A Tennis Court?

Recreational tennis courts cover a total area of 6,384 square feet (593.1 square meters), while international tennis courts are 7,200 square feet (668.9 square meters).

According to the rules of the International Tennis Federation (ITF), a tennis singles court is 78 ft (23.77m) long and 27 ft wide (8.23m), whereas a doubles court is 78 ft (23.77m) long and 36 ft wide (10.97m). However, a tennis court is bigger since it allows for running to the back and side of the court. These so-called run back and side run areas result in a court that is 120 ft long and 60 ft wide by international standards. For recreational courts, the minimum length is 114 ft and the minimum width is 56 ft.

To help you make sense of these numbers, I’ve calculated the overall surface for doubles reactional and international courts as you find in the overview below.

	Recreational Tennis Court	International Tennis Court
Total Area in Sq ft	6,384 sq ft	7,200 sq ft
Total Area in m2	593.1 m2	668.9 m2

Are we done with these numbers, you might wonder? Well not yet if we are looking at multiple tennis courts, so hold on. Let’s talk spacing, shall we?

According to the governing body in Australia for tennis, the minimum space between courts is 12 ft (3.66m) while the recommendation is 14 ft (4.27m).

Let’s consider the total area for two to four adjacent recreational tennis courts including the minimum spacing requirements. The spacing area between the courts is 1,596 sq ft (148.3m²) in this case.

How Much Space Is Required For Multiple Recreational Tennis Courts

	Two Recreational Tennis Courts	Three Recreational Tennis Court	Four Recreational Courts
Total Area in Sq ft	14,364 sq ft	22,344 sq ft	30,324 sq ft
Total Area in m2	1,334.5 m2	2,075.8 m2	2,817.2 m2

How Big Is A Padel Court Compared To A Tennis Court?

Tennis courts are on average more than 2.5 the size of a padel court, while the difference is smaller for competition-level courts. The playing area of a padel court is 200 m² (not allowing out-of-court play), while tennis courts are 593.1 m². The total space requirements for both padel and tennis courts depend on the type of court.

Recreational/commercial padel courts (without out-of-court play) require 224.6 m² (2,418 sq ft) while recreational tennis courts require 593.1 m² (6,384 sq ft). Therefore recreational tennis courts are 2.64 times bigger than recreational padel courts.

Recreational padel courts (that allow out-of-court play) require 307.8 m² (3,313 sq ft) while recreational tennis courts require 593.1 m² (6,384 sq ft). Therefore recreational tennis courts are 1.93 times bigger than recreational padel courts.

Tennis courts are 1.91 times the size of a padel court at a competitional level. Competition padel courts require 349.4 m² (3,761 sq ft) while international tennis court requires 668.9 m² (7,200 sq ft).

These numbers are translated into the overview I started with to cover the number of padel courts that fit in one or multiple tennis courts.