New padel rules for 2026: what actually changed
The International Padel Federation (FIP) published a revised Rules of Padel in December 2025, adopted at the FIP General Meeting in Acapulco on 28 November 2025. The changes took effect on 1 January 2026. Most are small on paper and noticeable on court: games end sooner, warm-ups are shorter, and the wrist cord has teeth.
Here is what the 2026 padel rules changed, what they replace, and how much of it you will actually notice at your local club.
The changes at a glance
| Rule | Before | From 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| 40–40 | Advantage or golden point | Third option added: the Star Point |
| Serve | Both feet behind the service line | One foot, and the ball may not cross the line before contact |
| Safety cord | A grey area | Breaks, detaches or racket dropped — you lose the point |
| Racket holes | Circular | Non-circular allowed, up to 20 mm |
| Warm-up | 5 minutes | 3 minutes |
| Between points | 20 seconds, loosely applied | 20 seconds, actively enforced |
| Food and drink | Flexible between points | Only at permitted side changes |
| Coaching | Warning, then formal warning, then expulsion | Second verbal warning is expulsion |
| Safety zone width | 2 metres | 3 metres minimum |
Scoring: meet the Star Point
The headline change is at 40–40, and it has a name: the Star Point.
Padel has long been split between two camps — traditional advantage, where a pair must win two points in a row, and the golden point, where 40–40 is settled by a single sudden-death rally. The Star Point sits between them.
At 40–40 you play advantage as normal. Lose it and you are back at deuce. Play a second advantage. If the score is still level after that, the next point is the Star Point and it decides the game.
Two details people get wrong:
- The receiving pair chooses which side receives the Star Point, and they may not switch positions to do it.
- In mixed doubles the receiver must be the same sex as the server.
Crucially, the Star Point does not abolish the golden point. The 2026 rulebook recognises three deciding formats — Advantage, Star Point and Golden Point — and the competition organiser picks one before the event. Premier Padel and the CUPRA FIP Tour adopted the Star Point as their default from January 2026. Golden point remains widespread in club, league and amateur play.
Serving: one foot, and a new line
Two things changed, and the smaller one got the attention.
The old wording required both feet behind the service line. The 2026 rule asks for at least one foot in contact with or behind the line at the moment of impact.
The more consequential change is about the ball, not the feet: the ball may not cross the service line, or its imaginary extension, before you strike it. Toss or drop it forward past the line and hit it there, and that is now clearly a fault.
Both clauses are primarily about making the serve easier for umpires to judge. Despite some early reporting to the contrary, the server's stance and technique are not meaningfully changed — you still bounce the ball first and strike it at or below waist height. If you are a club player, this is a clarification rather than an opportunity.
The safety cord now decides points
This is the change most likely to cost a recreational player a point, and it is the one fewest people know about.
Every padel racket must have a non-elastic cord fixed in the handle and worn around the wrist, no longer than 35 cm. Wearing it is obligatory. Under the 2026 rules, if that cord breaks or detaches during a point, you lose the point — and dropping the racket does the same thing. Before 2026 this was ambiguous and caused arguments. Now it is not.
Check your cord before a match, not after. A frayed one can hand away a game at deuce.
Equipment, clock and conduct
- Racket holes no longer have to be circular. Peripheral holes may take other shapes provided the diameter does not exceed 20 mm, which is why slotted and teardrop patterns are appearing on 2026 frames.
- Warm-up drops from five minutes to three. Arrive ready to play.
- The 20-second limit between points is now actively enforced in sanctioned play — a warning first, then a point penalty.
- Eating and drinking between points is prohibited. Hydration and food are allowed only during permitted side changes.
- Coaches get one step fewer. A second verbal warning now means immediate expulsion, removing the intermediate formal warning.
- The minimum safety zone widens from two metres to three, with the four-metre length unchanged — a response to how hard players now smash and how often they chase the ball off court. This applies to new construction rather than existing venues.
Does any of this apply to your Sunday game?
More than you might think.
Three of these changes touch social play immediately: the serve line, the safety cord penalty, and the racket hole spec on whatever pala you buy next. None of them require a referee or a rebuild.
The Star Point and the enforced clock are optional at club level — they govern FIP-sanctioned competition, and most social padel will carry on with golden point or straight advantage. As with a tiebreak, the sensible thing is to agree the 40–40 format before the first serve rather than during an argument.
Where these details come from
The FIP publishes the official Rules of Padel as a downloadable PDF, effective 1 January 2026, on the FIP website. That document is the one to check whenever a referee's call and a blog post disagree — including this one.
If you are new to the sport, our beginner's guide to the official padel rules and our explainer on padel scoring cover the fundamentals, and what is padel starts from scratch.
Ready to put the new rules into practice? Find a padel court near you across the US.