Padel vs everything else

Side by side

Padel vs tennis

They share a scoring system and almost nothing else. Padel's court is about a quarter of the area, the serve is underarm, and the walls keep the ball alive.

The practical consequence is that padel is dramatically easier to enjoy on day one. In tennis, the serve and the sheer amount of ground to cover mean beginners spend their early sessions retrieving balls. In padel, four people of mixed ability can play a genuinely competitive game immediately.

Tennis has more depth at the top and rewards technique and athleticism further. But padel takes a strategic turn earlier: because power is neutralised by the enclosure, points are won through positioning and patience rather than pace. Experienced tennis players often find their first padel session humbling for exactly this reason — their instinct to hit hard sends the ball off the back glass and straight back to their opponents.

Padel vs pickleball

These two are confused most often, partly because both are growing quickly in Malaysia and often share a venue. They are not similar.

Pickleball uses a small open court, a perforated plastic ball and a non-volley zone near the net. Rallies are short, soft and close-quarters. It is the least physically demanding of the four and the easiest to run in an existing sports hall, which is why it has spread so fast.

Padel keeps a pressurised ball, a full-size swing and the walls. Rallies last far longer, cover more ground, and the enclosure makes the game three-dimensional. Padel demands more space, more infrastructure and more money; pickleball is faster to set up and cheaper to play.

If you want a low-impact social game, pickleball. If you want a sport with more physical and tactical depth that still lets a beginner rally in half an hour, padel.

Padel vs squash

Both are played in a box, but the box works differently. In squash you hit the ball directly into the front wall — the walls are the primary target. In padel the walls are secondary; the ball must bounce on the floor first, and you use the rebound to buy time.

Squash is a solo, brutally aerobic sport with a steep learning curve. Padel is social, doubles, and forgiving. Malaysia has a strong squash heritage and considerable existing court infrastructure, some of which is now being converted or supplemented with padel because padel serves four paying players at a time rather than two.

Which one to choose

• You want a social evening with three friends of mixed ability — padel.
• You want the hardest workout in the shortest time — squash.
• You want the lowest impact and the cheapest entry — pickleball.
• You want the deepest long-term technical challenge — tennis.
• You have played tennis and stopped because of the time it demands — padel, almost certainly.

Cost per player in Malaysia lands closer together than people expect. A padel court split four ways runs roughly RM30 to RM50 per person for 90 minutes, which is in the same territory as a premium badminton court or a good futsal pitch split among a squad.

Common questions