If you’ve watched many racket-based sports before, you may have encountered the term ‘fault’ during a broadcast. In sports like tennis and badminton a fault is an important part of the game, so it’s vital that you understand it if you want to get to grips with those sports. The same is true in padel!
Although the word ‘fault’ is common to all of the sports I’ve mentioned, it has slightly different meanings in each one. Therefore, I thought I’d write this post in order to explain exactly what a fault is in during a game of padel. Once you understand this, you’ll know what sort of things you should be trying to avoid when playing! In addition to that, you’ll also be able to spot any faults that your opponents commit.
In this post I’ll cover what a fault is, and I’ll also give a detailed explanation of all of the different ways that they can be committed. If that sounds good to you – feel free to read on!
So, what is a fault in padel?
In padel the term ‘fault’ is used to signal when an illegal serve has taken place. There are 10 different ways to commit a fault when serving, but the most common one occurs when the ball fails to land in the receiving box. If two faults are committed in a row, the serving duo will lose the point.
So, now that you know what a fault is, I need to explain the 11 different ways that you can commit a fault in more depth. The 10 different types of fault occur during the following scenarios:
- The serving player touches or places one/both of their feet over the service line or across the centre line prior to the ball being served.
- The serving player has both of their feet off the ground as the ball is hit
- The server fails to bounce the ball on the ground behind the service line before they hit the ball
- The server hits the ball when it is above waist height
- The serving player fails to hit the ball into the receiving box that is diagonally opposite them.
- The server walks forwards, runs or jumps as they serve the ball
- The server misses the ball as they attempt to hit it
- After the ball has been served, it hits the serving player, their partner or any object/item of clothing worn by either player.
- The ball bounces in the receiving box that is diagonally opposite the serving player, but touches the metallic fence that surrounds the court before it bounces on the ground for a second time
- The ball bounces in the receiving box that is diagonally opposite the serving player, but then goes out of the court through one of the gates in the side wall when out of court play is not allowed. If out of court play were allowed, this would be a valid serve.
If The Ball Hits The Net Is It A Fault?
Some of the more observant individuals among you may have noticed that there was no fault rule above that specifically mentioned serving the ball into the net. Does this mean that if you serve the ball into the net it’s not a fault? The answer is no!
If you serve the ball directly into the net in padel it is a fault. This ties into rule number 5 that I mentioned above. Because the serving player has hit the net and failed to land the serve in the receiving box that is opposite them, it is a fault.
However, there are some cases in padel where the ball will strike the net before bouncing over the top of it and landing in the receiving box that is diagonally opposite the serving player. In this case, the ball has struck the net, but the ball also eventually landed where it needed to land. So, what happens in this scenario?
If this happens, the umpire will call ‘let’, and instruct the serving player to serve again. This does not count as a fault, so if the ‘let’ occurred on their first serve, they will get an opportunity to repeat their first serve. If the ‘let’ occurred on the second serve, then they will be able to repeat that serve. ‘Let’ is only called by the umpire if the ball lands in the correct receiving box after hitting the net. So, if the ball hits the net and bounces anywhere other than the receiving box that is diagonally opposite the serving player, the umpire will declare the serve to be a fault.
What Is A Double Fault In Padel?
I have briefly touched on this already, but a double fault in padel occurs when a serving player serves two faults in a row. If this happens, the serving team will lose the point that is being played.
So, let’s imagine the score in a game is 0-0 and the serving player hits a fault on their first serve. They now need to move on to their second serve. If this is also a fault, this is counted as a double fault and the point is awarded to the opposition. Therefore, the score will now become 0-15 in favour of the receiving team. At this point, the serving team must hit their first serve again, and the fault counter resets to zero.
Conclusion
I hope this post has given you all the info you needed about what a fault is. Now you know all the facts, you’ll be much better (and faster) at spotting faults when you’re watching games on tv as well as when you’re playing padel yourself! Let’s face it, none of us want to let our opponents get away with mistakes like this, so knowing the rules regarding what is and isn’t an illegal serve is very important!
If you’re a newcomer to the game and are interested in learning more about padel, feel free to check out some of my other posts! I hope you enjoy!
