The Ball. What’s the difference between Tennis balls and Padel balls?

Padel balls and tennis balls have a lot in common. For a start, they are a pretty similar size, and they are both essentially an air-filled rubber bladder with fuzz on the outside, each that same distinctive shade of tennis-ball-yellow. The better seasoned among you, however, are probably already yelling at the screen, so I’ll move on to the differences.

Padel balls are smaller than their tennis counter parts – 8% smaller to be precise. They are also less hard, the air within them being at only 11psi of pressure, rather than the 14psi of their more common cousins. Now, this might seem like quite a small difference, but it actually makes a huge difference to the game. The lower pressure makes Padel balls notably less bouncy – a difference which is hard to underestimate, given all the surfaces it has to bounce off. It brings the game a little bit closer to squash.

• For more on the layout of a Padel court and it similarities to tennis and squash, click here.

One other thing that it might be useful to note is that there are slightly different types of Padel ball. You can get an entry/intermediate level ball which has slightly more felt on it than the advanced/pro ball. This makes their flight a bit slower, but helps them to last longer. So if you’re just starting out it could be a good option. Why not have a browse in our online shop  https://shop.ukpadel.org/products/uk-padel-ball  and see our two balls, the UK Padel ball ( blue) for starter players or those training, and the UK Padel+ for competitive matches and those that must play with a fast ball. 

If you’re still hungry for more information on Padel, have a look at these articles on The Court, The Racket, How you score, and How much time you can take. Alternatively, check out our videos to see how it works in practice with some content from a top padel event https://the.recast.app/user/5RBeX