The overview
A padel tournament does not have to be complicated. Four things decide whether the night works: which format you play, how many players turn up relative to the number of courts, how much court time you have, and who keeps track of the results. Get those four right and the rest takes care of itself.
The guide takes them in order, and is written for the most common case: a club night or a group of friends with one to four courts and 90 minutes to three hours of court time. It all works with pen and paper too — where PadelFlow does the job for you, it says so explicitly.
Step 1
The format decides everything downstream: how many players you can take, how the next round is built, and how much explaining you have to do on court. Five formats — eight modes in the app once you count the team variants — cover practically every padel night.
| Format | Best when | Player count | What decides the next round |
|---|---|---|---|
| Americano | Everyone should play equally, with and against everyone | At least 4 per court, extras rotate through the bench | Play time and variety — the score never affects the draw |
| Mexicano | Levels are mixed and the matches should stay close | At least 4 per court, extras rotate through the bench | The standings — top four to court 1, then 1+3 vs 2+4 |
| Nordicano | You want a court ladder with a bonus for the top court | Exactly 4 per court: 4, 8, 12 … up to 32. No bench | The ladder — winners move up, losers move down |
| King/Queen of the Court | A simple ladder you can explain in one minute | Exactly 4 per court: 4, 8, 12 … up to 32. No bench | The ladder — win and climb towards the top court |
| Davis Cup | A team night with a group stage and a playoff | Exactly 16 players on 4 courts, split into 4 teams of 4 | A fixed schedule — three group rounds, then the playoff |
The player count is the column nights come apart on. Americano and mexicano are flexible: they accept a head count that is not a multiple of four by letting the extras sit out in turn. The ladder formats are not — nordicano and King/Queen of the Court need exactly four players per court, so 4, 8, 12 and up to 32, with no bench. Davis Cup is the strictest: exactly 16 players on four courts, split into four teams of four.
Torn between the two most popular ones? Americano vs mexicano goes through the difference in detail. If you just want to get going, the padel tournament generator drops you straight into the format picker — or the americano generator and the mexicano generator if the choice is already made.
Step 2
The arithmetic is short: one padel court holds four players. Two courts want eight, three want twelve, four want sixteen. Anything that does not divide by four has to be dealt with deliberately.
Say you have ten players and two courts: eight are in play and two sit out each round. That is perfectly fine — as long as the bench rotates fairly. In PadelFlow it does that automatically: the players with the fewest matches played go on court first, and when that is level, americano gives priority to whoever has sat out the most, while mexicano lets the standings decide. Nobody sits twice before everyone has sat once. Running the rounds by hand means somebody has to keep exactly that ledger — the most common source of friction on a club night.
Note that the bench only exists in americano and mexicano. Choose a ladder format and the head count has to land on a multiple of four, or you cannot set the session up at all.
| Players | Courts | On the bench | Rounds | Approx. total time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | 2 | Nobody | 7 — everyone partners everyone | 1 h 45 min – 2 h 20 min |
| 10 | 2 | 2 per round, in turn | 6–8 rounds | 1.5–2.5 hours |
| 12 | 3 | Nobody | 6–8 rounds | 1.5–2.5 hours |
| 16 | 4 | Nobody | 6–8 rounds | 1.5–2.5 hours |
Overbook rather than underbook. One player too many gives you a bench slot that rotates and that nobody really notices; one too few in a ladder format means rebuilding the whole setup in the doorway. To see exactly what a full evening looks like, the americano schedule for 8 players is the classic setup, round by round.
Step 3
The evening comes down to three habits: check the roster in before you start, enter each result the moment the match ends, and keep the standings visible. The rest is padel.
Count heads and type the names in only once everyone is there. The first round is drawn the instant you start the session, so waiting five minutes for the last car costs nothing.
One person with the phone is enough. The next round is only built once every match in the round has a result, so one score left hanging stops the whole field.
There is no print-out and no PDF — the rounds and the leaderboard live in the app. Put the phone or a tablet down by the court and everyone can check the next round and the standings themselves.
When things go sideways
A latecomer is a small problem as long as you have not started: the session is built from the names on screen when you hit start, and the first round is drawn in that same second. If you are already under way, it is worth knowing what the tool does not do — the player list in a PadelFlow session is locked once the session has started. You can neither add nor remove a player halfway through.
That leaves two routes. Either the new arrival carries on in the slot of whoever left, under the name already in the session — completely uncontroversial on a social night. Or you end the session and start a fresh one with the correct roster; the finished one keeps its standings and stays in your history, so nothing is lost.
In a ladder format, the first route is the only one: nordicano, King/Queen of the Court and Davis Cup all require every court slot to be filled. If yours is a crowd where people drift in and out, pick americano or mexicano from the start — the bench absorbs an uneven head count, the ladder does not.
Step 4
End the session and the final table is done. Americano, Mexicano and Nordicano rank on points first and wins second; King/Queen of the Court puts wins first, and Davis Cup ranks the teams on team points with games difference as the tiebreak. That is the whole ceremony.
PadelFlow builds a text summary you can copy or share straight into whatever chat the group already uses: winner, placings and the number of rounds. It takes ten seconds, and it is usually what people actually want — not a spreadsheet.
If the night is going to repeat, this is where groups come in. A shared group gives the crew the same roster, the same results archive and the same Elo rating across every night, synced to each member's phone — so the next session starts with the players already loaded. One-off sessions need no account; groups do require signing in with Apple or Google, because the data is shared between several phones.
FAQ
Four players per court is the minimum, and that already gives you a proper tournament on one court. The most common nights are eight players on two courts, twelve on three and sixteen on four. Americano and mexicano accept player counts that are not a multiple of four, with the extras rotating through the bench. Nordicano and King/Queen of the Court need exactly four per court, and Davis Cup needs exactly 16 players on four courts.
Count 15–20 minutes per round when matches are played to 24 points, scoring and court changes included. That gets you four to five rounds in 90 minutes, six to seven rounds in two hours and eight to ten rounds in three hours. Subtract ten minutes at the start for arrivals and a warm-up and the plan will hold.
Wait to start the session until you know the roster — the first round is only drawn when you hit start, so a late arrival costs nothing if you have not begun. If someone drops out mid-session, be aware of the limit: the player list in a PadelFlow session is locked once the session has started. Either let a substitute carry on in that slot, or end the session and start a new one with the correct roster. The finished session keeps its standings and stays in your history.
Courts, balls and some way of keeping track of the rounds. Pen and paper is fine on a single court, but from two courts up the bookkeeping piles on: who has partnered whom, who is next on the bench, and what the standings are. PadelFlow handles that part — you enter the names and the results, the app builds the rounds and keeps the leaderboard.
The cost is the court time and the balls, split between the players. Organizing itself costs nothing: PadelFlow is free to use for sessions, with no account and no paywall in front of the rounds or the leaderboard. Plenty of clubs add a small fee per player to cover prizes, but that is entirely optional.
Mexicano. Every round is built from the standings, so you meet players who are level with you, and after a couple of rounds the field has sorted itself. Americano is the better pick when the group is fairly even and the point is that everyone plays with everyone as much as possible.
Ready?
Open the format picker, type in the names, and the first round is ready. Free, no signup, and it works offline at the club.
Free · No account needed · Works offline