Tournament formats explained
Americano, Mexicano, league or knockout tournament? This is how the most common padel tournament formats work — and how padelturn implements them. The official scoring within a match is explained on the page "The official rules of padel".
Last verified: July 12, 2026
Americano — everyone with everyone, everyone against everyone
The most popular format for social tournaments: you sign up individually and partners rotate each round according to a fixed schedule. Play is not by sets but for rally points: every rally counts as one point, and a match ends at a fixed total — typically 16, 21, 24 or 32.
- Both players on a team are credited with the points won individually.
- Whoever has collected the most points across all rounds wins.
- Player counts divisible by 4 are ideal (8, 12, 16). With other numbers there are byes, which should rotate fairly.
- Americano is a community format — it is not part of the official FIP rulebook, and the conventions vary slightly from club to club.
How padelturn does it
padelturn generates the complete rotation schedule automatically — with fair bye distribution when the number of participants is not divisible by 4. The points target is freely configurable (default: 24), individual standings included. Completely free and account-free in local mode.
Mexicano — the standings determine the pairings
Like Americano with rally points, but without a fixed schedule: from round 2 onward the pairings are formed based on the current standings — typically ranks 1 & 3 play against 2 & 4, ranks 5 & 7 against 6 & 8, and so on. Players of similar strength always meet, and the tournament stays exciting until the very end.
How padelturn does it
Mexicano is available on padelturn both locally and online: round 1 is drawn from the entry order, and the app then draws every following round automatically from the live standings — including fair bye rotation.
League / group stage (round robin)
Fixed teams, everyone against everyone: each team plays every other team once, and the standings decide. This is the format of club leagues — the German Padel Bundesliga essentially works this way too, although there each tie consists of 3 doubles per team (see Tournaments & leagues).
How padelturn does it
As a "league" for ongoing play with match days, or as the tournament format "group stage" for a single day. Standings with wins and games won included.
Knockout tournament (single elimination)
The classic tournament format, also the standard at Premier Padel: lose and you are out; win and you advance to the next round — all the way to the final. If the draw is not full, the seeded teams receive byes in round 1. Professional tournaments additionally play a qualifying round for the last main draw spots.
How padelturn does it
padelturn generates the bracket automatically with seeding and byes and advances winners round by round — with a live view for all participants.
Match formats at a glance
Independently of the tournament format, you decide how an individual match is settled:
| Match format | Decided by | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Best of 3 | 2 winning sets to 6 (tie-break at 6:6) | Official (FIP standard) |
| Best of 3 + match tie-break | Instead of a third set: super tie-break to 10 | Official (FIP alternative) |
| Short sets | Sets to 4 games, tie-break at 4:4 | Official (FIP alternative) |
| Pro set (8/9 games) | One long set to 8 or 9 | Common club format |
| To points | Rally points up to the points target | Americano/Mexicano convention |
| Timed | Score when time runs out | Club/event format |
Sources for this section