King of the Court padel: winners stay on

What is King of the Court?

It's the playground rule, applied to padel: beat the pair on court and you take their place. Games are short, there's no waiting for a whole round to finish, and the King's Court — the first court — becomes the one everyone wants to hold.

It's ideal for training sessions, an hour of open play, or a warm-up before a bigger event: there's no schedule to draw, the event can stop whenever time runs out, and the best pairs naturally rise to the top.

How the rules work on one court

1. Make the pairs. Partners stay together all session — pick them yourselves or draw at random.
2. Two pairs on, the rest queue. Order the waiting pairs in a line.
3. Race to the target. The first pair to reach the agreed number of points wins the game. There are no draws.
4. Winners stay on. The winning pair stays on the King's Court.
5. Losers to the back. The losing pair joins the back of the queue, and the pair at the front steps on.
6. Repeat until time's up, then rank by games won.

With more than one court: the ladder

With two or more courts, the courts form a ladder with the King's Court at the top. After each game, winners move up a court and losers move down. The King's Court winners stay where they are; the losers on the bottom court join the back of the queue, and the pair at the front of the queue steps onto the bottom court.

So a pair that keeps winning climbs to the King's Court in a few games, and a pair that keeps losing drops through the courts and into the queue.

How many players and courts you need

You need at least 3 pairs (6 players) so there's always someone waiting. The sweet spot is one or two pairs in the queue: more than that and people stand around too long.

At about 30 seconds a rally, a race to 6 takes 4–6 minutes and a race to 10 about 6–9. Use 6 or 10 for a fast-moving queue, and 12 or 16 when there are few pairs waiting.

Scoring and who wins

Each game won is worth one win to both players on the winning pair — nothing for time spent in the queue. At the end, pairs are ranked by games won, then point difference, then points scored.

Because there's no fixed number of rounds, pairs won't all play the same number of games. That's the format: winners stay on and play more.

Run a King of the Court with BAYmericano

1. Create the event and pick King of the Court as the format, then set the date, start time and courts.
2. Share the invite link in the group chat. Players add themselves; anyone past the courts' capacity goes on a waitlist.
3. Make the pairs and start. The next game is drawn the moment the last score is saved, with the King's Court and the queue shown on every court card.
4. Enter scores on the court card — tap a pair, pick their points, and the standings update straight away. Put the club screen on a TV so everyone can follow.

It's free, runs in the browser, and nobody needs an account to join. Start a tournament →

Frequently asked questions