Padel & tennis format rules — explained per format

The Americano is the world's most popular social event format in padel, and it is growing fast in tennis and pickleball. The idea is simple: instead of one team playing the whole night together, partners switch every round. By the end of the night every player has been on a team with (almost) every other player. The total number of individual points won decides the final standings.

Mexicano is the dynamic sibling of Americano. Scoring is identical — points per round, individual — but pairings are recalculated after every round based on the current standings. As a result, #1 plays in round 2 with #4 against #2 + #3, and every match becomes naturally close.

Mix Americano is a variant of the classic Americano, designed for mixed doubles. The pairing schedule guarantees that every team — wherever possible — consists of one man and one woman, and that during the night you partner with as many different people as possible, both as a teammate and as an opponent.

Move Up / Down (also known as 'ladder', 'Up & Down' or 'King's Court ladder') is the format for large, mixed groups across multiple courts. The idea: court 1 is the strongest court, court 2 the second strongest, and so on. After every round winners go one court up, losers one court down.

King of the Court (KOTC) puts all the focus on one court: court 1 is the 'king's court'. Win there and you stay to defend. Lose and you rotate away, having to fight your way back up through the challenger courts.