Padel Winners court tournament

The Winners Court tournament is based on the classic game “King Of The Hill”. It is simple to arrange and works well for players at different levels. 

The objective of this tournament is really simple. You need to fight your way up to winners court and then defend your place there until the end.

Rules for a Winners Court

The Winners Court tournament is played in teams. The teams can be fixed for the duration of the tournament or be re-arranged after each round.

1. Before the first round of the game a lottery decides each teams opponents and starting court.
2. Once the game has started the rules are simple. Winning teams moves up one level (court) and losing teams moves down.
3. Winning on the winners court means that the players keeps their place.
4. The aim is to be the winner of the last match on the winners court.
5. The matches can be played using any score counting system. What is important is that no matches can end in a tie.
6. You can play for a preset number of points or games or you can use a timer to keep all matches the same lenght.
7. The last men or woman standing as winners on the winners court after the last game are the winners of the tournament.

Winners Court americano

The winner´s court tournament is normally played in fixed teams but it can also be played individually. This style of play is sometimes called Winners Court americano, split or mix.

1. In the first round the assignment of playing partners, starting courts and opponents is determined by a lottery.
2. At each new game, the playing partners are changed.
3. In the case of a win, the winners move up one court AND change partners. The losers move down one court AND change partners.
4. Winning on the “winners court” means that the players keeps their place but they will play with new team mates in the next game.

Winners Court Challenger

When you play a Winners Court tournament the number of teams are usually equally divisable by the number of courts. 6 teams = 3 courts. But you can add an extra challenger team. This means 3 courts  = 7 teams. 6 teams play, one team rests.

1. The challanger team has to wait for their chance to enter the game.
2. When the first round is over the challangers trades places with the losers on the court furthest from the winners court.
3. To stay in play the challengers has to win their match. If the lose they have to leave the court and wait another round.

Organization of a Winners Court tournament

The winners court tournament is probably the easiest tournament there is in terms of organisation.

• You need a minimum of 8 players or 6 teams.
• There is no upper limit for the number of participants but it is best if the number of players is divisible by four.
• You can play for any number of  points. 25 points usually works well.
• Using a timer helps to keep your tournament on time. Playing for 12-15 minutes usually works well.
• Another good alternative to keep your tournament on time is to end all matches as soon as the first match of the current round is over.

Becuase of the winner´s court playing system you may play with the same partners and opponents several times. At the same time this tournament provides even matches since the better you play the tougher the opposition gets.

Overall the winners court tournament is one of the best ways to compete and have fun in padel. It has all the advantages of the padel americano and padel mexicano but is easier to organize and can be even more competetive.