The Primary Differences Between Tennis and Paddle Tennis

The president of NBC Sports Regional Networks and the NBC Sports Group’s RSNs, Platform, and Content Strategy, David Preschlack lives with his wife and children in Southport, Connecticut. In his free time, David Preschlack plays both tennis and paddle tennis.

Compared to the regulation tennis court, a paddle tennis court is considerably smaller and divided by a noticeably lower net. While traditional tennis players use stringed racquets, paddle tennis players use hard, solid paddles, or hard paddles that are perforated with small holes. Although paddle tennis uses a regular tennis ball of standard size and composition, the ball must have puncture holes in order to reduce its internal pressure and, therefore, its bouncing height.

Although the scoring method of paddle tennis is the same as traditional tennis, some of the rules are a bit different. For example, all serves in paddle tennis must be underhand, and the server is allowed to bounce the ball off the ground before hitting it.