Padel Americano: rules, scoring and how to organize one

Americano is the most social format in padel. Nobody needs a fixed partner, every round mixes the group differently, and a single evening produces one clear winner.

How the format works

Players sign up individually, not as pairs. Each round, the organizer forms new teams of two so that you partner with as many different players as possible and face the rest. Matches are short: instead of traditional sets, each match is played to a fixed number of total points, most commonly 16, 21, 24 or 32.

Both teams count every point they win. A match to 21 points might end 12–9: each player on the first team writes down 12, each player on the second team writes down 9. Those personal totals accumulate from round to round, and the individual with the most points at the end wins the Americano.

What you need

• Players: at least 4. Multiples of 4 fill every court perfectly; any other count means someone sits out each round in rotation.
• Courts: one court per 4 players is ideal. With more players than court capacity, sit-outs rotate so everyone plays a fair share.
• Time: a round to 21 points takes about 13 minutes (roughly nine minutes of play plus scoring and the changeover). Eight players on two courts get through 7 rounds in about an hour and a half.

Handling sit-outs fairly

With 5, 9 or 13 players, one person rests each round. Two rules keep this fair: rotate the rest so nobody sits twice before everyone sat once, and decide up front whether resting players receive compensation points. Awarding the round's average is a common choice, so sitting out never wrecks anyone's ranking.

Popular variations

• Team Americano: pairs stay together all evening and rotate opponents round-robin style. Points still accumulate per team. Read the Team Americano guide.
• Mixed Americano: every team pairs one man and one woman; partners still rotate every round. Read the Mixed Americano guide.
• Club Americano: two clubs, partners from your own club, every match against the other. See the Club Americano guide.
• Mexicano: a sibling format where matchups follow the live standings instead of maximum variety. Read our Mexicano guide.

Ready-made schedules by group size

Each of these pages has the complete round-by-round rotation, courts, sit-outs and timing worked out:

4 players5 players6 players7 players8 players9 players10 players11 players12 players

Running it without spreadsheets

The math is the annoying part: building rounds where partners never repeat, keeping sit-outs fair, and totting up points between rounds. Rallyano automates it. Type the names, pick the format, and the app generates every round, validates every score, keeps live standings, and gives your group a link to follow along in real time.