A 2 minute read, written in September 2026 and read over again on 10 October 2026
Padel balls: pressure, brands, altitude, and why your tube goes dead in a week
A padel ball looks like a tennis ball and is not one. Less pressure, a smaller bounce, and a life of about four games. Here is what the numbers mean and which tubes are worth buying.
Not a tennis ball
Same size, same felt, less pressure: a padel ball is inflated to about 10 to 11 psi against a tennis ball's 14, so it bounces 135 to 145 centimetres from a 2.54 metre drop where a tennis ball reaches 147. That lower bounce is what makes the walls playable. Tennis balls on a padel court fly off the glass and the game turns into a pinball table, which is why clubs ask you not to.
The brands you will actually see
Three tubes cover most clubs in Europe. Head Padel Pro (and the slightly slower Pro S), the tour ball of Premier Padel and the default in Spain. Bullpadel Premium Pro, a touch livelier. Wilson Padel and Dunlop Pro Padel in the UK and the Gulf. The differences are small; buy whatever your club plays with so your feel carries over.
How long they last
A pressurised tube is at its best for one match and playable for three or four; after that the bounce drops below what the walls need and the game slows. On hot outdoor courts they die faster. A pressure-restoring tube (a screw-cap canister that keeps them at 14 psi between games) roughly doubles their life and costs less than two tubes of balls; regular players in Spain all own one. Pressureless training balls last months and are fine for drills, wrong for matches.
Altitude and heat
Above about 1,000 metres (Madrid is 650, Bogotá and Mexico City far higher) balls fly and bounce more; brands sell altitude balls with less pressure for it. In heat over 30 degrees the ball speeds up too; some players open a fresh tube per set in summer tournaments.
Your call
They have a comfortable smash and you are defending at the back. What are you actually trying to do?
You are not trying to win this ball. You are trying to still be in the point two shots from now.
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Pick by city, roughly: Mexico City, Bogotá, Johannesburg, Denver and anywhere above a thousand metres, the high-altitude ball (FIP publishes a separate specification for it; the standard ball flies long and bounces high up there). Dubai, Doha and a Spanish August, a slower, lower-pressure ball or simply a new tube more often, because heat makes any ball livelier. A cold hall in Stockholm or Manchester in January, the faster ball of the two your club stocks, because cold air and a cold ball deaden everything. Humid coasts, the same as heat, plus dry hands: the ball soaks up moisture and gets heavier by the third set.
Who brings the balls
The player who booked the court, by convention, and the others pay for the drinks after. Open a new tube for a match; use last week's for the warm-up and the drills.