Padel Americano for 10 players
Ten is the number that catches organisers out: two courts hold eight, so two people sit out every round, and somebody always ends up resting twice in a row by accident. Here is a six-round schedule where that does not happen.
| Round | Court 1 | Court 2 | Resting |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 & 3 v 8 & 9 | 7 & 6 v 10 & 1 | 2, 4 |
| 2 | 7 & 3 v 2 & 5 | 10 & 9 v 1 & 4 | 6, 8 |
| 3 | 6 & 4 v 3 & 8 | 10 & 2 v 9 & 5 | 7, 1 |
| 4 | 8 & 6 v 2 & 9 | 1 & 7 v 4 & 3 | 5, 10 |
| 5 | 7 & 5 v 1 & 6 | 2 & 8 v 10 & 4 | 9, 3 |
| 6 | 6 & 5 v 4 & 7 | 10 & 8 v 3 & 1 | 9, 2 |
24 different pairs over 6 rounds, no pair repeated. Rest is spread so nobody sits out twice in a row: between 1 and 2 rounds off each.
The problem with ten
Ten players do not divide into courts of four. Two courts take eight, which leaves two resting; three courts would take twelve, which you do not have. So every round, two people are off, and over six rounds that is twelve rest slots spread across ten players: four of them rest once, and six rest twice, or some arrangement near it.
Done by hand, this is where social games quietly go wrong. Nobody tracks it, the same two friends keep ending up on the bench together, and by round five someone has played four matches while someone else has played six. The difference is invisible while it is happening and obvious afterwards.
The schedule below spreads the rest deliberately: the gap between the player who sits most and the player who sits least is one round, and nobody sits twice in a row.
Better options for ten, if you have them
If a third court is free, take it even for one hour. Twelve slots for ten players means two courts of four and one court of two, which does not work, so three courts only helps if you can find two more players. Ten on three courts is worse than ten on two.
The cleaner fix is to find an eleventh and twelfth player, or to drop to eight. Eight on two courts has no resting at all, and for a regular group it is worth asking two people to swap weeks rather than running ten every time.
If ten is simply what you have, run it to six rounds rather than seven. With an odd arrangement the fairness improves at even round counts, and six fits the booking anyway.
What the resting player should do
Give them the scoresheet. The single best use of a resting pair is to record the round that is being played, because the scores are the thing most likely to go missing, and the people on court are the least able to write them down.
It also keeps the rest from feeling like exclusion. A player who is off court and doing nothing counts the minutes; a player who is off court and keeping the table is still in the game.
Questions organisers ask
- How do you run a padel Americano with 10 players?
- On two courts, with two players resting each round. Spread the rest so nobody sits twice in a row and the difference between the most and least rested player is at most one round over the game.
- How many rounds should 10 players play?
- Six is the practical number for a ninety-minute booking, and an even round count spreads the rest more evenly than an odd one when two people sit out each time.
- Is 10 players better on two courts or three?
- Two. Three courts need twelve players; with ten you would have a court with only two people on it, which is not a padel match.
After the schedule, the game still has to run
An Americano schedule is the easy half of the game. The hard half is everything that moves: somebody drops out an hour before, two more ask to come, and the score lives on a phone that keeps locking itself.
That is what MyPadel does. You open a game and send one link. Players put themselves on the list and take themselves off it, the pairs rebuild when the number changes, and the standings update on everyone's screen as the scores come in.
The generator above stays free and account-free, always. The live game needs a free organiser account, because a game has to belong to somebody.