How does padel Mexicano work? A worked example

How do you run a Mexicano, step by step?

1. Count players and courts. Four per court; anyone left over sits out in turn.
2. Pick points and scoring. 24 points with a fixed total is the default, about 15 minutes a round.
3. Decide how the night ends. Open rounds or a set number, with or without a final.
4. Brief the players. Court 1 is the leaders' court, faces will repeat, every point counts.
5. Play round one. The draw is random.
6. Let the table re-pair. When the last score is in, tap Start round and the next round is drawn from the standings.
7. Finish. The most total points wins.

How does padel Mexicano work, in one rule?

After every round the table is sorted and split across the courts in blocks of four, and on each court the leader plays with the fourth-placed player against second and third. That is the whole trick: the strongest of the four carries the weakest, the two in the middle carry each other, and the match should be tight. Pairing 1 / 2 against 3 / 4 would do the opposite.

The table sorts on total points, then point difference, then wins, then name. Sitters are picked first, by who has rested least, and the courts are then filled from the top, so leading the table does not excuse you from a rest. By hand, the loop is: enter every score, sort the table, fill the courts in fours and pair each court 1 / 4 against 2 / 3. PadelLoop does all but the first step.

A worked example: eight players, six rounds

Eight players, two courts, 24 points with a fixed total, no final round, and Rounds set to 6, so the screens show Round 1 of 6, Round 2 of 6 and so on. The scores are made up; every pairing and table is what PadelLoop's engine produced from them.

Round 1: drawn at random

The draw put Hugo / Ben against Carla / Ana on court 1 and Grace / Finn against Eva / Dan on court 2. Carla and Ana won 20–4, Grace and Finn 16–8, and every player banks their side's score:

Partners are level, so the name decides the order.

Round 2: seeded on very little evidence

Court 1 gets the top four, paired 1 / 4 against 2 / 3: Ana / Grace against Carla / Finn. Court 2 gets Dan / Hugo against Eva / Ben. In this group Carla and Finn are the two strongest players, and now they share a side, because one result says more about whom you drew than how good you are. They won 16–8, and Eva and Ben won 17–7: margins of 8 and 10, barely better than round one. The order is now Carla 36, Finn 32, Ana 28, Eva 25, Grace 24, Ben 21, Dan 15, Hugo 11.

Round 3: the matches close up

Court 1 is Carla / Eva against Finn / Ana, court 2 Grace / Hugo against Ben / Dan. Finn and Ana won 14–10, Ben and Dan 13–11. Margins of 4 and 2: this is where a Mexicano starts to feel like one.

Finn's extra win puts him above Carla. Eva and Grace are level on everything, so the name decides, and here it decides something real: Eva gets the last place on court 1, Grace goes to court 2.

Rounds 4 to 6: who moves, and why

Points travel between courts. Grace won on court 2 in round four while Eva lost on court 1, so they swapped, and in round six Ben climbed the same way. A point on court 2 is worth as much as one on court 1.

The same match can come straight back. Court 2 in round four repeated round three, because places five to eight had not moved.

A draw counts for nobody. The 12–12 gave all four 12 points and no win.

The final table

After round six, Finish tournament was the main button, with Play one more round beside it. The organiser finished:

Ana takes second over Carla on wins, Eva fifth over Grace on the name, and Dan finishes seventh with three wins, because points decide. The average margin: 10.5 points in rounds one and two, 2.5 in rounds three to six.

How many rounds should a Mexicano have, and how long does it take?

There is no fixed number, since each round is drawn from the table as it stands. The table needs about three rounds: round one is a lottery and round two is seeded on one result, so the close matches start in round three. For eight players, five to seven rounds is the sweet spot, long enough to settle and short enough that the same four do not meet all night.

The booking decides the rest. A round takes about half a minute per point plus 3 minutes to change over, the model the padel planner uses:

Courts are not in the table: they decide how many play at once, not how long the night runs. A two-hour booking fits eight 24-point rounds on paper, so plan seven. A 12-minute round clock gives rounds of about 15 minutes. The rows are PadelLoop's choices: set Rounds to 5, 6, 7, 8 or 10, or leave it on Open.

How do you end a Mexicano night?

An Americano ends itself, because the whole rotation is drawn at the start. A Mexicano is drawn round by round, so decide the ending before the first serve, and tell the players.

Open, the default. Play as long as the booking allows. Finish tournament stands next to the button for the next round at every round end, and in the ⋯ menu, where it also works mid-round. Prefer a round end: mid-round, only matches with a score count, so a court that finished early banks an extra match.

A set number of rounds. With Rounds on 5, 6, 7, 8 or 10, the phone and the big screen show Round 3 of 6, and after the last planned round Finish tournament becomes the main button, with Play one more round beside it. Mixicano and Team Mexicano have the same setting.

A final round. Pick a pattern under Final round, and Play the final appears at each round end, and as the main button after the last planned round. The top four go to court 1, the next four to court 2, the points count like any round, and a played final ends the night. With a set number of rounds the final comes on top of them, so count it in the time. Had the organiser played the final after round five instead of round six:

The last row is the ordinary round six: in a Mexicano, 1 / 4 against 2 / 3 is what every round already does, so pick 1 / 2 against 3 / 4 if you want the final to feel different. With sit-outs, the final rests the lowest-placed players, not whoever has rested least.

The winner tops the table on total points, the share link keeps the final table on everyone's phone, and the table exports to CSV. Finished by mistake? Keep playing reopens the night.

How does scoring work, and how are ties broken?

As in an Americano: no games and sets, and both players on a side bank that side's score. PadelLoop offers a fixed total, the default, where the scores add up to the target (15–9, or 12–12 as a draw), win by two (24–22 or 26–24), and free scoring for rounds on a clock. The fixed total fits a Mexicano best, because every match hands out the same points.

Ties go to point difference, then wins, then name, which is arbitrary but keeps the table stable. With a fixed total and equal matches, difference adds nothing: difference = 2 × points − matches × target, so Finn's 83 points over six matches give 166 − 144 = +22. A tie on points falls straight through to wins, as Ana and Carla's did. Difference only matters with uneven sit-outs, win by two or free scoring.

So a Mexicano is decided on total points, not matches won. Say so at the briefing: it is why the last points of a lost match are worth fighting for.

What happens with odd numbers and sit-outs?

When the count is not a multiple of four, the surplus sits out each round. Whoever has sat out fewest times goes next, and among those, whoever sat out longest ago. An extra court does not help: 10 players fill two courts, and a third stays empty.

With 10 players on two courts, two sit out each round, so after five rounds everyone has rested once. In a PadelLoop draw, round six started again with the two who sat out first, leaving them a match behind on points. Pick a round count that comes out even:

With 9 players, leave Rounds on Open and finish after round nine, about 1 hour 40 at 16 points, or compare points per match using the Played column. Do not ignore it. Somebody will have counted.

Mexicano or Americano: which should you pick?

Pick a Mexicano when the level varies and close matches matter more than mixing, and an Americano when everyone should play with everyone; how to run an Americano covers that format step by step. A Mexicano's weakness mirrors its strength: once the table settles, the same players keep meeting, and with eight players that happens fast. The side-by-side comparison adds Mixicano, and Team Mexicano applies the same re-seeding to fixed pairs.

What if someone arrives late or leaves?

Start when everyone is there: the player list is fixed once the night runs, and Edit setup wipes the results so far. If a substitute steps in, tap the leaving player's name in the table and type the new one. The substitute takes over the points, so agree whether they can win.

What are the most common mistakes?

1. Too few rounds. Three rounds is mostly the draw.
2. Not explaining court 1. Unexplained, a court number feels like a verdict; explained, moving up is the reward.
3. Uneven rests. Ten players need 5 or 10 rounds, not 6.
4. Finishing mid-round. The courts that are done bank an extra match.
5. Late scores. The next round waits for the last court, so enter each score as the match ends.

Where to go from here

Decide the ending before the first serve, keep eight players to five to seven rounds, even out the rests, and let the table do the pairing. Run a Mexicano in PadelLoop with no sign-up, or see padel Mexicano for the rules on one page.