Winning pairs in professional padel hit more outright winners per set than losing pairs — not occasionally, but consistently across five seasons of World Padel Tour data — and building your own ability to manufacture those shots is one of the highest-leverage changes you can make to your game.
A winner in padel is a shot that ends the point outright: the ball lands where your opponents simply cannot reach it. In a sport where the glass back walls and side screens — the cristales — keep almost every ball in play, clean winners are genuinely hard to come by. That scarcity is precisely what makes them so valuable. Research tracking five full World Padel Tour seasons found that winning pairs generated meaningfully more winners per set than losing pairs — a gap consistent enough to be a real performance signal, not a fluke.
The pattern holds across gender too, though with an interesting nuance. Men's professional matches tend to feature more winners overall than women's — a gap researchers tracked consistently from 2018 to 2022, with localised exceptions in certain seasons and in specific set contexts. Women's professional padel is not less attacking; it tends to involve a longer point-construction phase and a different risk-reward calculation before committing to the winner attempt. That's worth sitting with as a coaching insight: the number of winners in a set is partly shaped by the competitive context and partly by which pair is ahead.
What does this mean for you on court? Two things. First, winners at the professional level are not lucky strikes — they are the endpoint of a constructed sequence. The pair that controls the net, forces opponents into defensive positions, and then exploits the gap is the pair that generates winners. You won't hit more of them simply by swinging harder; you'll hit them by being in the right court position and reading the geometry before the ball arrives. Second, if you're in a losing set, the research suggests your team is likely hitting fewer winners than your opponents — which means the question to ask yourself mid-match isn't only "how do I stop making errors?" but also "where is my pair's next winner coming from?"
The exceptions in the data deserve an honest mention. The gender gap in winners disappeared for losing pairs in the third set, and across both genders during 2020 and 2021. Third sets are physically and mentally different — fatigue and pressure shift what's possible — and the disrupted competitive calendar of those two years probably explains the seasonal blip. These are localised exceptions to an otherwise consistent finding, not evidence that winners are random. They're worth knowing because they tell you that match state and fatigue matter: your winner opportunities shift as a set progresses.
One important caveat up front: this research tells you what professional players do, not definitively why more winners cause wins. There's more on that below.
On court: try this
1. The glass-setup winner from the back
You're both at the back, opponents at the net. Your partner plays a deep defensive lob — a high ball that lands near the back glass (cristal). The opponents are forced to retreat or let the ball bounce into the glass. Now you have a half-second window: as the ball comes off the glass at a lower trajectory, step in and drive a cross-court winner aimed at the gap between the net player and the sideline screen. The glass created the time; the cross-court angle creates the winner. This is the geometry of padel — the walls aren't obstacles, they're weapons.
2. The flat volley through the middle at the net
Your pair has moved to the net after a good attacking lob that pushed opponents back. They return a slower, higher ball — a floater. Don't just block it back: read the gap between the two defenders and punch a flat, low volley through the middle. The centre gap in padel is almost always wider than it looks, and a winner through the middle is harder to anticipate than one aimed at the line. Aim low, aim direct, keep the swing compact.
Coach's tip: The middle volley winner works best when your pair is positioned side-by-side at the net — not staggered. If one of you is a metre behind the other, the middle gap closes on your side, not theirs.
3. The bandeja as a winner setup
When you're at the net and a lob goes over your head, the bandeja — a flat, slightly cut overhead that lets you stay near the net rather than scrambling back — is your reset shot. Hit it deep to the side screen. Your opponents are now defending from the back again; your pair holds the net. On the next short ball, one of you attacks the open court with a winner attempt. The bandeja itself is not the winner; it's the shot that creates the next winner. Learning to use it as a setup tool, not just a survival move, is what separates net-dominant pairs from pairs who get pushed back on every overhead.
Drills to practise
Winner count— match tracking drill. In your next practice match, have someone on the sideline count only winners (shots that end the point outright, no error counted). Track per set. Knowing the number makes you conscious of when you're building toward a winner versus just keeping the ball in play. Over time, watch the count in your winning sets pull ahead of your losing sets — that feedback loop is the drill.
Glass feederdrill (with a partner). Partner feeds a slow lob into the back corner glass. You let it bounce off the glass and practise hitting a controlled, low cross-court drive into the target zone near the opposite sideline. Focus: contact point just after the ball drops from its peak, racket face slightly closed. You're improving when you can put 7 out of 10 into the target zone without errors, consistently, not just when the feed is perfect.
Net pressure, 3-shot limit(2v2). One pair starts at the net, one pair at the back. The net pair must attempt a winner within their first three volleys after the rally starts. If no winner in three touches, the point resets. This forces you to read the geometry and commit to a decision rather than endlessly recycling balls. Rotate after 10 points. You'll quickly discover which net positions give you winner options and which leave you with nowhere to go.
Bandeja to attacksequence drill. Player A feeds a lob over Player B's head at the net. B plays abandejadeep to the corner. A feeds a shorter ball immediately. B attacks the open court. Repeat 10 times on each side. You're improving when thebandejaconsistently lands deep — past the service line — and your following attack is controlled and deliberate rather than rushed and wild.
Common mistakes
- Going for the winner too early. Attempting a winner from a neutral or defensive position — when your opponents are at the net and you're behind the service line — is a low-percentage gamble. Winners come at the end of the construction sequence, not the start. Build the situation first.
- Aiming too close to the line. Trying to paint the sideline dramatically reduces your margin for error. Aim 40–50 cm inside: the opponent still can't reach it, and you'll make it far more often. Width beats precision at most levels.
- Treating the glass as a hazard rather than a tool. Many club players focus on surviving the back glass rather than exploiting it. A ball placed deliberately into the side screen from a short-angle drive creates awkward bounces opponents can't read — that's a winner opportunity you're leaving on the court.
- Both players attacking simultaneously. When one of you goes for a winner, your partner should be balanced and positioned — not also lunging at a ball. Uncoordinated aggression leaves your court wide open on the reply and turns a near-winner into a clear losing point.
Take it to your next match
Pick one moment per set when your pair controls the net and consciously look for the middle-gap volley winner. Don't force it on every ball — just stay alert to when the geometry is there and commit fully when it is. And after the match, ask yourself: how many winners did we hit? If you can't answer, start counting next time. The pairs at the top of the game are generating them deliberately — and awareness of your own number is the first step toward doing the same.