How does a Mexicano work in padel?

A Mexicano is a social padel format where you play as an individual, change partner every round and score for yourself, but the draw isn't printed in advance. After the first round, the standings decide who plays with and against whom. FenixPlay's guide gives the recipe in two lines: the first round is a random draw or is set by level, then you "re-sort the standings: players 1-4 go to court 1, 5-8 to court 2, and so on".

Every point you win is added to your personal total, and the player with the highest total at the end wins. Nobody is knocked out, and everyone plays every round, apart from any sit-outs.

Padel Browser calls it Americano's smarter cousin: the same rotating partners and individual scoring, but with the next match set by the current standings. The practical effect is that players with similar totals end up on the same court. The strongest players meet each other, and newer players meet people at their own pace, which is why the format is recommended when the gap in level is wide.

You need at least four players, one court's worth. A group that divides by four fills every court. Other numbers work too, with some players resting each round (see the tips below).

If you haven't met the format's older sibling, the Americano guide explains the fixed-schedule version. Both are social formats, not sanctioned competitions, so whoever organizes the night sets the details and should announce them before the first serve.

After every round, rank all players by total points, then fill the courts from the top. Ranks 1 to 4 go on court 1, ranks 5 to 8 on court 2, and so on. Within each group of four, the usual split is the 1st-ranked player with the 4th against the 2nd with the 3rd. Padel Browser describes it as "the leader with #4, #2 with #3 on court one; #5 with #8, #6 with #7 on court two", and Host A Tourney gives the same pattern.

The reason is balance. Pairing the top two together would make the strongest side on the court far stronger than the other. Putting 1st with 4th and 2nd with 3rd keeps both sides close in combined ranking.

Here is a worked example. After two rounds, with matches first to 17, the table for 8 players is:

Ana and Hana are tied on 34, and Dan and Eli on 29. Here the ties are broken by a coin toss. The draw for round 3 is:

Not every source splits the four the same way. FenixPlay, for example, pairs the 1st with the 3rd against the 2nd and 4th. Either way the principle is to keep each match balanced, so tell your players which split you use.

Two details to settle in advance. First, ties: after round one, partners always have the same score, so the table starts with ties. Decide how to break them, for example by points difference and then a coin toss. Second, repeats: because each round follows the table, the same two players can end up as partners again. Some tools let you plan all rounds ahead and avoid repeat partners, as Flobit does (see below).

Each match is played to a points target, not to games and sets. Every rally scores a point for the pair that wins it, and each player takes their pair's points onto their own total. There are two ways to end a match:

• First to N. The match ends when a pair reaches N points, for example 17. A close game can run to nearly twice N rallies.
• Combined N. The match ends when the two scores add up to N, so every match lasts exactly N rallies and all courts finish together. In Flobit the combined number has to be even, so a level result is possible. A combined 20, for instance, allows 15–5, 12–8 or 10–10.

The other choice is what the leaderboard counts. Flobit offers two ways:

With points scored, a close loss is worth nearly as much as a comfortable win, which is kinder to newer players. With win margin, the result of each match matters more than the volume of points. Neither is better. Pick the one that suits the mood of your night.

FenixPlay's guide counts games rather than rally points, so a 6–4 set adds 6 and 4. Whatever you count, agree it before round one and keep one master sheet or let your tool do the sums.

Run a Mexicano when the players are mixed and you want close games. Run an Americano when levels are similar, or when you want every player to partner everyone else.

Padel Browser puts it as Americano for narrow gaps and Mexicano for wide ones, and says a Mexicano keeps every match competitive even when your group has a wide skill gap. Host A Tourney's view is that by the third or fourth round of a Mexicano, matches get intensely competitive because everyone plays opponents of their own level.

The trade-off is effort. FenixPlay points out that running a Mexicano by hand is complicated: you collect results, update the ranking, avoid unwanted repeats, assign courts and announce the matchups while everyone waits. That is where an app earns its keep. If you don't want to run it in an app, the free Americano generator prints a fixed schedule instead.

If your group is very mixed, also read the padel levels guide, which shows how to compare levels honestly before you balance a night.

Flobit runs Mexicano as a tournament format inside a community. Here is the sequence, using only options the app has.

1. Create the tournament. Choose padel and the Mexicano format from your community. A Mexicano is doubles, but players enter one at a time, because partners change every round. There is no pair or team entry.
2. Choose how people enter. You can approve entries yourself, keep a waitlist, and set a cap, a category and an age range. Players without an account can take part as guests, but only you can add them, and only before the draw is made.
3. Set courts and rounds. Pick the number of courts and rounds, or start from the club-night preset: 3 courts and 12 rounds planned in advance, scores that add up to 20, a leaderboard by winning margin, partners balanced by skill and no repeat partners. Its three courts need at least 12 players. If you leave courts open, Flobit uses as many as the field fills. You need at least four players.
4. Set how a match ends. First to N points or a combined N.
5. Choose the leaderboard. Points scored or win margin.
6. Choose when rounds are drawn. Either each round from the table as you go (rounds appear one at a time, following the standings) or all rounds planned in advance. A planned schedule is fixed: everyone can see every round from the start, and results don't change later rounds, so it is less like the table-driven Mexicano described above. In return you can ask that nobody partners the same player twice, as far as the numbers allow.
7. Choose how partners are picked. Random, or balanced by skill. For balanced, you rate each player from 1 (lightest) to 5 (strongest) before you make the draw, and unrated players count as 3. Only organizers see these ratings. With rounds drawn from the table, balancing shapes round 1 and the table decides after that. With rounds planned in advance, it shapes every round.
8. Run the night. Assign up to 20 referees if you want them, and watch the standings update. If numbers don't divide by four, sit-outs rotate. Before a round starts you can swap two players in it. A swap never adds or removes anyone.

Left alone, the settings are first to 17 points, 5 rounds, random partners, points scored on the leaderboard and rounds drawn from the table. Trophies go out automatically at the end, and you can share the roster as a message formatted for WhatsApp or Telegram.

The tournaments page lists every entry option, and open matches can help you find the players in the first place.

Plan on 5 to 8 rounds, and make sure the numbers fit your courts. FenixPlay says many organizers plan around 5 to 8 short rounds of about 15 to 20 minutes, which is roughly 1¼ to 2⅔ hours of play (5 × 15 up to 8 × 20 minutes). Host A Tourney's timing guide puts a 24-point Mexicano for 16 players on 4 courts at 2 to 2.5 hours. With only two or three rounds the table has little time to sort the players into groups, so plan more than that.

Players and courts. One court seats four, so 8 players need 2 courts, 12 need 3 and 16 need 4. If you have fewer courts than that, the extra players rest each round. Flobit rotates the sit-outs so the rest is shared.

Odd numbers. When players don't divide by four, some people play fewer matches than others. Where you can, choose a number of rounds that gives everyone the same number of sit-outs. If you rank by hand, Host A Tourney suggests using average points per match played, and you should announce it in advance.

Avoid dominance. If one player is far stronger than the rest, a Mexicano will put them on court 1 with the next-best players after a round or two, which is the point. Mention this in the invitation so the group knows the top court will be the toughest.

Keep it moving. Announce the next round straight after the last score is in, and keep changeovers short. A Mexicano is a rolling event, and delays cost more than they do in a fixed schedule because everyone waits for the draw.

For tournaments with fixed pairs rather than rotating partners, see tournament formats.

What is a Mexicano in padel?

How does Mexicano pairing work?

What is the difference between Americano and Mexicano?

How many rounds should a Mexicano have?

How many players do you need for a Mexicano?

What happens if the players don't divide by four?

Can I run a Mexicano in Flobit?

Is a Mexicano good for mixed levels?