Padel Rankings Explained: World and LTA (UK 2026)

The professional game is ranked by the International Padel Federation (FIP), and that ranking underpins Premier Padel seedings. It rewards sustained excellence rather than a single hot week.

Players earn points at every tournament based on how far they advance, and bigger events are worth far more. In 2026 the four Majors award 2,000 points to the winners, P1 events award 1,000, and semi-finalists pick up several hundred depending on the draw. A player's ranking is built from their best 22 results across Premier Padel and FIP Tour events, on a rolling 52-week window - so points earned exactly a year ago drop off. Miss a tournament you won last year and you have to replace those points or your ranking slips. Because padel is a doubles sport, pairs are seeded on the combined points of both players.

For UK players, the LTA runs the British padel rankings through the LTA Padel Tour. The structure mirrors the world system but at national scale.

Your ranking is made up of your best 6 results over the previous 52 weeks. Points are awarded at every LTA Padel Tour tournament, and how many depends on the event's grade and type. The grades run backwards: Grade 6 is the entry level, working up through to Grade 1 (pro standard). The Grade 5 Local Tour is the bedrock of the system - it is designed for players who have just finished padel school and want their first taste of competition. The LTA updates the national ranking list every Friday, so the latest form feeds into that weekend's tournament draws. See our LTA padel pathway guide for how the competitive ladder fits together.

This is the distinction that confuses most newcomers. A ranking is a competitive league table: it orders players by points earned from tournament results over the last year, so it reflects how you have performed in competition. A rating is an estimate of your playing standard or skill level, used to match you with similar players and pitch you into the right tournament grade - the LTA runs a padel rating alongside its rankings for exactly this.

In short: your rating says roughly how good you are; your ranking says how well you have actually done in tournaments. A strong club player can have a healthy rating but no ranking at all simply because they have not entered ranked competition yet.

Getting a British ranking is more accessible than it sounds:

• Enter LTA Padel Tour events - you need to play ranked tournaments to earn points. Start at Grade 6 or the Grade 5 Local Tour, the designed entry points after padel school.
• Play consistently - because only your best 6 results count over 52 weeks, entering several events and banking good runs matters more than chasing one big result.
• Find a regular partner - padel is a doubles game, so a settled partnership helps you build results together.
• Track the calendar - plan your season around the UK tournament calendar so you don't let last year's points expire unreplaced.

From there, strong results move you up grades, and the very best British players appear in our round-up of the top British padel players.