Most padel players develop a side preference — left court or right court — the same way most people develop a stronger hand. In a standard Americano, that preference is ignored: pairings are randomized without any regard for which side each player actually prefers, which means some players spend the entire night stuck on their weaker side, and it’s rarely mentioned out loud even though it noticeably affects how much fun (and how competitive) the match feels for them.
Mixed Left-Right Americano is a format built specifically to fix that. It has nothing to do with gender — it’s purely about court side.
How it’s different from a standard Americano
The setup starts with two lists instead of one: players who prefer the left side, and players who prefer the right side. From there, every match generated pairs a left-side player with a right-side player, so each team is always one of each — nobody ends up paired with another player who wants the same side, and nobody’s forced to play their weaker side just because the draw happened to land that way.
This is mostly relevant for more advanced players, since side preference tends to become a stronger, more deliberate thing the more someone plays — beginners are often flexible about either side, while regulars frequently have a clear, settled preference and have usually mentioned it more than once.
Why it’s worth setting up this way
If you’ve ever run a tournament and had a player mention afterward that they “played right the whole night and it’s not really my side,” this is the format that solves that specific complaint. It also tends to produce closer, more comfortable matches overall, since nobody is playing significantly outside their preferred side for the whole event.
It’s particularly worth using for:
- Club tournaments where regulars have a well-known, strong side preference
- Groups made up mostly of more advanced or experienced players, where side preference tends to be more pronounced
- Any tournament where you’ve had the “I was stuck on my weak side all night” complaint before
Setting one up
The setup is the same as any Americano, with one extra step: when players sign up, tag each one as a left-side or right-side player based on their preference. From there, the draw generation needs to guarantee every match pairs one from each list — which is where doing this manually stops being practical past a handful of players, since you’re tracking two separate rotating lists at once instead of one.
PadelLife.Style includes Mixed Left-Right Americano as one of its supported formats, handling the left/right pairing logic automatically, with the same self-registration link, automatic court assignment, and live results sharing as its other formats. If your group has regulars with a strong side preference, this is the format built for exactly that.