Yes, you can play pickleball on a tennis court, and around Australia it is how most people get a hit outside a club session. A tennis court is already flat, already hard-surfaced, usually fenced and often bookable by the hour. What it is not is a pickleball court. The net is too high, the lines are the wrong size, and the one line that decides how the game feels, the kitchen line, is nowhere near where the tennis markings put it. Here is exactly what changes, what you need to bring, and the 14-foot mistake almost everyone makes on their first go.
Can you play pickleball on a tennis court?
Yes. There is no rule against it and nothing about the surface is wrong: acrylic hard court is what dedicated pickleball courts are built on anyway. The two things you have to bring are a net at the right height and a way to mark out a much smaller court. Everything else the tennis court already does for you, and does better than a driveway.
The only real question is whether the court is yours to mark. On a council court or a hired court, tape comes up afterwards and nobody minds. On a club court, ask first. More on that below.
The numbers: a pickleball court inside a tennis court
These are the figures that matter, and they are further apart than people expect.
| Measurement | Pickleball | Tennis |
|---|---|---|
| Court size | 20 ft x 44 ft (6.10 m x 13.41 m) | 78 ft long (23.77 m); 27 ft singles (8.23 m), 36 ft doubles (10.97 m) |
| Net height at the centre | 34 in (86.4 cm) | 3 ft / 36 in (0.914 m) |
| Net height at the posts | 36 in (91.4 cm) | 3.5 ft / 42 in (1.07 m) |
| Line nearest the net | Non-volley line, 7 ft (2.13 m) | Service line, 21 ft (6.40 m) |
Pickleball figures are USA Pickleball's; tennis figures are the ITF Rules of Tennis. If you want the pickleball side on its own, with a diagram and the kitchen explained, our net height and court dimensions setup guide has it.
One court per tennis court, not four
A tennis doubles playing surface is 36 ft x 78 ft. A pickleball court is 20 ft x 44 ft. Centre one inside the other and you have 8 ft spare on each side and 17 ft spare at each end.
That spare space is the real reason a tennis court is a good place to play. USA Pickleball's recommended total playing area, court plus run-off, is 30 ft x 60 ft, and a tennis court swallows that with room left over. Almost no Australian driveway does. You get to chase a lob without hitting a fence, which changes the game more than the surface does.
What you do not get is two courts. Side by side needs 40 ft across a 36 ft width. End to end needs 88 ft along a 78 ft length. Neither fits. You will read that one tennis court makes four pickleball courts, and that is true of the whole fenced enclosure at a club, re-lined properly by a contractor. It is not true of the lined playing surface you booked for an hour.
The net is the catch, and it is out by two inches
A tennis net sits 36 in high at the centre. A pickleball net sits 34 in. Two inches, 5 cm, and it does not sound like anything.
It is the whole kitchen exchange. A dink is a ball travelling slowly with just enough height to clear the tape and land short. Add 5 cm to the barrier and the margin that makes that shot playable disappears: dinks that should drop in clip the cord, and the only way to keep the ball in is to hit it harder, which is the opposite of what the shot is for. At the posts the gap is worse, 42 in against 36 in, a full 15 cm, so anything down the line dies too.
Bring a net. A regulation portable net is 22 ft (6.7 m) wide and stands on the surface without fixings, so it goes up across the tennis court and packs away after. We stock portable pickleball nets and the two we would take onto a tennis court are:
- OnCourt OffCourt PickleNet Oval Tube, $289. The official net of USA Pickleball, and the one for a net that goes up and down every week: the frame is oval rather than round, so the sections can only seat one way and it cannot twist out of square mid-session.
- JOOLA Elemental, $239.95. Same regulation footprint, interlocking steel legs, knotless netting, under 9.1 kg packed.
The Selkirk SLK Prime Portable at $229 is the cheapest regulation net we carry and it is the one that goes into our sets, though stock on it moves quickly, so check the page. If you want the three compared properly on frame, tension and what fails first, that is our pickleball nets buyer's guide.
The tennis service line is not the kitchen line
This is the mistake, and it is a big one. The advice you will find online is to use the tennis markings you already have and eyeball the rest. It does not work, because the two courts do not share a single useful line.
The tennis service line sits 21 ft from the net. The pickleball non-volley line sits 7 ft from it. That is 14 ft out. Play a game with the service line as your kitchen and you have built a court where nobody can volley anywhere near the net, which deletes the rule that makes pickleball pickleball. If you are fuzzy on why that rule matters, our kitchen rules explainer covers it.
The tennis centre service line is no help either: it runs 21 ft either side of the net, where pickleball's centre line runs from the baseline to the kitchen only. And the tennis singles sideline is 27 ft apart against pickleball's 20 ft, so you are 3.5 ft too wide on each side. Mark your own court. It takes about ten minutes.
How to set a court out on a tennis court
- Stand on the tennis net line and measure 10 ft each way along it. Those two points are your sidelines.
- From each point, measure 22 ft straight back towards the baseline, square to the net. That gives you the four corners of a 20 ft x 44 ft court. Check the diagonals match so it is square.
- Tape the two sidelines and the two baselines.
- Mark the non-volley line 7 ft back from where your net will sit, both sides, right across the width.
- Tape the centre line from each baseline up to the kitchen line only, splitting each end into two service courts.
- Stand the net on the tennis net line, tension the posts to 36 in, then pull the centre strap down to 34 in and re-check the ends. Always set the centre last, because tensioning the middle lifts the posts.
Pack the tape up when you leave. Low-tack court tape or gaffer tape on a hard court comes away clean on the day and gets much harder to remove after a week in the sun.
What to bring, and the one thing we do not sell
Be upfront about this one: we do not stock court line tape, chalk or a line-marking kit. You will need to get that from a hardware shop or a line-marking supplier, and low-tack is what you want on someone else's court. It is the second thing every reader of this page needs and we cannot sell it to you, so there is no point pretending otherwise.
What we can help with:
- Balls. Outdoors on a hard court you want a hard 40-hole ball. Franklin X-40 Outdoor, 12 pack, $47.95, is the one most Australian clubs settle on. The rest of the range is in pickleball balls, and indoor versus outdoor pickleballs explains the difference.
- Paddles. If you are bringing people who have never played, the Six Zero Quartz at $99 is a real carbon paddle at the entry price, and the rest sit in beginner pickleball paddles.
- Everything at once. The Franklin Dagger 2-Player Set at $139.99 comes with two paddles and four X-40 balls, and the rest of the pickleball sets add a net.
One note on delivery: nets are a bulky item, so our free-delivery-over-$150 threshold does not apply to them. Freight is charged to your address and shown at checkout. We hold the net price down for clubs rather than averaging freight into the sticker.
Can you just play over the tennis net?
For a hit-around with mates, sure, and plenty of people do. You will get a rally going and you will have fun. Just know what you are playing: with a 36 in centre net and no kitchen line, soft play at the net is close to impossible, so the game turns into drives from the baseline. That is a decent workout and it is not pickleball.
If you are coming across from tennis and wondering how different the two games really are, we wrote that up in pickleball versus tennis.
Noise is what gets pickleball banned from shared courts
Worth knowing before you book a court behind houses. The complaint is never the running or the shouting, it is the ball: a hard plastic ball on a stiff carbon face is a sharp, repetitive crack that carries further than a tennis thump.
If the court is in a sensitive spot, or you are indoors in a hall, the Pickleball Labs Silent Pickleball ($8 a ball, $19 for a 3-pack) is a foam ball that plays slower and makes almost no noise. It will not replace an X-40 for a real game, but it is the difference between being welcome back and not.
Marking a club's tennis court
Ask the committee, and ask for tape rather than paint. Permanent pickleball lines on a tennis court are a real decision for a club, because a second set of lines in a contrasting colour affects tennis players too, and once they are painted they are there. Most clubs that end up converting start with tape on a trial night, count who turns up, then decide.
If you would rather not run the negotiation, there are courts around the country already lined and open: our list of where to play pickleball in Australia is the place to start. And if you are brand new, read the rules and scoring before you tape anything.
Pickleball on a tennis court: common questions
Can you play pickleball on a tennis court? Yes. Bring a portable net at 34 in centre height and tape out a 20 ft x 44 ft court. The tennis lines are the wrong size and cannot be reused.
How many pickleball courts fit on one tennis court? One, on the lined playing surface, with full run-off around it. Four is the figure for a whole fenced club enclosure re-lined by a contractor.
Can I use the tennis service line as the kitchen line? No. The service line is 21 ft from the net and the non-volley line is 7 ft. You would be 14 ft out.
Is a tennis net too high for pickleball? Yes, by 2 in at the centre and 6 in at the posts. It is fine for a hit-around and it stops soft play at the net working.
What do I need to bring? A regulation portable net, court tape, balls and paddles. We sell three of those four; the tape you will need to source yourself.
Disclosure: Pickld carries the brands featured here (OnCourt OffCourt, JOOLA, Selkirk, Franklin, Six Zero, Pickleball Labs). Specs and prices are pulled from our live product pages and the governing bodies' own rules, not affiliate incentives.
Court measurements from USA Pickleball and the ITF Rules of Tennis, read October 2026.
