The Yalla, taken apart.
A tour-grade padel ball built to the FIP’s standard. Here is everything that’s in it, and every number it has to hit.
Rubber, air, felt.
- Roll it over. One sealed sphere of felt. Turn it in your hand and the white seam runs all the way round.
- Peel the felt. Two dog-bone panels of wool and nylon, cut to interlock like a baseball cover and glued round the core. AIFA on one, ايفا on the other.
- Open the core. Rockrubber, hollow and pressurised. The wall gives 0.56–0.74 cm under load and springs straight back. The air inside is the bounce.
- Put it back. Rubber, air, felt. That’s the whole ball, and every one answers to the same five numbers.
- Felt panel · wool and nylon
- Seam · where the panels meet
- Second panel · the ايفا side
- Rockrubber wall
- Pressurised air · the bounce
The lab. Drop it yourself.
The FIP’s test is simple and strict. Drop the ball onto a hard floor from 2.54 metres. It must come back up to between 135 and 145 cm. Labs in Le Mans, Rome and Valencia run it on 24 balls picked at random from a box of 72, after keeping them in a controlled room for at least a day.
- Dropped from
- 254 cm
- First rebound
- — cm
- FIP window
- 135–145 cm
A simulation with real gravity. Drag the ball to any height, or press drop. Fresh balls are shown at the centre of the window; “after nine matches” takes off the 4 cm the FIP’s durability test allows a ball to lose.
Drag the ball up, let go
Nine matches in a machine. The FIP also runs an apparatus that simulates nine matches. After it, a ball may lose no more than 4 cm of bounce and 0.4 g of mass, and its deformation may change by no more than 0.08 cm forward and 0.10 cm on return.
Printed on every tube.
The same window the FIP sets for its standard ball. A ball outside any one of them is not a padel ball the federation will accept.
- Mass
- 56–59.4g
- Diameter
- 6.35–6.77cm
- Rebound from 2.54 m
- 135–145cm
- Forward deformation
- 0.56–0.74cm
- Return deformation
- 0.80–1.08cm
- Build
- Rockrubber core · wool and nylon felt · pressurised · yellow
Look after the pressure.
- Not in a hot car. Heat makes a ball play faster and wears its pressure out sooner. Keep tubes in the shade and out of the boot in summer.
- The clock starts at the hiss. A pressurised ball slowly loses pressure once the tube is open. Open a tube when you are about to play.
- Listen to it. When the ball stops sounding crisp off the strings and dies off the glass, change it. Many club players open a new tube every two or three matches. That’s a habit, not a lab figure.
- On the Highveld. Thinner air makes every standard ball fly a little livelier in Gauteng. The Yalla is the FIP’s standard-pressure type, not a high-altitude ball.
Questions.
Is the Yalla FIP approved?
Yes. The AIFA Yalla Ball is on the FIP’s approved-ball list. It was approved on 3 December 2025 and the approval runs to 3 December 2027.
Is it a high-altitude ball?
No. The Yalla is the FIP’s standard-pressure type. FIP rules allow a separate, lower-bounce ball for courts above 1 219 m; AIFA does not make one yet. On the Highveld the air is thinner, so expect every standard ball to play a little livelier.
What’s the difference between a padel ball and a tennis ball?
A padel ball runs at slightly lower pressure and is a touch smaller: 6.35–6.77 cm against tennis’s 6.54–6.86 cm. It stays controllable off the glass.
How many balls are in a tube?
Three. The Yalla Box holds 24 tubes (72 balls); the Mini Box holds 6 tubes (18 balls).
Where is it made?
Designed in the UAE, manufactured in China.
Can I buy a single tube?
Clubs that stock AIFA sell it by the tube. Online we sell the box.