Squash is a fast-paced racket sport played by two players, or four in doubles, inside an enclosed four-walled court. Players take turns hitting a small rubber ball against the front wall, trying to make shots their opponent cannot return. The sport is overseen internationally by the World Squash Federation, while the Professional Squash Association runs the main men’s and women’s world tours that feature the sport’s top-ranked players.
Objective
Each player tries to win points by hitting shots that the opponent cannot reach or return within the rules, before the ball bounces twice on the floor. Since both players share the same playing area and must hit the ball onto the front wall after any number of other walls, positioning and movement around the court are as important as the shot itself.
Rules and regulations
- Players alternate hitting the ball, which must reach the front wall directly or after touching the side or back walls first, without bouncing on the floor more than once.
- A shot that lands below the tin, a marked strip at the bottom of the front wall, or above the out line at the top, is a fault.
- Players must also give their opponent fair access to play the ball and a reasonable line to it, and interference is penalised through a let, where the point is replayed, or a stroke awarded against the player at fault.
- The World Squash Federation sets the official rules of singles and doubles squash, which are applied uniformly from club matches to world championships.
Equipment and playing area
- A singles squash court is enclosed on four sides, with standard dimensions of 9.75 metres long and 6.4 metres wide, and a front wall roughly 4.57 metres high.
- Players use a stringed racket, lighter and smaller than a badminton or tennis racket, and a hollow rubber ball whose bounce varies by speed grade, shown by coloured dots, to suit different playing standards and conditions.
- Protective eyewear is compulsory or strongly recommended at most levels given the closeness of play.
Scoring
- Professional and most competitive squash is played using point-a-rally scoring to 11 points, with a two-point margin needed to win a game if the score reaches 10-10.
- Matches are typically the best of five games.
- This scoring format, where either player can win a point regardless of who served, replaced the older system that awarded points only to the server, making matches shorter and more predictable in length.
