Rules of Racquetball

There are three basic types of racquetball games: singles games, doubles and cut-throat games (one player against two), all of which are played inside the enclosed court. There are basic rules that apply to the game and they have as much to do with player safety as they do with determining a winner.

  1. The Serve

    • The server must stand in the service box where he must hit the ball on the bounce off the front wall, where it must rebound past the service line to begin play. The ball may hit the side wall, the ceiling or back wall before it hits the floor. It cannot hit more than one wall. A player gets two opportunities to hit a legal serve. If he does not, his opponent takes over the serve. A player can also lose the opportunity to serve if he hits himself with the serve. This can happen when the ball rebounds off the front wall. The player also loses the serve when he cannot win the point.

    Return of Serve

    • The player returning serve should stand in the middle of the court to give herself the best chance of getting to the ball. She must hit the ball off the front wall in order to keep the ball in play, and must hit the ball before it bounces twice on the floor. She can hit it off the back wall, the ceiling or the side walls as long as it eventually gets to the front wall without hitting the floor again.

    Hinders

    • Since the game is played in an enclosed court, there are significant opportunities for the game to be hindered. In these cases, play is stopped and the point is replayed. One of the hindrances can be the ball bouncing off of a vent in a far upper corner that results in an awkward bounce. Other hindrances include when a player believes he will strike his opponent with the racket by completing his stroke or accidental contact between the two players that prevents an individual from chasing down a shot. Players must call hinders rather than take the risk of injuring their opponent with a shot from the racket.

    Scoring

    • Points are scored only by the serving player. If he hits a serve or shot that his opponent does not return, he gets a point. If his opponent wins the point, it earns him the opportunity to serve and is called a sideout.The first player to 15 points wins the game. In most tournaments, matches are best-of-five, so the player who wins three games first wins the match. Players should always announce the score before every serve. That eliminates the possibility for a misunderstanding on who is leading and by how much.