Racquetball Doubles Serving Rules

In racquetball, doubles play carries the same essential rules used to govern a singles match. But to account for the two additional players present on each side in a doubles match, there are some key differences between the doubles and singles serving rules of which all players involved in a doubles match should be aware.

  1. At the Start of a Match

    • According to the Official U.S. Racquetball Association, doubles teams must declare their serving order to the official overseeing the match before it starts--orders may only be changed between matches. At the start of the match, only the starting player from the first team serves the first time the team is on offense. After the first team looses a rally, the normal serving order begins, with both players from each team serving once each when their team is on offense. If the first server in the order serves again after a lost rally, the second serve is negated.

    Serves Out of Order

    • Points are negated when they are scored by a server who serves the ball out of the order declared by the team at the beginning of the match. When the second server in a doubles pair serves first, the player's serve is disqualified and the player must serve again to restore the order of the line up.

    Faults in Doubles Play

    • When the nonserving partner in doubles play leaves the double's box during a serve, a "foot fault" is called, which counts as any other standard fault. If the nonserving partner is hit by a serve, a fault is counted--the server is allotted one more serve if no other faults have been accumulated, even in "one serve" match play.