🎾 Squash, explained
Two players share a four-walled court, hitting a small rubber ball to the front wall; every rally scores, games race to 11.
What am I watching?
Squash is the only major racquet sport where both players occupy the same space. They share a four-walled court, taking turns to hit a small rubber ball onto the front wall, and the entire tactical battle is about territory: whoever controls the 'T' — the central intersection of the court's lines — makes the opponent do the running. Watch players fight to hit the ball into the back corners with perfect 'length', because a ball dying in the corner forces the opponent off the T and opens the front of the court for a drop shot.
Scoring is point-a-rally (PAR): every rally is worth a point, games race to 11 (win by 2), and matches are best of five games. The ball barely bounces — pros warm it up before play just to make it lively — so retrieving is brutal and rallies at elite level can stretch past fifty shots, with players covering the court in explosive lunges. Squash regularly tops lists of the most physically demanding sports, and you can see why in any deciding game.
The other thing you must understand to enjoy watching is interference. Because both players share the space, the rules give the striker a fair view of and path to the ball. When bodies collide or a swing is crowded, play stops and the referee decides: 'let' (replay the rally), 'stroke' (point to the obstructed player), or 'no let' (the appeal was unjustified). These decisions, shown on replay at PSA events, generate the sport's biggest controversies. India's stars — Saurav Ghosal, Dipika Pallikal and Joshna Chinappa, with teenagers like Anahat Singh rising — have made Asian Games and Commonwealth Games squash appointment viewing, and the sport makes its Olympic debut at Los Angeles 2028.
How scoring works
Modern squash uses point-a-rally (PAR) scoring: every rally ends in a point for whoever wins it, serving or receiving. You win a rally when your opponent fails to return the ball to the front wall before it bounces twice, hits the ball into the tin (the 'net' of squash — the out-of-bounds strip at the bottom of the front wall), hits it on or above the out lines, or is penalised with a 'stroke' for interference.
A game is won by the first player to 11 points, but with a two-point margin: at 10-10, play continues until one player leads by two (12-10, 13-11 and so on). Matches are best of five games — first to three games wins. The winner of each rally serves the next, and on winning the serve a player chooses which service box to serve from, alternating boxes for as long as they keep winning rallies on serve.
A legal shot must reach the front wall — directly or off any number of side or back walls — above the tin and below the out lines, before bouncing on the floor. The ball may only bounce once on the floor before being struck, but a player may also volley it before it bounces at all. The serve is the one asymmetric moment: struck from a service box, it must hit the front wall between the service line and the out line and rebound to land in the opposite back quarter of the court, unless the receiver volleys it first. There is only one serve — no second serve as in tennis.
- Point-a-rally (PAR) scoring: every rally scores a point regardless of who served.
- Games go to 11 points, win by 2; at 10-10 play continues until a two-point lead.
- Matches are best of five games — first to three.
- Hitting the tin (the strip at the base of the front wall) loses the rally instantly.
- Every shot must reach the front wall above the tin and below the out lines; side and back walls may be used on the way.
- One bounce maximum on the floor before you strike the ball; volleying is allowed.
- One serve only — a fault on serve loses the rally.
- Interference decisions: let = replay, stroke = point to the obstructed player, no let = point against the appealer.
Formats
Singles
Doubles
Team events
Best-of-three exhibition formats
The rules
The court
A singles squash court is an enclosed room 9.75 m long and 6.4 m wide, with all four walls in play. The front wall carries three horizontal markings: the out line at the top (4.57 m high), the service line in the middle (1.78 m), and the tin at the bottom — a strip topped at 48 cm in the traditional game, lowered to 43 cm at professional events to encourage attacking drops. Out lines run down the side walls, sloping from the front-wall height to the back-wall out line (2.13 m). A ball touching any line or the area above it is out — in squash, unlike tennis, lines are out.
The floor's markings matter only for serving: a half-court line and short line divide the back of the court into two back quarters, and each quarter contains a service box.
The tin
The tin is squash's net: any shot striking it, or the board below it, loses the rally immediately. Its lower professional height (43 cm) rewards the attacking straight drop, the shot that defines the modern pro game.
The T
The intersection of the short line and half-court line forms a T shape mid-court. It is the game's prime real estate: from the T a player can reach any corner in one or two steps, so rallies are fought to hold it.
Ball and racket
The squash ball is small, made of rubber, and deliberately low-bounce — it only becomes properly playable when warmed by play, which is why players rally before the match to heat it and why cold courts play 'dead'. Ball speeds are graded by coloured dots: the double yellow dot, the least bouncy, is the standard competition ball, with faster single yellow, red and blue balls for lower levels and casual play. Rackets are lightweight strung frames within regulated dimensions. The combination of a barely-bouncing ball and a shared court is what makes squash so physically punishing: almost nothing bounces up to be hit comfortably.
Serving
The winner of the previous rally serves. The server must have at least one foot inside a service box (not touching its lines) at the moment of striking, and the serve must hit the front wall first, between the service line and the out line, so that its rebound would land in the opposite back quarter of the court — though the receiver may volley it before it bounces. The server chooses which box to serve from first and then alternates boxes while they keep scoring on serve; when the serve changes hands, the new server again chooses their starting box.
There is no second serve. A serve that misses the box requirements, hits the ball out, into the tin, or on or below the service line is a fault and loses the rally outright.
The rally: good returns and losing shots
After the serve, players alternate hitting the ball. A good return reaches the front wall above the tin and below the out lines before touching the floor; it may travel via any combination of side and back walls first. The striker may hit the ball on the volley or after one bounce, never after two. A player loses the rally by hitting the ball down (into the tin), out (on or above the out lines), after the second bounce, into themselves or their clothing, or by hitting it twice. The ball hitting an opponent is handled under the interference rules: broadly, if a return that would have gone directly to the front wall strikes the opponent, the striker wins the rally, while a ball travelling to a side wall first results in a let.
Interference: lets, strokes and no lets
Because both players share the court, squash law entitles the striker to a fair view of the ball, an unobstructed path to it, and the freedom to swing and to hit the ball directly to the front wall. The non-striker must make every effort to clear. When interference occurs, the obstructed player may stop and appeal ('Let, please'), and the referee rules one of three ways: a let (rally replayed) where interference occurred but the outcome was genuinely uncertain; a stroke (point awarded to the obstructed player) where the interference denied a winning position — typically when the striker was prevented from hitting directly to the front wall or the opponent failed to clear after their shot; or no let (point to the other player) where there was no real interference, the appealer could not have retrieved the ball, or they created the contact themselves.
These three words — let, stroke, no let — are the most debated calls in squash, and professional broadcasts replay them constantly. Deliberately blocking or excessive physical contact can be penalised directly under the conduct rules.
Turning and further attempts
Special cases protect safety: a player who 'turns' (lets the ball pass around them in the back corner and follows it) or makes a second attempt after a fake swing must hold play rather than risk hitting the opponent — the referee then typically awards a let or stroke depending on the positions.
Scoring, games and the match
All professional squash uses PAR-11: rally scoring to 11 points, win by 2 (no cap — 10-10 continues until a two-point lead), best of five games. The rally winner serves next. Older 'hand-in, hand-out' scoring to 9 — where only the server could score — survives only in informal club play. Between games players get a short interval; play within games is continuous, and time-wasting is a conduct offence.
Officials, reviews and conduct
A referee (at PSA events, a three-official team of central referee plus two side officials) controls the match, decides all appeals, and applies the conduct code. Players may dispute decisions only through the formal review process where video review is available — a player can ask for a video referee to re-examine a let/stroke/no-let decision. The conduct ladder for offences such as time-wasting, dissent, dangerous swings or deliberate physical contact runs: conduct warning, conduct stroke, conduct game, conduct match.
Governance, the pro tour and the road to the Olympics
World Squash Federation (WSF) writes the rules; the Professional Squash Association (PSA) runs the men's and women's World Tour, headlined by the PSA World Championships and platinum-level events such as the British Open — the sport's oldest major. The PSA squash season culminates in the World Tour Finals. Squash finally won Olympic inclusion and debuts at Los Angeles 2028, a landmark for the sport after decades of campaigning.
India is an established squash nation: Saurav Ghosal has been a fixture in the world's elite and won a historic Commonwealth Games singles medal in 2022; Dipika Pallikal and Joshna Chinappa won CWG doubles gold in 2014; and India took men's team gold at the Asian Games in 2014, with teenage star Anahat Singh leading the next generation.
Glossary — 32 terms
Stats decoded
| Stat | Unit | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Average rally length | shots | Mean shots per rally in a match. Elite squash rallies are the longest in racquet sport — attritional matches average well into double figures — and a rising rally average usually signals a physical war of attrition rather than clean shot-making. |
| Winners | count | Rallies ended by an unretrievable shot — nicks, dying drops, kills. The cleanest measure of attacking quality on a court where outright winners are hard-earned. |
| Errors (tin/out) | count | Rallies lost to the tin or the out lines. Squash punishes impatience: the winners-to-errors balance is the standard broadcast summary of whether a player's attacking risk is paying off. |
| Strokes won | count | Points gained via referee stroke decisions. A high count can reflect superior positional play forcing the opponent to block — or a match descending into traffic and refereeing. |
| Lets | count | Number of rallies replayed for interference. A high let count marks a scrappy, congested match; broadcasters track it as a cleanliness-of-contest indicator. |
| T dominance | % of rally time | Share of rally time a player spends controlling the central T area, from court tracking. The positional bottom line: the player who owns the T usually owns the match. |
| Distance covered | metres | Total running distance in a match from tracking data. Covering less distance than your opponent while winning means you made them do the running — the tactical ideal. |
| Average rally duration | seconds | Mean elapsed time per rally. Combined with rally count it captures match brutality; long-duration matches at elite level are among the most physically taxing contests in sport. |
| Points won | % | Share of all rallies won across the match. Strips out the game-score narrative to show true dominance — a 3-1 match can hide a near 50-50 points split. |
| Game balls converted | % | Percentage of game-ball opportunities converted into games. With PAR-11's win-by-2 rule, weak conversion turns 10-8 leads into 10-12 defeats — the sport's clutch statistic. |
| Volley interception rate | % | Proportion of the opponent's drives taken on the volley rather than allowed to reach the back. High volley rates show a player holding the T and stealing time — the hallmark of front-foot squash. |
| PSA world ranking | rank | Position on the PSA rolling world rankings, computed from a player's best tour results over the ranking window. Drives seedings and qualification for the World Championships and Tour Finals. |
Quick answers
How does scoring work in squash?
Professional squash uses point-a-rally (PAR) scoring: every rally is worth one point to whoever wins it, regardless of who served. Games go to 11 points with a two-point margin — at 10-10 play continues until someone leads by two. Matches are best of five games. The rally winner serves next, alternating service boxes while they keep winning on serve. The older system where only the server could score, played to 9, survives only in casual club squash.
What is the difference between a let and a stroke in squash?
Both arise from interference, because the two players share the court. A let means the rally is replayed: there was interference, but the outcome was genuinely uncertain. A stroke means the obstructed player is awarded the point outright: the interference denied them a clear winning position — classically, the opponent blocked a ball that could have been hit straight to the front wall, or stood in the swing after failing to clear. The third ruling, 'no let', goes against the appealing player: there was no real interference, or they were never reaching the ball anyway.
What is the tin in squash?
The tin is the strip across the bottom of the front wall — squash's equivalent of the net. Any shot that hits the tin, or the board at its base, loses the rally immediately. It stands 48 cm high in the traditional game and is lowered to 43 cm at professional events, a change made deliberately to reward attacking drop shots and produce more winners in the pro game.
Why do squash players warm the ball up before a match?
The competition ball — the double yellow dot — is engineered to have very little bounce when cold. It only reaches proper playing bounce at the temperature generated by repeated hitting, which is why the pre-match knock-up doubles as a ball-warming ritual and why the ball may be re-warmed after long breaks. A cold ball simply dies on the floor, making rallies impossible; the low bounce of even a warm ball is what makes squash so physically demanding.
Is squash in the Olympics?
Yes — finally. After decades of failed bids, squash was added to the Olympic programme and makes its debut at the Los Angeles 2028 Games. Until then, its biggest stages are the PSA World Championships, platinum tour events like the British Open, and multi-sport games: squash has long been a medal sport at the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, where India has won golds.
How do you serve in squash, and is there a second serve?
There is only one serve — no second chance. The server must have at least one foot inside a service box at the strike, and the ball must hit the front wall first, between the service line and the top out line, so that it would rebound into the opposite back quarter of the court (the receiver may volley it earlier). Any failure — foot fault, serve below the service line, into the tin, out, or missing the back quarter — loses the rally outright. The rally winner serves next and alternates boxes while scoring on serve.
Why is squash considered one of the toughest sports for fitness?
Three design features stack up: the ball barely bounces, so almost every shot must be chased down with lunges; the court is small and shared, so there is no down-time between shots as both players fight for the central T; and PAR scoring means every rally counts, with elite rallies regularly exceeding 30-50 shots. The result is repeated maximal sprint-lunge-recover cycles for up to an hour or more, which is why squash routinely tops 'healthiest/hardest sport' rankings and why 'ghosting' movement training is a cornerstone of preparation.
Who are India's best squash players?
Saurav Ghosal is India's most decorated player — a long-time world-elite fixture who won a historic Commonwealth Games singles bronze in 2022 and multiple Asian Games medals. Dipika Pallikal Karthik and Joshna Chinappa broke through for India's women, winning Commonwealth Games doubles gold in 2014, and Pallikal added world doubles titles. The next generation is led by Anahat Singh, a teenage prodigy already winning senior international titles, alongside players like Abhay Singh — whose deciding-match heroics won India the 2023 Asian Games men's team gold.
Can the ball hit the side or back walls in squash?
Yes — all four walls are in play, which is the sport's defining feature. A legal return simply has to reach the front wall above the tin and below the out lines before bouncing on the floor; it can travel off any combination of side and back walls on the way. That is what makes shots like the boast (side wall first) and the desperate back-wall boast possible. The only walls-related limits are the boundary out lines running around the court: touching or crossing them means the ball is out — in squash, lines are out, not in.