Squash tennis

Squash is a racket sport usually played indoors on a four-walled court. The game can be played with two players competing against each other or four players divided into teams of two players each. Competitors alternate striking a small hollow rubber ball off the front wall of the court. Points are scored if a player fails to properly return a shot. Both squash and tennis originated from a game played in medieval France, though squash's lineage can be traced through a variation played in eighteenth-century British prisons. A type of squash called squash tennis was popular in the United States in the early twentieth century, but it is seldom played in the modern era.

In the twenty-first century, millions of people in countries around the world play squash. The Professional Squash Association (PSA) holds several annual tournaments for the sport's best players and televises matches online. Squash is also played at several international competitions but has struggled to gain inclusion in the Olympic Games. Bids to make the sport an Olympic event were denied for the 2016 and 2020 games.

Origins and History

In the twelfth to thirteenth centuries, French monks played a game in which they strung a net over a monastery courtyard and swatted a ball back and forth with gloved hands. They called the game jeu de paume, meaning "palm game." In time, they modified the gloves and eventually began using sticks or shepherd's staffs to hit the ball. In the fifteenth century, the Dutch invented a crude wooden racket that paved the way for an early form of tennis.

This form of the sport, called royal tennis or real tennis, became popular in many European nations. It was played indoors using a leather ball and webbed racket. Over time, royal tennis evolved to become a sport primarily played by the wealthy. By the beginning of the eighteenth century, tennis was most often played in royal palaces. The more familiar, outdoor form of modern tennis did not originate until the nineteenth century, when it was known as lawn tennis.

In the eighteenth century, prisoners in the debtor's wing of London's Fleet Prison played a game called rackets. Prisoners hit a tightly wound cloth ball against the prison walls with an elongated tennis paddle. The game spread to other British prisons and eventually became popular with average citizens. Around 1830, students at London's Harrow School discovered that if they hit a punctured rubber rackets ball off a wall, the ball "squashed" on impact and acted in a less predictable manner. This variation of the game caught on and several "squash rackets" courts had been constructed in the United Kingdom by the late nineteenth century.

In 1883, the principal at a New Hampshire private school attempted to introduce the game to his students as a form of exercise. When the school had trouble obtaining the proper equipment, the students improvised by using balls and rackets suited for lawn tennis. Squash tennis, as the variation became known, grew to become the most popular version of the sport in the United States in the early twentieth century. As the century wore on, however, squash tennis experienced a sharp decline. By the twenty-first century, it was primarily a recreational activity played only in New York City.

With no governing body to oversee the sport, squash developed different rules on either side of the Atlantic Ocean. In the United Kingdom and Europe, squash was played on a 21-foot (6.4-meter) wide court and used a softer, slower rubber ball. North American players used a harder, faster ball on courts that were 18.5 feet (5.6 meters) wide. Both courts were 32 feet (9.8 meters) long.

The first international governing body for the sport formed in 1967 under the name the International Squash Rackets Federation. In 1992, the organization changed its name to the World Squash Federation (WSF). The WSF oversees several world championship events and monitors the rules of the sport. As of 2017, the WSF comprised more than 140 member nations.

Rules and Regulations

The disparity in the game as played in North America and Europe continued until the 1980s, when North American players began adopting more elements from the international game. Squash court dimensions for singles competition were standardized to a length of 32 feet (9.8 meters), a width of 21 feet (6.4 meters), and a height of no less than 18.5 feet (5.6 meters). For doubles matches, the court width was expanded to 25 feet (7.6 meters). Variations were allowed up to about 4 inches in either direction.

Most squash players have also adopted the use of the softer, slower type of ball. Standard squash balls have a diameter of about 1.6 inches (4.1 centimeters). Squash balls are also categorized by the speed at which they bounce. The slowest type of ball is classified as an orange dot ball. The double yellow dot ball is the next slowest, and it is used most often in international competition. The fastest type of ball is known as a blue dot ball. The fastest squash balls can travel at speeds of about 170 miles per hour (274 kilometers per hour). Squash rackets are about 27 inches (69 centimeters) long.

Squash courts consist of four walls. The front wall is divided by three horizontal lines. The upper line, also called the out line, is about 15 feet (4.6 meters) above the floor. The back wall also has an out line about 7 feet (2.1 meters) above the floor. The two lines are connected by sloping out lines on the side walls. A ball hitting above these lines is considered out of play. The service line is slightly below the center of the front wall, about 5.8 feet (1.8 meters) above the floor. The lowest line marks the top of an area known as the tin. The tin is a board slightly protruding from the wall to a height of 19 inches (48 centimeters) above the floor.

The floor of the squash court is also divided by a series of lines. The short line extends horizontally across the court about 15 feet (4.6 meters) from the back wall. The half court line runs from the short line to the back wall and divides the court equally on both sides. Two square service boxes with sides measuring 5.2 feet (1.6 meters) are placed at each side of the court where the short line meets the side walls.

Players are allowed to warm up before play begins. The player chosen to serve first must keep at least one foot in the service box. The serve must hit the front wall between the service line and the out line and land on the floor behind the short line. A serve is illegal if it hits the side walls before striking the front wall. The opposing player must return the ball before it hits the ground or bounces more than once. The ball can bounce off any of the four walls, but must strike the front wall before hitting the floor.

Strategy and Tactics

A player scores a point if the serve or return shot bounces twice before an opponent can reach it. Points are also scored if the opposing player's shot hits the tin or above the out lines. If a player is interfered with, a referee decides if the point should be replayed or awarded to the impacted player. In the United States, games are usually played to eleven points. If the game is tied at ten, it continues until one player wins by two points. Both players can score points on any exchange of shots, also called a rally. In the United Kingdom, games are played to nine points and only the server can score points. Matches are typically played in a best-of-three or best-of-five format.

Successful squash players try to stay near the center of the court and make their opponent move, forcing them into the back corners. The strategy is known as "dominating the T," a reference to the T-shape intersection of the short and half court lines. Shots kept lower to the wall are also considered harder for an opponent to reach.

Professional Leagues and Series

The Professional Squash Association (PSA), based in the United Kingdom, manages the PSA World Tour, a worldwide series of more than two hundred annual tournaments. As of 2017, more than 750 professional squash players were registered with the PSA. The players are ranked by performance, similar to how professional golfers and tennis players are ranked.

On the international level, squash is a competitive sport at the Commonwealth Games, Pan American Games, Asian Games, World Games, and the All Africa Games. Since 2005, the World Squash Federation has been trying to get squash included as a medal sport in the Olympic Games. The WSF is registered with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), but attempts to add the sport were rejected by the IOC for the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and the 2020 games in Tokyo, Japan. As of 2017, the WSF was preparing another request to add squash for the 2024 games in Paris, France.

Popularity

In 2016, squash tournaments were played in forty-seven nations featuring players from more than seventy countries. Squash officials in the United States estimate more than 20 million people worldwide, including 1.6 million Americans, play the sport. The men's singles final from the 2014 Commonwealth Games—a seventy-team competition between the nations of the British Commonwealth—attracted a television audience of more than one million people. Since 2009, the PSA has televised squash matches online in a live and on-demand format called Squash TV.

Bibliography

"About Squash." Squash Revolution, www.squashrevolution.com/about-squash.html. Accessed 16 Oct. 2017.

"Beginner's Guide to Squash." BBC Sport, news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other‗sports/squash/4748522.stm. Accessed 16 Oct. 2017.

"Rules of Squash." US Squash, www.ussquash.com/officiate/online-rules/. Accessed 16 Oct. 2017.

Wallbutton, Ted. "130 Years of Squash." Squash Player Magazine, www.squashplayer.co.uk/history‗of‗squash.htm. Accessed 16 Oct. 2017.

"Welcome to the PSA" Professional Squash Association, psaworldtour.com/squash/psa. Accessed 16 Oct. 2017.

"Why Squash Is Not an Olympic Sport." Economist, 20 Aug. 2016, www.economist.com/blogs/gametheory/2016/08/dead-rubber. Accessed 16 Oct. 2017.

Yarrow, Philip, and Aidan Harrison. Squash: Steps to Success. 2nd ed. Human Kinetics, 2010.

Zug, James. "The Last Squash Tennis Player." Atlantic, Jan. 2002, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2002/01/the-last-squash-tennis-player/302401/. Accessed 16 Oct. 2017.

Zug, James. Squash: A History of the Game. Scribner, 2003.