RACKETS or RACQUETS, a game played in an enclosed court with a ball and an implement with which the ball is struck called a racket. This is about 21ft. long and the head is tightly strung with cat-gut. No standard dimensions are laid down.
In the earliest days of the game, the head of the racket was inclined like a tennis racket. Later it was pear-shaped. In modern days it is nearly circular and some 7 or 8in. in diameter. The average weight of a racket is about 9 oz. and it is made of ash. Experiments have been made with metal frames but with no practical success. The balls are one inch in diameter and weigh one ounce. They are made of strips of cloth tightly wound over each other and then bound with twine, with a sewn covering of smooth white leather. In England the floor of courts is black or red in colour and the walls black.
In India and some other places in the East, where the floor and walls of the court are painted white, black balls are used. There has been no standard size laid down for a racket court but the great majority of courts are about 6oft. long by Soft. broad. Both the single and the double or four-handed game are played in courts of this size nowadays. Formerly there were several courts as large as 8oft. by 4oft. built specially for the double game, but one or two of these alone now remain. Modern racket courts have four walls and a roof, but in India some courts are left unroofed for the sake of coolness.
The floor, which must be perfectly level and smooth, is made of cement. The floor cannot be too hard, since the faster the ball travels, the better the game; similarly the walls, which should be built of masonry faced with cement and most carefully smoothed, cannot be too hard and fast. The front and side walls are about 3oft. high, the back wall being about half that height, with a gallery for spectators (containing the marker's box) above it. The court is entered by a door in the centre of the back wall, which, when shut, must be perfectly flush with that wall, and without any pro jecting handle. The court is lighted from the roof. The diagram shows the divisions and the markings of the court. On the front wall is fixed a wooden board, the upper edge of which, 27in. from the floor, constitutes the "play-line," and which usu ally fills the whole space from that height to the floor ; and at a height from the floor of 9f t. is a second line, called the "cut-line" or "service-line," usually painted red or green. At a distance of 35ft. min. (in a court 6oft. by 3oft.) from the front wall and parallel to it, a line is painted on the floor, from wall to wall, called the "short-line"; and from the centre of the short-line to the centre of the back wall is the "fault-line," dividing into two equal rectangles the space between the back wall and the shortline. These lines again are usually red or green in colour.
The rectangles are the service-courts and are called the right hand and left-hand court respectively. Against the side walls outside these courts, but so that one side in each case is formed by the short-line, are squares called the service-boxes.
can only be scored by the "hand-in" (the player, or side, having the service), and the "hand-out" must therefore win a stroke or strokes to obtain service before he or they can score an ace; in "doubles" each of the partners serves in turn, and both must therefore be ousted before "hand-out" obtains the service ; but to this rule the first hand of each game affords an exception (see below). The right to serve first is determined by the spin of a racket and the service must be made in the following manner. The server, standing with one foot at least inside one of the ser vice-boxes, must toss the ball from his hand, and while it is in the air he must hit it with his racket so that it strikes the front wall above the service-line and falls to the floor within the service court on the opposite side ; after striking the front wall the ball may, but need not, strike the side wall or back wall, or both, and it may do so either before or after touching the floor. The serve is a "fault" if the ball (I) strikes the front wall above the board but on or below the service-line, in which case it is called a "cut"; or (2) touches the floor on the first bound, outside the proper service-court, when it is called "short" or "fault" accord ing to the position of its pitch (see below). If the "hand-out" player to whom the fault is served "takes" it (i.e., if he plays at it), the fault is condoned and the play proceeds as if the serve had been good. If, however, the fault be not taken, the server must serve again from the same box; and if he serves a second fault he loses his "hand" or innings, and his partner or his op ponent, as the case may be, takes his place. Two consecutive faults have thus the same result as the loss of a stroke in the rally by the "hand-in." A serve which makes the ball strike the board, or the floor before reaching the front wall, or which sends it "out of-court" (i.e., into the gallery or roof of the court), counts the same as two consecutive faults; it costs the server his innings. Skill in service is a most important part of proficiency in rackets; a player can seldom become first-rate unless he possesses a "strong service." A great deal of "cut" may be imparted to the ball by the stroke of the racket, which makes the ball in its rebound from the wall behave like a billiard ball carrying "side" when striking a cushion ; and when this "cut" is combined with great pace in the bound of the ball off the side wall, the back wall, and the floor, at varying angles which the server has to a great degree under his control, it becomes exceedingly difficult for hand-out to "get up" the service (i.e., to hit it on the first bound, sending it above the play-line on the back wall), and still more so to make a good stroke which will render it difficult for his adversary in his turn to get up the ball and thus continue the rally. Racket courts vary very much in pace and conditions and in some ser vice is very much easier of return than in others, but it not infre quently happens that a long sequence of aces, sometimes the whole 15 aces of a game, are scored consecutively by service which hand out is unable to return. A noteworthy instance of successful ser vice occurred in the semi-final tie of the doubles Amateur Cham pionship matches at the Queen's Club in 1897 when W. L. Foster opened service and scored all the aces in the first two games, and added six in the third, thus putting on a sequence of 36 aces before losing his "hand." To obtain first service is therefore an initial advantage, although in doubles it is limited by the rule that only one partner shall have a "hand" in the opening service.