The server may begin in either of the service boxes ; but when he has started, the service must proceed from the two boxes al ternately till the close of the innings of the side, whether singles or doubles. When the other side obtains the innings they may in like manner begin in either box, without regard to where the last service of their opponents was delivered. In singles, hand-out changes sides in the court after each serve, answering to the change over of the server ; in doubles the serve is taken alternately by the two hand-out players, who permanently occupy the right and left-hand courts respectively, being allowed to change the order in which they receive the service at the end of any game or rubber. Except in the rare case of left-handed players most of the play in the left half of the court, including the taking of service on that side, is back-handed; and the stronger of the two partners in back-hand play usually, therefore, takes the left hand court. The best position in the court for the hand-out about to take the serve depends entirely on the nature of the service, and he has to use his judgment the instant the ball leaves the server's racket in order to determine where it will strike the floor and at what precise point in its course it will be best for him to attempt to take it. A strong fast service, heavily cut, that sends the ball darting round the corner of the court, leaving the back wall at an extremely acute angle, or dropping almost dead off it, can only be got up by standing near the back wall a long way across the court and taking the ball by a wrist stroke at the last instant before it falls to the ground a second time. On the other hand, when the server avoids the side wall altogether and strikes the back wall direct and hard, whether he achieves a "nick" serve (i.e., the ball striking precisely in the angle between the back wall and the floor) or hits the wall high up, hand-out will have little time to spare in changing position to get within reach of the ball. Many good players make a practice wherever possible, especially in the case of heavily cut service, of taking the service on the volley (i.e., before the ball reaches the ground), sometimes of taking the ball after it leaves the side wall and before it reaches the back wall; practice alone enables the player to decide with the necessary promptitude how each stroke is to be played. In returning the service, or in playing any stroke during the rally, the ball may strike any of the other walls before the front wall. This "boasted" stroke is quite legitimate, often most valuable and sometimes indispensable. The tendency, however, in modern rackets is towards using it too frequently. Good play consists for the most part in hard low hitting, especially as close as possible along the side walls into the corners of the back wall. One of the most effective and beautiful but difficult strokes in rackets is the drop which occurs when the ball is hit so that it only just reaches the front wall and drops close to it. The "half-volley," in which the ball is struck at the moment of its contact with the floor and before it has had time to rise, is employed with great effect espe cially in hard play ; it makes the return much quicker than when the ball is allowed to rise to the full length of the bound, and requires corresponding quickness on the part of the adversary.
If hand-out succeeds in returning the serve, the rally proceeds until one side or the other fails to make a good return. A good return means (I) that the ball is struck by the racket before its second bound on the floor, and without its having touched any part of the clothes or person of the striker or his partner; (2) that it is hit against the front wall above the board without first touching the floor or going out of court ; and (3) that it returns off the front wall into play (i.e., to the floor of the court or to an adversary's racket) without going out of court. If hand-in be the one to fail in making a good return, he loses his "hand," and (in singles) hand-out goes in and proceeds to serve; in doubles one of the hand-in partners loses his "hand," and the second part ner goes in and serves till he in turn similarly loses his "hand," except that in the case of the opening service in the game there is (as already mentioned) only one "hand" in any event. If
hand-out fails to make a good return to the serve or to any stroke in the rally, hand-in scores an ace, and the side that first scores 15 aces wins the game. When, however, the score reaches "13-all" (i.e., when each side has scored 13 aces), hand-out may, before the next serve is delivered, declare that he elects to "set" the game either to five or three, whichever he prefers; and simi larly when the score stands at "14-all," hand-out may "set" the game to three. He makes this declaration by calling "set-5 !" or "set-3 !" and it means that five aces, or three aces, as the case may be, shall be required to win the game. It is the player's first duty to give the opponent full room for his stroke, but in the confined space of a racket court it is not always easy and some times, especially in doubles, absolutely impossible not to obstruct him. The rules, therefore, carefully provide for "lets" (an old English word for impediment or hindrance) when in matches a "let" is claimed by any one of the players and allowed by the referee, or the referee and two umpires, as the case may be, the service or rally counts for nothing and the server shall serve again from the same service box.
In ordinary games, the marker makes the decision as to a let. It is the duty of the marker, who occupies a box in the gallery, to "call the game." As soon as the server serves the ball the marker calls "Play!" if the ball strikes the front wall above the service-line; and "Cut!" if it strikes below the service-line; if the ball falls in front of the short-line the marker calls "Short !", if the wrong side of the fault-line he calls "Fault!"; but whether to be "cut," "short," or "fault," the serve counts as a fault in its effect. To every good return, as to every good serve, the marker calls "Play!" If a return is made after the second bound of the ball (called a "double") the marker calls "Double!" or "Not up!"; if the ball is hit into the gallery, or against its posts or cushions, or above the girders or cross-beams of the roof, he calls "Out-of-court!" At the end of every rally he calls the state of the game, always naming first the score of hand-in :—"One-love" (love being the term for zero) meaning that hand-in has scored one ace and hand-out nothing, "Two-love," "Five-all," "Five-ten," "Fourteen-eleven," when one player reaches 14 it is customary for the marker to call "game-ball," e.g., "14-11 game-ball." When one side has scored 15, the marker calls "Game!" He then in similar fashion calls the state of the match—"Two games to one," or whatever it may be—before the beginning of the next game. The server in possession at the end of the game continues to serve in the new game, subject as before to the rule limiting the first innings of the game to a single "hand." The usual num ber of games in matches is five for singles, and seven for doubles. In matches where there are umpires and a referee, there is an appeal to them from the marker's decision except as regards ques tions relating to the service, on which the marker's decision is final. Records.—Attempts have been made to trace rackets, like ten nis, to an ancient origin ; but although it is doubtless true that the striking of a ball with the hand or some primitive form of bat is one of the oldest forms of pastimes, and that rackets has been evolved from such an origin, the game as now known can hardly be said to have existed before the i9th century. The first school which took to rackets was Harrow in the '20S of last century. It was about the middle of the century that closed courts of the modern pattern began to be built, and the founding of Prince's club in 1853 increased the popularity and standing of the game immensely. Here there were a number of courts and the match court was a great favourite—"Old Prince's" came to an end in 1886 and the next year the Queen's club courts were built and were ready for play in 1888—the present Prince's club, Knights bridge, which has a rackets court, was opened in 1889. Nowadays, largely owing to the expense of the game, there is not so much play except at the English public schools as heretofore, and a number of courts have gone out of use in the last few years. Several have been converted into squash rackets courts including one of the two formerly existing at Queen's club, one of those at Prince's club, and the one at Lord's.