Squash vs Racquetball
Squash and Racquetball are two popular games that are played indoors inside closed rooms. Both are played with racquets and small balls with spectators around the closed rooms watching the sport. In fact, there are so many similarities between squash and racquetball that many wonder if they should be treated as different sports. However, despite overlapping and similarities, there are some differences between squash and racquetball that will be highlighted in this article.
Racquetball
Racquetball is a popular racquet sport that is played indoors inside an enclosed room with a ball that is hollow and made of rubber. The room is called the court and there is no net over which players try to hit the ball with their racquets as is the case with other racquet sports such as badminton and tennis. All surfaces are legal hitting areas in racquetball except for specially designated no playing areas. The court is rectangular in shape and is 40 feet long and 20 feet wide. The height of the wall is 20 feet. There is a service line that is 15 feet away from the wall, and the serving player has to stand behind this line to serve. The ball must hit the floor and then hit the front wall. The returning ball is kept in play by the opponent who hits with his racquet, to hit the ball on the wall. A player loses a point if the ball hits the floor twice before he hits it. There are some more ways of scoring in this game. There are two games of 15 points to decide the winner and a third game of 11 points if the score is in level after two games.
Squash
Squash is a racquet game played inside a four walled room with players hitting a soft rubber ball on a wall without any net in between. The name seems to have been derived from the balls that were squashable. The front wall in squash has the largest playing area whereas the back wall that also has the entrance to the court has the smallest playing area. There are serving areas from where the player electing to serve starts the game. He hits the ball in the air to hit the front wall. The games are of 11 points with the player having at least a two point margin to be declared a winner. A player has to win three games to beat the opponent.
What is the difference between Squash and Racquetball?
• Squash court has dimensions of 32’X21’X15’ whereas racquetball court has dimensions of 40’X20’X20’
• Racquet ball games are of 15 points, and a player has to win two games with a third played if the scores are level after two games. The third game is of 11 points.
• In squash, a game is of 11 points, and a player has to win three games with at least a two point margin.
• There are differences in out of bound or non playing areas in the two games.
• One can score a point in racquetball only on his serve whereas a point can be scored in squash on the opponent’s serve too.
• In squash, there is only one serve for a player whereas there is a second serve like tennis in racquetball.