What Are the Squash Court Dimensions?

Squash is one of the most intense racket sports. Unlike other racket sports like tennis and badminton, squash is played on a net-less court, with the players bouncing a rubber ball against walls. So, how large is a squash court?

A standard squash court will measure 6.4 meters (21 feet) wide, 9.75 (32 feet) meters long, and 5.64 meters (18.5 feet) high. The total playing field of a squash court is 62.4 square meters (672 square feet).

So, what is squash, what are the markings on a squash court, and how do you play the sport? I’ll address these questions and more in the following sections.

What Is Squash?

Squash is a racket sport like tennis, badminton, and ping pong. You can play singles squash matches with 2 players (1 vs. 1) or doubles matches with two players on each team (2 vs. 2). The purpose of the game is to hit the ball against the wall in such a way that your opponent cannot return a valid shot.

Squash Court Dimensions and Specifications

Unlike other net sports, squash is played in a closed environment. The court must be encased in 4 walls used to bounce the squash ball.

Squash Court Markings

Before going into the measurements of a squash court, it’s important that we understand what the parts and markings on a squash court are.

Front Wall—The wall in front of the players when standing in serving and receiving position.

Back Wall—The wall behind the players when standing in serving and receiving position.

Side Walls—The walls to the left and right of the players when standing in serving and receiving positions.

Half Court Line—The perpendicular line that extends from the back wall to the short line.

Short Line—The line that is parallel to the front and back walls that intersects with the half court line. The short and half court lines together create what is known as the “T” line.

Service Box—The box in which the serving player serves the squash ball to mark the start of a point. The square boxes are located directly behind the short line and against the side wall.

Side Wall Line—The line that extends from the back wall to the front wall.

Out Lines—The lines that connect the side wall lines on the front and back walls. The out lines should be parallel to the floor of the court.

Tin Line—The line that acts as an imaginary net. It is located on the front wall and denotes the minimum height that the squash ball must make contact with the front wall to be considered a valid hit.

Service Line—The line found on the front wall is located between the tin and out lines. The squash ball must make contact with the section of the front wall between the out and service lines to be considered valid.

Squash Court Dimensions

According to the World Squash Federation, the dimensions of a squash court must be 9.75 meters (32 feet) long and 6.4 meters (21 feet) wide. The ceiling must be 5.64 meters (18.5 feet) high.

You’ll notice that, unlike badminton and tennis court dimensions, there are required ceiling height for squash court since the game is mostly played indoors against four walls.

Now, let’s look at the size specifications of the various parts and markings of a squash court.

Note: All lines are marked 2 inches wide

Rules for Playing Squash

If you don’t plan on attending the PSA World Tour anytime soon, you don’t have to worry about the intricacies of the sport. Instead, just focus on the fundamentals of playing squash to have a fun time whooping your friends’ behinds.

Here are the ground rules for playing squash.

Basics

• A player can hit the ball once without “carrying” the ball.
• The ball may only bounce once on the floor.
• You may bounce the ball once on the floor and/or the back wall and an infinite number of times against the side walls.
• The ball must hit the front wall—between the tin and out lines—to be valid.
• Players may also volley the ball—i.e., not allow the ball to bounce before hitting the ball.
• A point is scored when the opposing player fails to deliver a valid hit.

Serving

• The serving player must have both feet inside the serving box when serving the ball.
• The ball must hit the front wall—between the service and front wall out lines—to be valid.
• Players may return a serve with a volley.
• If the ball is allowed to bounce, it must make contact with the portion of the floor behind the short line (relative to the front wall). If it doesn’t, the serve is considered invalid.

Scoring System

• Best-of-3 or best-of-5 set is used to determine the winner of a match.
• A single set consists of 11 points.
• The first player or team to reach 11 points wins the set.
• If the score is tied at 10-10, the players play until one has a 2-point lead—e.g., 23-21, 15-17, 100-102.