The Racquetball Serve: Zones, Faults, Screen Serve and 10 Seconds

Racquetball has several lines on the floor and most of them concern the serve. Here is Rule 3 taken apart per the international IRF rules 2026–2028. For the basics of scoring, see racquetball rules.

Lines on the floor

The court is 6.10 × 12.19 m (20 × 40 ft) and the service lines lie in its middle section (rule 2.1b):

What the serve looks like

Rules 3.2 and 3.3 give the serve a clear procedure:

1. You start inside the service zone. You may stand on the short line, but not step over it (3.2).
2. You drop the ball, it must bounce in the service zone, and you hit it before the second bounce (3.3).
3. The ball must hit the front wall first and, after rebounding, land beyond the back edge of the short line (3.3).
4. Once the motion has started you may step over the service line, as long as part of the foot is still touching the line (3.2).

You have two serves in all divisions (3.1). Two fault serves in a row mean an out, the loss of serve (3.6b, 3.8).

Fault serves

Rule 3.8 lists the faults after which you still get a second attempt:

• Short serve: the ball does not get beyond the short line.
• Three-wall serve: the serve hits three walls.
• Ceiling serve: the serve hits the ceiling.
• Long serve.
• The ball bounces outside the service zone before the hit.
• An illegal drive serve (see below).
• Screen serve.
• Serving before the receiver is ready.

Serves that are an out straight away

Rule 3.9 is stricter. If you miss the ball (missed attempt), the ball touches you (touched serve), you only feint the serve (fake serve), you hit it illegally, you send it anywhere but the front wall first, or you hit a crotch serve (the ball into the junction of two surfaces), you lose the serve immediately. The exception under 3.9f: a ball that, after the front wall, hits the floor and then the back wall, or the floor and a side wall beyond the short line, is fine and play continues.

Screen serve

A screen serve is a serve on which the ball passes so close to you that the receiver cannot see it. Rule 3.8h sets three criteria: the receiver is in a good position for the return, the ball passes close to the server and the view is genuinely obstructed. A merely "close" ball is not a screen if the return did not actually suffer.

Drive serve lines

The hard serve along the side wall, the drive serve, has its own rule 3.5. The drive serve line is 0.91 m (3 ft) from each side wall and divides the zone into a 3-foot strip and the remaining 17 feet. A drive serve along the nearer side wall is legal only if the server starts and remains outside that three-foot strip (3.5). The line itself is not part of the 17-foot zone (3.5b). For the cross-court drive serve, the Z serve, the lob and the half-lob the rule is not enforced.

The receiver and the safety zone

Under rule 3.10b the receiver may not enter the safety zone until the ball bounces or crosses the receiving line. A return out of the air may be struck only after the ball has broken the plane of the receiving line; the follow-through may then cross it. A violation is a point for the server (3.10b3).

Ten seconds

Rule 3.4a gives the server and the receiver 10 seconds together from the call of the score. If the receiver is not ready, they raise the racquet above the head or turn to face the back wall.

Did you know?

• The ten seconds are shared by both players; the receiver cannot cause the server to violate them (3.4a).
• The safety zone exists only during the serve (2.1b7).
• A crotch serve on the front wall is an out straight away, whereas floor and then back or side wall beyond the short line is in play (3.9f).
• All walls and the ceiling are in play, except gallery openings and the back wall above 3.66 m (12 ft) (2.1a).

What happens when your opponent gets in your way during a rally is covered in hinders in racquetball.