game played with a ball and a strung racket in an enclosed court, all four walls of which are used in play. Rackets is played with a hard ball in a relatively large court, usually about 18 m (60 ft) long by 9 m wide—unlike the related game of squash rackets (q.v.), which is played with a soft ball on a smaller court.

It was once a common notion that rackets originated in the debtors' section of Fleet Prison in England early in the 19th century. Charles Dickens in his novel The Pickwick Papers (1836–37) describes a court in which the inmates whiled away their time. Most scholars now place the origin of rackets in real tennis, quoting J.R. Atkins' opinion in The Book of Racquets (1872) that “both games (rackets and real tennis) have so much in common that it is impossible to separate them historically; for practical purposes we must regard them as identical.”

In its beginnings, rackets was played in rather formless fashion without set rules. In Fleet Prison the game was well established by the middle of the 18th century, and in the new Fleet of 1782 it achieved such popularity that its fame spread to taverns and other public houses. Robert Mackey, an inmate of Fleet, is listed as the first “world” champion or at least as the first claimant of the title in 1820.

It was with its introduction into Harrow School in 1822 that rackets achieved respectability and was enclosed within four walls. The first roofed-in structure is believed to have been a court built at Woolwich by the Royal Artillery in the 1840s. The building of old Prince's Club in London in 1853 is regarded as marking the beginning of a new era in which rackets became the game of the clubs, military services, and universities.

Rackets flourished in the 1860s and 1870s. Earlier than this it had been introduced into Canada and the United States, and it spread to India, Malta, and Argentina. Queen's Club was opened in London in 1887 and became the headquarters of the game. The next year the Amateur Championships were started there and the Amateur Doubles began in 1890. The rules of the game were drawn up for the first time in 1890 by tennis historian Julian Marshall and rackets authority Major Spens. The Tennis, Rackets and Fives Association was formed in 1907 to govern the sport. During and following World War I, private courts closed and rackets play declined. The expense of building courts and playing the game and the rising popularity of squash rackets brought about a great reduction in the number of rackets players, except in the public schools. Nevertheless, the game continued to be played. In 1928 a British team travelled to the United States to inaugurate the International Racquets Cup matches, which still continue from time to time.

The world rackets championship, which is decided by a challenge match, has been dominated by English players, although India and the United States have also produced outstanding players. Peter Latham, an English professional, is generally rated the greatest of rackets players. (Professionals, in rackets and squash rackets, are players who are paid to teach the games.) Latham was world champion from 1887 to 1902, when he resigned, and was also a great player of real tennis. The foremost English amateurs have included Sir William Hart-Dyke, the first amateur to hold the world championship (1862); and Geoffrey Atkins, world champion from 1954 to 1970, who excelled Latham's record of reigning for 15 years. Atkins is rated by some as the greatest of all amateurs.

No dimensions are specified for the rackets themselves, which are made of ash and average 76 cm (27 in.) long and 255 g (9 oz) in weight. The head, strung with catgut, is usually 178–203 mm in diameter. The ball, which has a renewable covering of adhesive tape, is 2.54 cm in diameter and weighs 28.35 g.

Most courts are about 18 m long by 9 m wide and accommodate both the singles and doubles (four-handed) games. Courts have four walls. The roof, where skylights or other lighting is placed, is out-of-bounds for play; in India courts were left unroofed. The cement floor and walls must be perfectly smooth and very hard since the faster the ball travels the better the game. Front and side walls are about 9 m high, the back wall being about half that height with a spectators' gallery and marker's, or scorer's, box above it. The court is entered by a door in the centre of and flush with the back wall. On the front wall is fixed a wooden board, the upper edge of which, 0.68 m from the floor, constitutes the play line; 2.93 m from the floor a second line called the cut line or service line is marked. On the floor, 10.92 m from the front wall and parallel to it, the short line runs from wall to wall. From the centre of the short line to the centre of the back wall, the fault line divides the back court into two rectangular service courts. Against the side walls and separated from the service courts by the short line are the service boxes.

Rackets may be played by two persons (singles) or four persons playing two against two (doubles). The players must return the ball either before it reaches the ground or on its first bound so that it strikes the front wall above the play line (or service line in the case of a serve) and returns into the court and continue to do so alternately (either player of each in doubles) until one player fails to make a valid return and loses the stroke. The ball must not go out of court (into the gallery or roof of the court) or touch the players' clothing or person. Hard, low hitting close along the side wall is the essence of the game, with cutting, volleying, half-volleying, drop shots, and angled shots also in the repertory. In the four-handed game (doubles) one of each set of partners takes the right-hand side of the court and his partner the left. The game consists of 15 points, called aces. Points can be scored only by the hand-in (the player, or side, having the service), and the hand-out (side receiving service) 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 be ousted before their opponents obtain the service. In the first exchange of each game, however, only one partner of each side has service.

The server, with at least one foot inside the service box, serves the ball as in tennis, but directly to the front wall above the service line so that it rebounds and hits the floor within the service court on the opposite side, permissibly striking the side wall, back wall, or both before or after touching the floor. The serve is a fault if the ball (1) strikes the front wall below the service line; (2) touches the floor on the first bounce in front of the short line; or (3) first touches the floor in the wrong court. If the receiving player chooses to take a faulty first serve, play proceeds as if the serve had been good; otherwise the server must serve again; if he serves a second fault he loses his service to his partner or opponent, as the case may be. A serve that makes the ball strike the board or the floor before reaching the front wall or that sends it out of court counts the same as two consecutive faults: it costs the server his innings. In the United States and Canada only one serve is permitted.

If the player receiving service succeeds in returning the serve, the rally proceeds. If he fails in the rally (or in receiving service), the server scores a point and the side that first scores 15 points wins the game. When, however, the score reaches 13–all, the receiving side may, before the next serve is delivered, declare that he elects to set the game either to 5 or 3, making the game 18 or 16 points, whichever he prefers; and similarly when the score stands at 14–all, he may set the game to 3 (game 17).

It is the player's first duty to give the opponent full room for his stroke, but it is not always easy and sometimes, especially in doubles, absolutely impossible not to obstruct him. The rules, therefore, carefully provide for “lets.” When in matches a let is claimed by any one of the players and allowed by the referee, the service or rally counts for nothing and the server serves again from the same service box.

The server in possession at the end of a game continues to serve in the new game, subject as before to the rule limiting the first innings of a doubles game to a single hand. The usual number of games in matches is five for singles and seven for doubles. In matches where there is a referee, there is an appeal to him from the marker's decision but no appeal is allowed if a foot fault is called.