The Game
The game is thus played: one of the players, called the hand-in, standing partly within one of the service boxes, with his racket strikes the ball, dropped from his other hand, on to the front wall, without previously touching either of the side walls, above the service line, so as to make the ball pitch within that space marked B, which is farther from the service box in which he is. If the server fail to conform to these conditions his opponent is not obliged to take the service. If the server so fail twice in succession, if he hit a side wall before hitting the front wall, or if he hit the board, the roof, or into the gallery, he forfeits his right to serve.
The opponent, or hand-out, awaits the ball in the space marked B. His business is to hit the ball with his racket before it has touched the floor twice, so that the ball may hit the front wall above the board; but the fact of the ball hitting a side wall before reaching the front wall does not, as in the case of service, affect the competency of the stroke. The business thereafter of the server is to return in a similar manner his opponent's stroke, and thus the play is continued until failure to return the ball above the board by one player or the other, such failure counting against the person failing.