SetMatcher
Squash

Squash has no sets, only games to 11.

A match is the best of five games, or three, and every rally scores a point in a game to 11. There is nothing between points and games, so you will never see the word set on a squash screen.

2 match formats, 7 draw formats, and at least 6 h of rest between two matches on the same day.

Squash: a finished match, written down the way it is scored on court.
Game · Point

How scoring works.

You win a game at 11 points with a two-point lead, and from 10-all play simply goes on: 12-10, 15-13 and 24-22 are all real games. That is the main difference from badminton, where a game ends at 30. Whoever wins the rally scores the point and serves next.

Valid scores
  • 11-0
  • 11-9
  • 12-10
  • 15-13
  • 24-22
What makes it different

The plate, and why squash runs three of them.

Squash tournaments aim to give everyone a final placing: the WSF requires Monrad for individual championships, and England Squash makes full Monrad compulsory at its top three junior levels, so a new squash tournament starts with that format. Squash is also the only sport here with more than one consolation draw: the Plate for first-match losers in the main draw, the Consolation Plate for first-match losers in the Plate, and the Classic Plate for second-match losers in the main draw. Together they give every player the three matches the rules promise, and in a draw of eight exactly three each.

Not possible
  • 11-10
  • 10-8
  • 14-9
  • 9-7
  • 6-4
11-10 is a one-point win. In 10-8 nobody reached 11. 14-9 goes past 11 by more than two points. 6-4 is a tennis set. And 9-7 was a valid game in the old English scoring to nine, which the WSF replaced with point-a-rally scoring in 2009, so it is not offered today.
Formats

The match formats you can play.

Two: the best of five games to 11, the normal match, and the best of three, which the rules allow as an alternative. Singles is the main game, and doubles, played on a wider court, is offered too. The WSF rules have no mixed doubles, so neither does SetMatcher, which is one of the differences from table tennis, where games are otherwise scored the same way.

  • Best of 5 games to 11
  • Best of 3 games to 11
Played as
  • Singles
  • Doubles
Agreed before a match

Nothing. Pick the format and play: this sport has no deuce rule to agree on and no scoring system to choose.

Agreed before a match
The day and the season

Draws, rest times and ladders.

Seven draw formats, more than any sport here except tennis. Squash also has by far the longest rest: the WSF asks for six hours between two matches on the same day. You can shorten it to fifteen minutes, the shortest gap the WSF itself schedules, so a club can still run a round robin on a Tuesday evening.

Draw formats
7
Match formats
2
Rest between matches
6 h

The other six sports.

Plenty of clubs play two or three of these. Each one has its own page.

Your first match is one tap away.

Join a group, play, enter the score. The ladder, the draw and the season keep themselves up to date.