Platform tennis is a game of finesse, “the chess of racquet sports,” says St. Louis men’s league commissioner Bob Curtis. It was invented more than a century ago for those who wanted to keep their tennis game tuned up during the winter months. February 2–4, St. Louis hosts the 2018 Men’s and Women’s National Ranking Tournament & Viking President’s Cup Qualifier at four of the area’s five courts: Creve Coeur Racquet Club, St. Louis Country Club, Racquet Club Ladue, and Bellerive Country Club.
- Platform tennis is only played outside, at night, in winter as a doubles sport, with both sides constantly in motion. Most players prefer an outside temperature of around 25 degrees, which gives the rubber ball—solid and heavy yet soft, with minimal felt (a.k.a. flocking)—the least amount of bounce, a condition that proves optimal for winning points.
- A quarter the size of a tennis court, each 20-by-44-foot court (with a 30-by-60-foot playing area) is enclosed with a 12-foot-tall screen. “It looks like chicken wire, but it’s high-end stuff made in Belgium,” says Curtis. “I can run into it as fast as I want and my body will bounce against it and not leave a mark.”
- The typical point lasts upwards of 30 strokes (unfathomable for a tennis player), and it’s scored like tennis—love, 15, 30, 40, game—but there is no second serve.
- Should the ball be launched outside of the court, the player who did it loses a point. “And you have to go get the ball,” says Curtis, “which is a worse penalty.”
- Paddles are about 18 inches long and made of a composite material sealed with a grit that’s not unlike that of the court’s surface. The holes drilled into the face permit faster swings and make a satisfying thwack/thud on contact with the ball.
- Unlike tennis, the ball may bounce off the side or back screen and be played out of the air, but only after it has first bounced within the court’s lines.
- The raised (hence “platform”) court has some give, so it’s easy on the knees, but the surface itself is rough: Sand is thrown on as it’s being painted to give it a texture that provides traction in cold, wet weather—and it does a number on shoes.
