A trinquete (also ''trinquet'') is a special court for various indoor versions of
pelota and it is a modality of the
pelota sport. In South America, especially in
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, t ...
the trinquete is also known as ''close court'', because the other ''open court'' is named for the
fronton. It has some of the characteristic features of a
real tennis
Real tennis – one of several games sometimes called "the sport of kings" – is the original racquet sport from which the modern game of tennis (also called "lawn tennis") is derived. It is also known as court tennis in the United St ...
court, probably because many real tennis courts were converted to trinquetes in the 19th century. For some sports, the players face the same wall and share the court, similar to
squash. For other sports, a net is strung across the middle of the court and the players face each other, similar to tennis.
Features of the court and the game
The trinquet has some basic aspects with the
fronton.
* One front wall called ''
frontis,'' which is the wall where the players must throw the ball in each play. The wall has some delimitations. At 80 cm height there is a metallic sheet called ''chapa".'' Another metal sheet is located 8,5 metres up the floor. The front wall normally is 10 metres in height and 10 metres in width. The space that is between the upper ''chapa'' and the finish of the ''frontis'' is normally padded, so that it is obvious (by sound and ball action) a fault has occurred when the ball hits this area. Below, there is also another paddled area from the floor to the below ''chapa''.
* There is another wall parallelly collocated more or less 30 metres back the ''frontis'' called ''rebote''. This wall is 5 or 4 metres lower than the other.
* A wall on the left side of the court joins the ''frontis'' and ''rebote''. It is a little bit lower than the front wall and a bit higher than the back wall.
See also
*
Valencian trinquet
External links
Frontons.netList of trinquets all around the world
Trinquete, Basque
{{Sports-venue-stub
an:Trinquet (esporte)