Ball kids take a shot at the Open

AHEAD of next year’s Australian Open, Tennis Australia staff have been scouting several hundred ball kids for the tournament.

TA ball kid strategy and operations lead Lorey Bentley has been travelling around Central Victoria to help find local talent for the program, and stopped by at Bendigo Regional Tennis Centre for the last two Wednesdays.

“They [the ball kids] don’t have to play tennis to have a go at the trials, probably about half of them don’t,” she said.

“Any new ball kid has to do a level one trial. They’re assessed on the way they roll the ball, the way they serve the ball, and the way they communicate, which is like telling everyone around the court how many balls they’ve got. Things like that.

“If they’re successful at that, they get invited to level two trials which are held in July in Melbourne at the National Tennis Centre.

“Any of last year’s ball kids go straight to level two trials, but everyone still has to be reassessed.

“We end up with 600 ball kids altogether for level two trials, so it just depends on the number of returning ball kids.”

Ms Bentley said they have had about 2000 applicants from across Australia try out for the program, and by the end of the level two trials Tennis Australia aims to have a final group of about 380 kids who will take part in the Open.

“It’s a lot to look after,” she said. “We’ll have someone from the Tennis Australia ball kid team go to each of the trials just to ensure that consistency and integrity because they’ll know what they’re looking for.”

The Bendigo level one trials saw about 20 kids between ages 12 and 15 take part each day.