What It Is:Tryouts to be a ballperson at the 2018 U.S. Open
Who Tried It:Julie Mazziotta, Writer/Reporter
As a huge tennis fan living in New York City, I buytickets to the U.S. Openeach year, but with my reporter’s salary I’m typically up near the rafters. Luckily, there is a way to get anup- close-and-personal view of Serena Williams, Roger Federer and more — and you even get paid.
Each year, the U.S. Tennis Association holds an open tryout for ballpersons to line the courts at every U.S. Open match. Around 800 hopefuls are put through the paces to see if they can keep up witha Rafael Nadal backhand, with just about 100 people selected for the coveted spots.
I got to take partin a special media tryout (open to the public on Tuesday, June 26 at 4 p.m.) to see if I had the skill and speed to pick up Sloane Stephens’ tennis balls. As someone with absolutely no hand-eye coordination, I had extremely low expectations, but I benefitted from a big change the USTA is making this year: Rather than throwing the ball from the center of the court to the ballpeople standing in the back, ballpeople will now roll it.
“By rolling between positions, we are putting less emphasis on a single skill set, in this case throwing, and instead looking at the importance of slotting more well-rounded athletes at the positions,” said Tina Taps, Director of US Open Ballpersons, said in a press release. “In making this change, we are able to focus more on speed, dexterity and agility, important attributes for a ballperson, along with overall court awareness.”
This was a boon for me — I don’t think I could hit any kind of target, even if it was a foot away, but I can run. So with a boost of confidence, the veteran ballpeople on hand for the tryouts filled me in the technique to work at the net-side position.
There, you stand with your hands behind your back, and wait for the player to hit the ball into the net. Don’t leave your spot before it happens! Then, you sprint to the ball, grab it with both hands, and run to the closest side. Finally, you go into a lunge, and roll the ball to the ballperson along the back wall, as quickly as possible.
To my surprise, I did a decent job — my speed helped to make up for my lack of accuracy in rolling the ball.
The second part of the tryout was to catch the balls from the ballperson at one end of the court, and roll them to the person at the other end. I had some trouble catching them at first — my lack of hand-eye coordination strikes again! — but eventually got it together.
After just about five minutes of tryouts, I was all done, and was told I would get a callback if this were the real thing. My scorecard showed I got high marks for speed to make up for the 2 (out of 5, yikes) for hand-eye coordination.
Being a ballperson sounds like a blast — I talked to veterans who had come back to the U.S. Open for 16 straight years — but it definitely requires serious stamina. I could handle the 5-minute tryout, which they said is the typical tryout length, but I question my ability to keep the nerves down while Venus Williams is just a few feet away, not to mention the heat you have to deal with in New York City in August. But you would certainly get a good run — especially if you end up working an epic, five-set Federer-Nadal duel.
source: people.com
