HORSHAM siblings Nia and Archie Harrison are volunteering as ball kids at the Australian Open in Melbourne. Nia, 14, will share her grand slam experiences with diary entries in the Mail-Times.
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WE’RE here!
Archie and I have been trialled, trained and assessed for months and, having made it into the final ball kid squad of 380 kids, we are ready to do our bit for the 2015 Australian Open.
The AO ball kids are recognised as the best in the world, so we are certainly going to do our very best, while sharing the courts with some of the world’s biggest tennis stars – we hope!
We have found a student apartment to rent in the central business district, two kilometres from the tennis centre, so on Monday we had fun working out the different and best routes to and from the tennis.
Our accreditation allows us free tram travel, which is great, and we have been encouraged to always sit with other ball kids. In our bright, blood orange uniforms, we are very recognisable.
Tuesday was orientation day and included a tour around the centre, showing us where and how to get onto courts, the location of the ball kid tent, staff cafe, food allowance, etc.
We also had a photo taken on Rod Laver Arena with two special tennis players: Maria Sharapova and Thanasi Kokkinakis.
There were lots of cameras clicking, but of all the photos I’ve seen, only half of Archie’s face appears in a couple and someone’s hand covers my face in another – so we don’t exactly feature.
Qualifying started on Wednesday and we were both rostered on at 3pm. We are notified of our roster times the night before, by SMS to our mobile phones and on the ball kid website.
When we arrive at the tennis centre, we sign in and see what court we have been allocated.
We work in two squads of six and we rotate every 45 minutes on the same court.
I was on court eight, but Archie was ‘to be advised’, which basically means emergency.
This can be good and bad – sometimes you don’t get on a court at all, which can be frustrating, but other times you might be lucky enough to be needed on the big show courts.
Archie nearly got on show court two, but the missing ball kid turned up at the last minute.
In the end, he went on court 12, working as a baseline ball-kid.
This was a little different for him as he was trained more at the net.
However, like me, he found himself in the firing line of hard and fast serves.
I was successfully dodging them but then copped a hard ball to my stomach, and Archie copped one to his hip.
The players were very apologetic, and, of course, the game continued.
The five key components of being a ball kid are concentration, communication, rolling, servicing and court movement. But I reckon ‘dodging’ should be added to this list.
I signed out on Wednesday night at 8.30pm and was on again at 10.30am on Thursday.
Archie finished just before 10pm and was back at the tennis by 9.45am the next morning.
It’s an exciting feeling doing it for real – I was definitely nervous to start with, but the crowds are very small and the atmosphere very relaxed during these qualifying rounds.
It’s a perfect lead-in to the big event, which starts on Monday.
I have a feeling the Australian Open is going to be an awesome one this year, and it’s amazing and fantastic that Archie and I are going to play a part in it.
● RUPANYUP’S Michelle Morgan is the winner of the Wimmera Mail-Times Australian Open ticket competition.
As the overall winner, Morgan receives four tickets to Rod Laver Arena on Tuesday.
Several others also won ground passes on Monday and Tuesday.
