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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.
MY LUCK finally came - well it was well due!
On Saturday I was rostered onto Hisense Arena.
It was amazing; a huge crowd and a totally different atmosphere.
This is the first year that Hisense is a non-ticketed venue so 9500 seats are up for grabs to ground pass holders.
This means the crowd is tennis mad, and create an incredible buzz.
Thankfully I was feeling prepared.
I wasn't happy with my rolls so when my brother Ollie visited on Friday night, I'd asked for his help.
He showed me a different rolling technique that he had adopted in his third year of being a ballkid because he had grown so much.
I'm tall, so Ollie's advice was for me to focus more on consistent, flat and accurate rolls rather than speed.
I tried his suggested technique and it worked.
On Hisense, I was rostered on for two women's singles matches and the Raonic v Becker game.
Archie also had a lucky break as he was rostered onto show court two for a legends match with the Woodies - Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde - and Henri Leconte and Mark Philippoussis.
Todd recognised Archie from the interview with Channel 7, saying 'there's my mate', and told him he'd give him a racquet - which commonly happens in legends matches - but unfortunately Archie's shift finished before the end of the match.
Legends matches are always great fun as the players 'play up' to the crowd.
On Sunday we were both rostered onto outside courts doing junior matches.
To be honest, it was a different experience as a lot of the players didn't seem much older than me, so I kind of felt they should be collecting their own balls rather than have me run around after them.
But hey, they are champions in the making, so it's pretty cool to think that I might have ballkidded for a player who could end up as world number one!
Speaking of number one players, my dreams of sharing a court with Federer were shattered when he lost to Seppi on Friday. But there's always next year.
Let's hope Federer stays around a little longer next year.
An iPad was being passed around the ballkid tent this week and both Archie and I have applied to be ballkids again in 2016.
Let's hope Federer stays around a little longer next year.
On Monday we were both assigned to Asia-Pacific Tennis League games.
The league has different rules to normal tennis.
They play something called Fast4, which, as a ballkid, takes a bit of adjusting to.
It has four basic rules:
One, lets are played.
Two, there is no advantage score after deuce. Instead, they just have a 'power point' at deuce where the receiver chooses the server's side for the point.
Three, there is a tie-breaker at three games-all and the first one to five wins. If it's four-all then a power point is played.
Four, first player to four games wins the set.
Unfortunately Archie only ended up working a 20-minute shift that day.
He and his squad played cricket with their water bottles and a tennis ball to pass the time while they waited.
We had the league games again on Tuesday, which was much easier as we were settled into the different scoring system by then.
What was unsettling, though, was having a 7News camera in my face.
They wanted close-up footage of me in action to add to the interview they did with us and Todd Woodbridge.
They are saying the interview will be shown during either the women's finals or the men's finals.
They did the same to Archie on Wednesday while I enjoyed a blissful sleep in on my first rostered day off.
Being a ballkid is so much more than just rolling and throwing balls.
You have to become an expert in reading the players' facial expressions and observing their habits.
If they want a ball, they usually just look at you, look down at the ball, then raise their eyes if they want another one.
Asking for the towel is usually a quick flick of the index finger or hand.
And learning a player's habits is really important so that you can always keep one step ahead: Sharapova only receives balls from her forehand; Gasquet likes to serve with the same ball that he won the last point with; Wozniacki likes to take balls from the corner she is serving from; Nadal and Murray like to use the towel after each point.
I thought it was really cool how, during the Nadal-Berdych match, the ballkid knew how to position Nadal's drink bottles when one blew over in the wind - so the labels faced the court that Nadal was playing from.
I would never have known that!
It's also our job to retrieve any balls that go out of court. My brother Joe saw a spectator grab a ball, put it in his pocket and run away.
This seems to happen quite often on outside courts, so although it's a funny topic among ballkids, it's a bit of a pain as we have to get a replacement ball.
But hey, Wilson provides 4000 balls for the Australian Open each year, so losing one isn't too bad.
Saturday morning is the ballkid party, after which the squad for the finals is announced.
This honour usually goes to returning ballkids, but you never know.
Whatever the outcome, it's been a fantastic three weeks and I've loved every single experience I've had here.
All my brothers have come and supported me, and several friends have enjoyed the experience of going to the tennis for the first time.
I've really enjoyed sharing it with all of you through my diaries and the feedback has been great - thank you so much.
It's nice knowing that me blabbing away about collecting tennis balls does interest you!
So it's back to Horsham at the weekend and back to school on Monday. Holidays are over.
If anyone else is interested in joining Archie and me at the AO in 2016 - if we get selected again- you've got until March 1 to apply.
The website is www.tennis.com.au/ballkids. Good luck - it's worth it.