Wimbledon’s many ball boys and ball girls go through a tough selection to try out for the much sought-after role
Wimbledon’s many ball boys and ball girls (known as “BBGs”) go through a tough selection to try out for the much sought-after role.
Around 280 youngsters are selected to spend the tournament making sure matches run smoothly by feeding balls to players and retrieving them when they go astray.
Some 30 schools in the Wimbledon area take part in the scheme, training and selecting pupils to progress to try-outs at Wimbledon.
If successful, the BBGs – who are mostly aged 15 – train once-a-week from February to June, getting to grips with how to “feed” the ball to players and how to roll it across the court.
First-time ball boy Affan Naseer, 15, told the Press Association (PA) that while the process was mostly fun, he remembers the warm-up being particularly difficult.
He said: “At the end, they make you sprint on the spot for 10 seconds, and they expect you to stand as still as you can for a bit. The warm-up is very intense.”
Despite the hard work, Affan said he felt it was a privilege to be a ball boy at Wimbledon, and a chance to follow in his uncle’s footsteps.
Affan said: “My uncle did it when he was younger… I was like, ‘I’ll do it, and then I’ll carry on your legacy’.”
He said that his uncle felt “really proud” of him and had managed to spot him on the big screens while watching a match on Tuesday.
Affan said he found it particularly exciting when things got heated on court, as it reflected the intensity of the high-stakes championships.
He said: “It’s not a good thing that it’s heated, but like it just feels nice that it’s a very intense match. People are crowding around, and I’m in my own comfortable spot, looking at the whole match, so that’s a very nice thing.”
“Personally, I feel very privileged to be here,” Affan said. “Mainly because it’s an international event, where you can see people from around the world, players from around the world.
“I wasn’t born in this country, I was born in rural Pakistan, and then I came to this country.
“Now that I look back to it, and I could never imagine being in a position where you have a lot of responsibility, and that responsibility pays off, and then you get to see a lot of great people, great sportsmanship, and also the kit – it’s very nice.”
Ball girl Summer Reid, 15, is a captain, meaning she oversees a team of BBGs. She told PA : “I’m in charge of doing changes, and at the end of matches I have to switch over to the new balls at the ball distribution store and check what court my team is going to be on.”
Summer said the discipline required to be a ball girl at Wimbledon was something she would like to carry with her beyond the tournament.
She said: “I think having the ability to say that I was a Wimbledon ball girl on a CV or something is quite impressive, because they know the standards that it’s taken to get here.”
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