A century of women at the Australian Open sees ball kid program approach equal gender split

As the Australian Open celebrates 100 years of women competing in the event, 14-year-old Lucy Bassett from Yarrawonga, three and a half hours from Melbourne, is living out her dream of being a ball kid.

«I love playing tennis,» she said.

«I've played a fair bit and I love watching it on the TV. That's why I wanted to do it.»

She is one of 380 ball kids who were selected for this year's squad.

Tennis Australia's Ball Kid Strategy and Operations lead Elise Mace said there was a rigorous selection process that involved two rounds of trials, the first held at local clubs then at the National Tennis Centre at Melbourne Park.

«We get thousands of kids that apply every year,» she said.

«We assess our ball kids on their court movement, their rolling, their player servicing, their concentration, and of course their behaviour and how they and how they uphold our Tennis Australia values.»

This year girls made up 42 per cent of the squad and Ms Mace said interest was growing.

«We do tend to have more boys apply … but we're planning for next year to achieve a 50-50 gender split in our program,» she said.

COVID has posed some challenges in the lead-up to the Australian Open with on-court training for the selected ball kids delayed by three months.

«We do try to teach them as much as we can during training but that was a big challenge during COVID,» Ms Mace said.

Masks are worn on court and ball kids are required to take a COVID test daily to ensure safety.

Interactions with players are also limited with Tennis Australia making the decision to stop ball kids handling player towels.

Despite this, Lucy has still rubbed shoulders with some of her idols.

«My favourite player is Ash Barty … but I got to ball kid Gael Monfils. He's the 17th seed from