In This, The Most Competitive City In The World, Even Diving Around Like A Monkey For Tennis Balls Is Hard Job To Get

Becoming a U.S. Open ball person requires agility, speed, focus and most of all, a belief in oneself:

Making it to Center Court at the U.S. Open requires speed, agility, determination, and focus — that’s true for the likes of such top seeds as Andy Roddick and Venus Williams, and just as much so for the ball boys and ball girls who snatch out-of-play balls off the court.

At least, that’s what I learned yesterday when I tried out to be one at the 2007 U.S. Open.

I was number 263 of nearly 400 candidates vying for 75 rookie slots at this year’s Open. In two weeks, the outstanding among us would be invited back for a callback tryout and an interview. Some will go on to work during the Open’s qualifying rounds, and a select few would make it to the final draws.

. . .

I asked a girl standing next to me, Aishwerya Sharma, 12, how she felt. She said “confident.”

“I hope she will make it,” her mother, Hem Lata, told me. “She’s tall enough and mature.”

(By the way, is everyone planning on doing a first-person story about trying out this week?)

See also: U.S. Open at Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.