Tennis has gone ‘soft’ on ballkids and is doing its best to kill them off

One of tennis’ great traditions is on the brink of being killed off for good after 100 years and the sport has done it to itself.

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Entering into the second week of the French Open I imagined the headlines would be dominated by Alcaraz’s brilliance, Novak proving age is just a number and Iga’s refusal to lose games. The story of a default in a women’s doubles match on an outside court was admittedly not something on the bingo card.

It all came about when Miyu Kato seemingly innocuously returned the ball to the ball girl who unfortunately wasn’t looking and struck her.

Enough has been said of their opponents whose embarrassing behaviour was showcased in full when they egged on the referee as they pushed for a default. Kato was merely returning a ball in a non-malicious way and this is why the decision was so wrong.

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Both the need to have respect and the safety of ball kids is essential but this latest drama has got me thinking… what is the point of the ball kid anymore and in their current capacity should we even have them?

The ball wasn’t hit in anger but it hit the ballkid. Photo: Twitter.

The poor ball girl was in tears. Photo: Twitter.

In 1920 Wimbledon was the first tournament to start the tradition of recruiting ball kids. Since then, at nearly every televised tennis match we’ve seen ball people assist the players on court. Up until a few years ago the ball kids performed various tasks to ensure quick play and service certain needs of a player — whether that be retrieving balls for the server, providing a towel in between points, or assisting at the change of ends with water.

A rigorous selection process takes place before grand slams to seek out only the best of the ball kids. During the tournament there will even be supervisors who are grading the performance of the ball person, the better the grade the bigger the matches they will get.

Big names in our game have had their stint as a ball kid. Lendl as a nine-year-old in Ostrava, McEnroe in ’74 at the US Open and Federer in ’93 at the Basel Open are just a few of the names. These legends have joined countless others who, alongside their friends, were given a once in a lifetime experience to share the court and provide an essential service with their idols.

The ball girl was crying for an extended period. Mari Bouzkova and Sara Sorribes Tormo complained to the chair umpire. Photo: Twitter.

Aldila Sutjiadi and Miyu Kato were in tears. Photo: Twitter, Stan Sport.

However, over the past few years, we’ve witnessed the role of the ball kid diminish, due largely in part to cries from the media and parents.

You will have noticed that ball kids are no longer allowed to touch players towels or fetch a water bottle at the change of ends. The fear of germs has proved too great a deterrence.

Suggestions on the tour have also been made to put a curfew on ball kids and their involvement in matches that are running too late.

Next stop will probably be to equip them with electric scooters so they won’t have to run to fetch the balls! Sport is sweaty, you can get dirty. It appears we are sanitizing the role of the ball kids so much that they will be become redundant and all because those in authority have not bothered to ask them what they want.

All of the kids that I’ve spoken to do the job to get up close to the players! We seem determined to take that joy away from them.

There are still many young people who don’t want to take the soft option. Who are prepared to do the hard yards and it is from this group our next champions will come.

John Millman is an Aussie tennis veteran, with one ATP Tour title to his name and a victory over Roger Federer in the fourth round of the 2018 US Open.

You can follow him on Twitter here.

Originally published as Tennis has gone ‘soft’ on ballkids and is doing its best to kill them off