Georgia is ready to roll at the Australian Open

Local teen Georgia Gray will put her perfectly practised roll into action when the Australian Open officially starts next week.

15 yr Georgia Gray of Carlingford has been selected to be a ball girl at the Australian Open in Melbourne. She'll have her official uniform.

Local teen Georgia Gray will put her perfectly practised roll into action when the Australian Open officially starts next week.

Gray, of Carlingford, is one of 380 Australian Open Ball Kids who were selected for the 2016 Grand Slam out of more than 2500 applicants.

After sending in her resume to Tennis Australia, Gray passed a series of tryouts in Melbourne to be selected to the final squad.

Making the team was even more triumphant for Gray, who narrowly missed out on selection to the 2015 squad after making it through to the final tryouts.

Gray, 15, left for Melbourne yesterday and will attend an orientation day today ahead of her first match at the qualifiers tomorrow.

She will spend about three weeks in Melbourne rolling balls to the world’s best players from the sidelines of the Australian Open, which runs from January 18-30.

Georgia Gray practises her skills ahead of the Australian Open.

Gray decided to submit her Ball Kids application after watching other kids participate in the 2013 Australian Open.

“I love watching tennis and I went down to the Australian Open with my mum in 2013 and it looked like a really fun thing to do,” she said.

While she loves watching the tennis, Gray has never played the sport herself.

“I actually don’t play tennis,” she said.

“It’s a bit of an uncommon thing, but I have met some other (ball kids) that don’t play.”

Gray said the most exciting aspect of being a ball kid was watching tennis masters up-close.

“They’re celebrities and you get to be so close to them,” she said.

Gray and her fellow Ball Kids have been training for six months for the Grand Slam tournament, perfecting their ball roll and serves.

“Leading up to the tryouts I practised every day,” Gray said.

“In the first few tryouts they teach you lots of techniques, like where you should hold the ball in your hand … and good techniques about rolling the ball so it’s accurate, flat and fast.”

Gray will be positioned by the net during her shifts, which means “lots of rolling”.

“I’ve become a lot more accurate,” she said.

“They (the ball rolls) used to be all over the place but now I can get them into one place.

“But I have to work on speed now.”

Georgia Gray has been training for six months for her role as a Ball Kid.

Although Gray will not find out which matches she will be on duty for until the day, she is hoping to be on court with her favourite player, Novak Djokovic.

“Djokovic is probably my favourite,” she said.

“(But) it would be really cool to do Hewitt’s last Open, or any of the Australian players.”

Gray said she was both excited and nervous about rolling a ball to some of her tennis heroes.

“I’ve looked up to them for quite a few years now,” she said.

“But it’s daunting because you don’t want to stuff it up.”

When she is not on the court, Gray will be spending time with family and friends in Melbourne.

“I really like the shopping in Melbourne,” she said.

“I like all the little hipster streets with the graffiti, so hopefully I can go there.”