Here's what it's like to try out to be a ball person at the USOpen.
You’re out there on a massive stadium court, with the world’s greatest player on the other side of the net. They toss the ball in the air, snap the racket forward for a kick serve wide to the forehand side, but the ball hits the net cord and dribbles back down—that’s when you spring into action, sprinting out to grab the ball, then racing to the other side of the court and crouching back into position.
Fast-forward to a few decades later—just a couple of months ago, in fact—when I learned that the United States Tennis Association would be holding open tryouts forballpersons. On the appointed day, I hop the 7 train out to the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, Queens, spending the subway journey trying to get my head in the right place. But how complicated could this really be? They hit the ball; you get the ball. Repeat, repeat, repeat.
Nervously, I ask the guy next to me, who seems to be here in some kind of official capacity if anyone ever, you know, justthese tryouts. “Yeah,” he says, with absolutely no hesitation whatsoever. “It’s just kind of a general agility and hand-eye coordination thing, but yeah—some people get out there and try to throw the ball and can’t hit the broad side of a barn.”
Then: “Are you guys ready?” Someone among us prospective ballpersons says—with that bravado either borne of insecurity or a confidence bordering on cockiness—“Born ready.” I roll my eyes with everything I’ve got.
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