As the U.S. Open gets underway in Queens, diehard tennis spectators will have much to contemplate, such as the shocking withdrawal of Jannik Sinner due to a knee injury\u2014or whether to bring last year\u2019s souvenir Honey Deuce cup to the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.<\/p>\n
Yet they may also take a minute to reflect on the precise work that keeps the Open from going off without a hitch, which is personified in the tireless ball crew that assists players during games. It\u2019s a gig that requires a good deal of physical endurance, with crew members constantly coordinating to get stray balls off the court and into the hands of whoever is serving.<\/p>\n
A total of 1,500 people tried out for the ball crew this year, the U.S. Tennis Association said, with just over 300 people making the cut.<\/p>\n
Two such members of this year\u2019s crew, 15-year-old Daria Isajeva and 16 year-old Jeremy Orlicki-So, happen to be both talented tennis players and students at prestigious Manhattan high schools; Orlicko-So attends the Trinity School on the Upper West Side, while Isajeva goes to NYC Lab in Chelsea.<\/p>\n
Orlicki-So and Isajeva were connected with the opportunity via the New York Junior Tennis & Learning (NYJTL) Scholar Athlete Program, which asks for both discipline on the court and in the classroom. In separate interviews with Straus News, they stressed how a focus on academics translates easily to the sort of skills required of ball crew members.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been to a lot of tennis programs,\u201d Isajeva said, adding that the Scholar Athlete Program stood out for its emphasis on \u201clife skills\u201d and \u201cself-confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Orlicko-So noted that the \u201cmental aspect\u201d of tennis, which is famously hard to master for beginners and storied Grand Slam champions alike, is strikingly similar to the work required of students. A coach recommended him for the NYJTL program, he said, which has improved his game \u201ceach and every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for what it takes to be a successful member of the ball crew, Orlicki-So says that approaching matches as a \u201csystematic process\u201d is essential, especially one that involves a high degree of collaboration.<\/p>\n
He elaborated further, laying out a sort of ball crew\u2019s creed: \u201cIn the moment, you have to be aware of everything going on…just being a really good teammate, stepping up when you have to. Being able to be there for your other teammates when they need you, while understanding that they\u2019ll do the same for you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Isajeva echoed the sentiment, saying that the need to \u201chelp each other out\u201d was all but a ball crew requirement. Yet she also offered a piece of advice that she considers just as important, which is making sure to \u201chave fun,\u201d which makes each four-hour shift on the court easier.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people stress about it, including me, because a lot is going on,\u201d she added. \u201cYou\u2019re on court with the players. It\u2019s exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Isajeva and Orlicki-So picked up tennis racquets for the first time as young kids. Like most tennis enthusiasts, they have favorite players, with Orlicik-So inspired by Roger Federer\u2019s immortal run and Isajeva by Maria Sharapova\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe has really great sportsmanship,\u201d Isajeva said of Sharapova, who counts a U.S. Open win in 2006 as one of five Grand Slam wins that she accumulated before retiring in 2020. Federer, who won 20 Grand Slam singles titles (including five U.S. Open titles) by the time he retired in 2022, was described by Orlicki-So as somebody with a game defined by \u201cfluidity\u201d and \u201cart.\u201d<\/p>\n
As of August 23, the two teenagers seemed thrilled at the opportunity to interact with the current generation of star players in Flushing. Indeed, they may anticipate coming face-to-face with them again one day\u2014not as members of the ball crew, but as competitors with a chance at a championship-point rally and eternal glory, engraved in a sterling silver trophy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the U.S. Open gets underway in Queens, diehard tennis spectators will have much to contemplate, such as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329215,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[123762,75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-329214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-daria-isajeva","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}