{"id":570692,"date":"2026-04-07T23:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T23:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/570692\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T23:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T23:33:08","slug":"for-the-best-view-at-the-us-open-join-the-ball-crew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/570692\/","title":{"rendered":"For the best view at the US Open, join the ball crew"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-block-key=\"yom76\">Luxury suites for this summer\u2019s U.S. Open tennis championship can cost over $100,000.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"bp3o8\">But a spot on the court where you might get pelted by Coco Gauff or Carlos Alcaraz\u2019s flying drops of sweat? For that, you\u2019ll get paid $19 an hour.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"g5k2\">At every professional tennis match, there\u2019s a group of six people who stand along the sides ready to supply players with fresh balls and retrieve stray ones from the court. This team is called the ball crew, and applications to join this year\u2019s U.S. Open crew are now live.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"a1216\">Tournament organizers said they are still looking for 100 people to join the team and don those <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usopen.org\/en_US\/news\/articles\/2024-09-06\/best_photos_of_the_us_open_ball_crew_in_action_at_the_2024_us_open.html\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">iconic<\/a> multicolored Polo Ralph Lauren outfits.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"6pcnc\">\u201c\u200aIt really is the coolest summer job that someone could have,\u201d \u200asaid U.S. Open Ball Crew Director Neal Kitson. \u201c\u200aThe ball crew, they feed off the energy of the crowd, the spectators, as well as the players. They&#8217;re all part of the competition.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"doqo2\">Kitson said they favor candidates with some kind of tennis background, but deep knowledge of the sport isn\u2019t essential.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"eqtad\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.usopen.org\/en_US\/content\/us_open_ball_crew_application.html\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">online application<\/a> has some basic tennis trivia questions, like \u201cHow many Grand Slam tournaments are played each year\u201d and \u201cWhat is the term for a score of 40-40?\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"796v7\">(Answers: 4; Deuce. Don\u2019t say we told you.)<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"f1v9q\">Those who pass the initial application are asked to attend an in-person tryout in June where they hit the courts at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"7djjf\">\u201c\u200aDuring the trial process, we&#8217;re looking at their agility, their speed, their hand-eye coordination, their urgency on court,\u201d Kitson said.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"24kft\">Kitson said the youngest crew members are 14 and the oldest in their late 40s.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"8fl85\">One important skill is rolling the tennis ball along the ground. You\u2019ve probably seen this on TV: ball crew members quickly gather stray balls and roll them 40 feet down the court, straight and fast as laser beams.<\/p>\n<p data-block-key=\"6cht9\">\u201c\u200aThink of it like bowling,\u201d Kitson said. \u201cYou want to get down and low, so that you&#8217;re releasing it close enough to the ground where it&#8217;s a nice, smooth roll.\u201d Kitson said they\u2019ll teach applicants proper form, but it doesn\u2019t hurt for those interested to start practicing at home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Luxury suites for this summer\u2019s U.S. Open tennis championship can cost over $100,000. But a spot on the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":570693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":["post-570692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=570692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/570693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}