Saville was in town overseeing the trials at Kendall Tennis Club.

It was selected as one of only three regional locations to host ball kid trials for the Sydney Apia International Tennis Tournament in January 2017.

What she saw on Saturday further emphasised the importance of the Kendall community.

“There was a couple of people who were there that attended just to watch the kids do what they do,” she said.

“I’ve never seen that happen before.”

Saville said about 20 ball kids trialled for what is expected to be six positions on court in Sydney early next year.

“It’s a breath of fresh air for me seeing the kids go through their paces; I get a real kick out of it,” she said.

“The standard was quite high and that’s due to the wonderful work Wendy Hudson does at the club and that’s extremely pleasing.”

Saville said the ball kids who trialled had been doing it for varying amounts of time.

“Previously they’ve been auto-selected if they did it the year before, but that’s not the case anymore,” she said.

Ball kids came from not only Port Macquarie, Kendall and Coffs Harbour, but one girl travelled from Tamworth.

“They’ll all go into the melting pot, but won’t know until the end of June who goes through,” Saville said.

“It was a fabulous day and Kendall did a great job hosting it.

“We’re looking forward to building on what they did for next year.”