Camden Haven youngsters have rubbed shoulders with international tennis royalty during the ATP Cup and Sydney Classic in Sydney.
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Kendall Tennis Club juniors Elijah Livingston, 13 and Elwood Dollery, 13, were part of the NSW ball squad selected for the ATP Cup and Sydney Tennis Classic.
Dollery started his ball kids campaign on centre court at Ken Roswell Arena for the Spain versus Chile match, before running out for the Russia versus Italy match and backing up for the Australia versus France game.
"We headed down to the cup on December 31 and started on January 1. It was a bit nerve wracking when I started but that started to lessen after a few days," he said.
"I made some good friends with some of the other ball kids and some of the officials. Elijah and I would talk about how things were going.
"I would definitely do it again because it was really fun."
Ball kids are stationed next to the net and base of the court. They are rotated on and off the courts every 45 minutes.
Dollery, who has played tennis for five years, said he was particularly excited to be watching Australian tennis idol Alex de Minaur from the sidelines during the ATP Cup from January 1 to 9.
"Alex de Minaur was probably one of my favourite tennis players that I got to see. He won the last point of the last set right next to me as I was ball kidding," he said.
"He's a good inspiration for young people and it was a good experience to see him play in person.
"My next match of the Sydney Classic I'm supposed to be ball kidding on the court with Andy Murray, which should also be great."
Dollery and Livingston will continue on to ball kid at the Sydney Classic from January 10 to 15.
Dollery is a junior assistant and plays in the A grade at the Kendall Tennis Club. The club has provided more than fifty ball runners over the last decade.
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