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AP, BRISBANE, Australia
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Formula 1 has done it, and so has professional golf, the NHL and the elite tennis tour. Now it is time for ball boys and ball girls to take center court in a reality-style documentary.
Tennis Australia this week said Ballkids, a 65-minute film, is set to “lift the lid on the unsung heroes of the Australian Open” (AO).
Filmed at the season-opening Grand Slam tournaments in 2023 and last year at Melbourne Park, the documentary is to premiere on May 3 at the Gold Coast Film Festival in Queensland.
Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus helps a ball kid catch an insect during her Australian Open quarter-final against Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic in Melbourne on Jan. 23 last year.
Photo: AP
While it would not have the high-profile, episode-style format of F1’s Drive to Survive, which is this week to start its seventh season, Full Swing in golf or Faceoff: Inside the NHL, which is now in production for its second season, the makers of Ballkids said it would chronicle the often cut-throat selection process and rigorous training program.
The documentary says that of 3,000-plus applications, only 420 are chosen as Australian Open ball kids in any given year. That is for the right to cope with the stress of performing, at times, in front of 14,000 to 15,000 people in the main Rod Laver Arena, with millions of people watching on television or streaming sites around the world.
Tennis already had Break Point, which ran for two seasons on Netflix and featured players from the ATP and WTA Tours, but Ballkids is set to show the “unsung heroes who only share the court with the world’s best players.”
Friendships are made early on in the qualifying process, but the kids know they are competing against each other for coveted spots on the team.
“Nothing will fully prepare you for the pressure,” an Australian Open official says in the documentary. “A rookie’s first AO experience is like a really friendly smack in the face.”
That is particularly true near the end of the tournament when the so-called “Top Gun” winners are announced. They are the ball kids who get to work the championship finals in men’s and women’s singles, doubles and mixed doubles. At that point, perhaps some friendships made, and some lost.
Ballkids was produced by Run Wild Productions in association with Mischief Media and is narrated by Australian comedian-actor Celia Pacquola.
“We’ve always known that the ball kids are integral to the smooth running of the tournament, but Ballkids shows just how much effort, skill and determination it takes to make it to the top,” said Scott Baskett, a director and producer at Run Wild Productions. “This documentary is not just about tennis, it’s about resilience, teamwork, and the pursuit of perfection — values that transcend the sport.”
