What’s it like to be a ball girl at the US Open?
Nancy Zhang knows a thing or two about that…
Speaking to Betway, she said: “I did it for the summer of 2023. Many people do it for multiple summers, but the timings didn’t work out for me to do it the year after. I would love to do it again.
“I think the hardest thing was keeping up with the pace during a tiebreaker and the change of service. I think because I was new to it, and it was quite challenging keeping on top of all the rules. It’s so fast and so much to remember and to keep track of. It’s also quite hard keeping track of who is who in the game when you’re looking at the scoreboard.
|As I’m new, I hadn’t heard of some names before; I was constantly saying, ‘What’s her name?’ I would often have to keep track based on the colour of their shirt. I would go, ‘Ok, the red shirt now has a point.’ That was the mental dialogue and part of why it was mentally exhausting because you’re figuring out what happens when player one scores a point and what that means for the rest of the game, and what you need to be doing. Thinking about that for every single point for 90 minutes is tough!
“On the days when it was really hot, I would place an ice cube in my sports bra so the lining would hold it, but it would gradually melt. It would just provide a bit of cool when I needed it. Also, nobody can tell because everyone is so hot and sweating. But that kept me comfortable, and I could mentally focus.”