The drama was of the variety Wimbledon organisers dread — a nail-biting, first-round match on popular outside court 17 brought to a sudden halt. An injured player? A disputed line call? No, the collapse of a ball boy in the blistering 35c heat.
The Lawn Tennis Association later posted a tweet that the boy was receiving treatment and ‘doing well’.
But drawing such public attention to the silent teenage sentinels who make each high-octane match possible would not have gone down well with the custodians of this hallowed championship, for whom off-court discretion is key.
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Sophie Norris, 16, one of this year’s ball girls, made it on to Centre Court and court one last year when Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer were playing
Sophie, a pupil at Ursuline High School, has won a sixth form place at Reed’s, the tennis academy whose alumni includes Tim Henman. Mum Silvia (pictured, right, with Sophie), 45, a church secretary, describes the Wimbledon ball girl training as ‘gruelling’
For while the teenagers who line the courts of SW19 may be stars to their proud parents, they are only deemed to be executing their roles correctly if they are invisible. And as parents of past ball boys and girls attest, those that put a toe out of line are replaceable.
‘It’s ruthless,’ says Susanne Gunman, whose daughter, Julia, 17, was a Wimbledon ball girl in 2013 and 2014, but did not make the final cut this year. ‘Though Julia loved every minute of it — and I’m immensely proud of her — if some parents knew what it entailed, they might not put their child forward.’
