U.S. Open ball crew tryouts at USTA Tennis Center draw hundreds for highly-sought positions in famed tennis tournament

Jittery nerves were in abundance at the Billie Jean King USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Friday, as hundreds of prospective ball crew members attempted to secure one of 80 highly sought-after positions for the U.S. Open Championships.

The tryouts, which were split between a Friday session and a Sunday session, saw about 460 applicants, ages 14 and up, compete to join the 240 retained ball crew members from last year.

U.S. Open Ball Crew Lead Neal Kitson compared the role of the ball crew to that of the stage crew at a Broadway play.

"They’re transitioning from point to point; it’s like a seamless transition that allows play to move smoothly," he said in an interview.

He said that they received 1,600 applications from people all over the world, which was then whittled down to a list less than a third long.

"We had a six-question questionnaire. They had to get no more than two [questions wrong on it]", Kitson explained.

"Then after that, we looked at those who had experience at another ball crew tournament ...[and we also] looked at current high school athletes of all sports in the tristate area," he added.

At the live tryout, the applicants were evaluated in how well they rolled a ball, how smooth it runs along the ground, their speed, accuracy, and hand-eye coordination, as crews roll the balls to each other during play.

Tomas Tarnopolsky, 19, of Harlem, was part of the ball crew in 2022, but stopped due to college. While he got wait-listed for the crew last year, he is hoping to get back in to what he described as a "great community."

"I think it went well," he said. "The first [year I tried out], I actually wiped out. I fell over and I looked straight up at the person adjudicating, sort of smiled and got on with it." He was accepted, despite the fall.

Mya Melendez of Levittown, a junior at General Douglas MacArthur High School., was a first-time applicant. She applied because she likes watching tennis and playing with her grandparents, and was inspired after seeing the ball crew at last year’s Open, and seeing an ad for it on Instagram.

Melendez said that she practiced by rolling balls and tossing them in her house with her father.

"I feel like you have to be fast, you have to be into the game, and I think you just have to know what’s going on," she said, describing herself as "excited, but a little nervous."

Her father, Fabian Melendez, described how excited she was after being picked to try out in person.

While he said it was "a little nerve-wracking" watching her, he added that "as long as she’s having fun and doing her best, I have no issues."

A similar sentiment was echoed by Kitson, who told the first group of tryouts to not let their nerves take over, and enjoy the experience.

"One thing that I love to have on my team are people who are showing their teeth. They’re smiling [and] having a good time," he told them.

The applicants will find out the results next week.