The BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore is an annual prestigious event where the top eight players in the Women’s Tennis Association all around the world compete to be the grand-champion. Ball kids (commonly known as ball boys or ball girls) are present in the WTA Finals to ensure that the matches run smoothly and quickly. Contrary to what most people believe, it is a very important job and requires an immense amount of concentration.

In February 2017, I tried out to be a ball kid after my dad received an email from the WTA finals about the tryouts. At first, I was hesitant, but the promise of a life-changing experience and the chance to meet some WTA legends convinced me to volunteer to serve players in a sport I did not know how to play - I only like to play basketball, cricket, badminton and baseball.

I was selected to be an official ball kid in March 2017, and training sessions took place very early most Saturday mornings leading up to the event in October. Training was very tedious, and I thought about quitting many times throughout the year but I persevered because I knew the experience would be incredible. And it was indeed! Once I was in the finals, I knew the tough training had been worth it!

Even though we had 8 months worth of training to prepare us, I still felt very overwhelmed at my first match: Jelena Ostapenko vs Garbiñe Muguruza. We had to be careful not to distract the players and I knew that if I made any mistakes I would be removed from the court.

It was extremely difficult to understand what the players wanted, as they would make very small gestures. For example, if a player wanted a towel, she would stare at the towel until a ball kid gave it to her. If they wanted a ball, they would just look at a ball kid, and say nothing. Sometimes, the player might look at a ball kid, even if she did not want a ball - this was very confusing. At one point, Venus Williams screamed, “Just give me the ball!” (I thought she was just glancing around). Luckily, the trainer didn’t notice and I wasn’t removed from the match!

In the end, the experience was amazing and I loved (almost) every minute. I got to meet Caroline Garcia, Jelena Ostapenko, Caroline Wozniacki, Venus Williams, Elina Svitolina, Karolina Pliskova, Garbiñe Muguruza, Simona Halep, all the doubles players, Martina Navratilova, and Chris Evert.

Although the training was difficult, I cannot wait for next year and I hope to see some familiar faces from CIS at the training.