Congratulations to Martha Dawkins Schwiening and Matthew Stenson who have both been slected in the final thirty squad to be ball kids at this years Barclays ATP World Tour Finals held at the O2, London from 21st – 28th November.
After a four month search thirty Martha and Matthew have been selected to be Ball Kids at this year’s Barclays ATP World Tour Finals held at the O2, London from 21st – 28th November.
Both Martha and Matthew were selected from 1,601 hopefuls that took part in the nationwide search.
The programme began with a series of ten regional trials held on week-ends in February and March, with 115 children aged between 12-16 being chosen from these to attend the final stage of the search – the National Selection Trials that took place last Saturday at The Westway Sports Centre, London.
Here Martha and Matthew were tested on their agility, endurance, co-ordination, ball skills, speed and team work, under the watchful eye of the Barclays Ball Kid Talent ID team, former Wimbledon Champion Pat Cash, tennis trickster Mansour Bahrami and Andy Murray’s former coach Mark Petchey.
“All the kids showed a great attitude and the standard has been fantastic, far better than I expected,” said Cash who himself was a ball boy as a youngster to Australian legend Peter McNamara. “When I was younger being a ball kid had a huge influence on me wanting to become a tennis player, so I think the scheme is a great idea as it gives kids from any area of the country the chance to have a go and get involved.”
“I think the Barclays Ball Kids programme shows how much interest there is in tennis in this country,” said Petchey. “There are a lot of talented kids here and to see how motivated and inspired they are is just thrilling. The standard has been extremely high, a lot of these kids have travelled quite a distance to get involved in this programme and to see that kind of commitment shining through is really exciting.”
Martha and Matthew will now undergo two training sessions and an intensive five day ‘Base Camp’ in October where they will perfect their skills before joining the world’s top eight tennis players on court as Ball Kids at the 2010 Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.
Kids wanting to take part in this once in a lifetime opportunity next year should register their interest at www.barclaysballkids.com