The highly coveted roles of Wimbledon’s ball boys and ball girls, known as “BBGs,” demand a rigorous selection process.
Each year, approximately 280 young people are chosen to ensure the smooth running of matches, diligently feeding balls to players and retrieving any that go astray.
The journey to becoming a BBG begins in around 30 local schools, which participate in a scheme to train and select pupils for the Wimbledon try-outs.
Successful candidates, predominantly 15-year-olds, undergo weekly training from February to June, mastering the art of “feeding” the ball to players and rolling it efficiently across the court.
Affan Naseer, a 15-year-old first-time ball boy, shared that while the overall experience was enjoyable, he distinctly recalled the warm-up sessions as particularly challenging.
He said: “At the end, they make you sprint on the spot for 10 seconds, and they expect you to stand as still as you can for a bit. The warm-up is very intense.”
Despite the hard work, Affan said he felt it was a privilege to be a ball boy at Wimbledon, and a chance to follow in his uncle’s footsteps.
Affan said: “My uncle did it when he was younger… I was like, ‘I’ll do it, and then I’ll carry on your legacy’.”
He said that his uncle felt “really proud” of him and had managed to spot him on the big screens while watching a match on Tuesday.
Affan said he found it particularly exciting when things got heated on court, as it reflected the intensity of the high-stakes championships.
He said: “It’s not a good thing that it’s heated, but like it just feels nice that it’s a very intense match.
“People are crowding around, and I’m in my own comfortable spot, looking at the whole match, so that’s a very nice thing.”
“Personally, I feel very privileged to be here,” Affan said.
“Mainly because it’s an international event, where you can see people from around the world, players from around the world.
“I wasn’t born in this country, I was born in rural Pakistan, and then I came to this country.
“Now that I look back to it, and I could never imagine being in a position where you have a lot of responsibility, and that responsibility pays off, and then you get to see a lot of great people, great sportsmanship, and also the kit – it’s very nice.”
Ball girl Summer Reid, 15, is a captain, meaning she oversees a team of BBGs.
She said: “I’m in charge of doing changes, and at the end of matches I have to switch over to the new balls at the ball distribution store and check what court my team is going to be on.”
Summer said the discipline required to be a ball girl at Wimbledon was something she would like to carry with her beyond the tournament.
She said: “I think having the ability to say that I was a Wimbledon ball girl on a CV or something is quite impressive, because they know the standards that it’s taken to get here.”
