Celine, 14, mixes with Pippa Middleton, Roger Federer and others at tennis tournament
2:16pm Tuesday 13th December 2011 in News
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A Rickmansworth teenager has spoken about her week as a professional tennis ball-girl.
During the Barclays ATP World Tour, Celine Allen took a point off a top 50 player, sat with Pippa Middleton, and stood with Roger Federer and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga as they battled in the tournament
final.
After a three month selection process, 2,500 children were whittled down to just 30 chosen to be Ball Kids at this year’s tennis season finale at the O2 in London.
Celine, 14, survived the trials, which tested fitness, agility, endurance, co-ordination, ball skills, speed and teamwork, under the watchful eyes of former Wimbledon champion Boris Becker and Andy
Murray’s former coach Mark Petchey.
This was followed by a training camp in October where the chosen 30 took part in an intensive five-day course to perfect their skills.
The Royal Masonic School student said: “Every morning after breakfast and in the late afternoon, we ran demo sessions for local school kids aged
12 to 16 to show them what skills they would need to be Ball Kids.
“We were then given our schedule of when we would be on court and when we would be sitting on the side fielding any balls that came off court.
“Even that was quite exciting, because we got to sit next to lots of celebrities such as Pippa Middleton and several Manchester United players.”
The Ball Kids were also given special surprises throughout the week including a chance to share a birthday cake with Boris Becker.
Celine was also interviewed for radio with Greg Rusedski and Boris Becker and played a doubles match against Michael Llodra, who is currently ranked number 47 in the world.
She said: “The best part of my experience was playing against Llodra where I smashed the ball at him and won the point, which was really cool. I felt a bit bad though, so I apologised.
“Llodra and the other guys were so nice, especially Roger Federer, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and the Bryan Brothers, who were always very willing to have their photos taken with us and sign autographs”.
The week ended with Celine selected as ball-girl for the finals and her memento of the event was a towel given to her by Tsonga who ended the tournament as runner-up, beaten in the final by Roger
Federer.
She said: “I’m not going to wash it, I’m going to frame it and put it up in my room.”
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Article source: http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/9416676.Rickmansworth_teenager_spends_week_with_the_stars_as_tennis_ball_girl/
