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U.S. Open Ball Person Confidential (The Art of Being Invisible)

Ball people are hired to disappear. But the job has its own hierarchy, its own hazing grounds and its own hard rules. Backs must deliver the length of the court on one bounce, rookies are exiled to the outer courts, and nobody, under any circumstances, touches the vomit.

(Editor’s note: This article was originally published on August 27, 2014.) For three years, I worked the U.S. Open courts as a ball person. I wasn’t the quickest. I didn’t have the best hands. But I was super-focused, and I had an above-average arm. I wound up working a match in Arthur Ashe Stadium and being runner-up for Rookie of The Year. I was surprised too that such a title exists.

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