Who would imagine Nadal or Federer to get a ball from the baseline or at the net like the average player?
The “ job ” of collecting balls is there to avoid this chore. They are more than two hundred to occupy this function during the tournament of Roland-Garros, the largest tournament in the world on clay.
Wisely installed in a place of the ground, motionless, they jump as soon as the exchange is finished to go to pick up the small yellow ball, which they will throw, as soon as they have regained their position, to a partner or to give to one of the competitors. . They are fast, lively, skilful …
If they demonstrate qualities during their passage on a court, they may be called upon to exercise their talent on one of the prestigious courts of the Porte d’Auteuil stadium.
Who are these young people who, for a fortnight, will rub shoulders with the greatest champions? They were selected following their application. But the course is if not long, at least strewn with pitfalls.
Initially, with 2,500 to 3,000 applicants, they will meet a little more than two hundred to go to Paris. Alexis Dupont, young Valencian licensee, is in the running.
He is 14 years old, is in third at the Collège Saint Exupéry in Condom, is part of the tennis section of the establishment for the third year, and has been practicing this sport since the age of 7. He is therefore a student of the local tennis school directed by Pierre Maurrin and, if the confinement limits his playing time, he uses the holidays to indulge in it.
So this summer, he did an internship in Spain, one week in Cullera, a way to better understand the clay that he hopes to tread this spring after having passed the various selection tests.
He will have as supporters, of course, his parents Sylvain Commercial for Belgian beer Délirium, his mother Marie-Corinne, secretary at Sygnatures and president of the Lous Petits association, his sister Maëlys, 8 years old, all licensed at the local club, and his comrades from a dynamic sports association who lavish their encouragement on him.
Claude Laffargue
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