In 2000, Susan Yuen tried out for the US Open ball crew on a whim. She was in her early twenties and had just watched the season five episode of Seinfeld where Kramer becomes a ball boy at the tournament. Although she wasn’t an athlete—and in fact hadn’t ever played tennis—she was intrigued.
Flash forward two and a half decades, and Yuen, now 52 years old and working a full-time job as a disability specialist with the Social Security Administration, still spends long hours working with the US Open ball crew each year. After a 10-minute tryout back in 2000, she has since worked her way up to crew supervisor at the tourney, and works as a ball person and supervisor at other tournaments like the Dallas, Miami, Citi, and Atlanta Opens.
In this role, Yuen manages several courts, keeping an eye on the ball people, evaluating things like agility, focus, and ball rolling using a point system. (The crew with the best evaluations can be moved up to bigger courts throughout the tournament, like the coveted Arthur Ashe, where the finalists ultimately duke it out for the Slam.) She’s also a resource if someone gets hurt. “We want to let the ball crew know that there’s also someone they can turn to,” Yuen says.
The squad of more than 300 Ralph Lauren-clad, on-court staffers, tasked with snatching up tennis balls and providing players with more balls after a point, is hard to miss. And while it’s made up of “95 percent young kids,” per Yuen, the US Open has no upper age limit to their ball crew (unlike tournaments like Indian Wells or the French Open). This year, the team spans from age 14 all the way up to folks in their 70s.
For Yuen—who initially signed up for a laugh—this diverse crew is what brings her back, year after year.
“It’s hard to manage work and getting up early, but it’s only for three weeks and you get so much out of working with kids,” she says. “I learn from them—they have this future in front of them. It’s just so nice to have that hope. A lot of people may not feel like kids make any contributions, but they have so much to contribute and to give back to people.”
A Tournament Maven
Each year, prep for the US Open starts long before the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center opens its gates. Ahead of the tournament, Yuen helps run a camp for young ball crew hopefuls. She also assists with new member tryouts, which look a bit different from Yuen’s speedy tryout back in 2000. These days, you have to fill out a written application where Yuen says applicants are tested on their tennis knowledge. During the in-person portion of the tryout, applicants are separated into heats with set call times.
Afterwards, Yuen attends training sessions—two for newbies and one for vets—for the newly-minted ball crew. (Returning crew members don’t have to try out again unless they skip a year, she says.)
The Brooklyn, New York, native usually attends night matches, so she can work her full-time job during the day. For tournaments where she isn’t a local, Yuen uses almost all of her paid time off to work on the ball crews. The US Open is the only one she gets a stipend for; others, she works on a volunteer basis. (FYI, some do have perks, like complimentary tickets or meal allowances, but Yuen pays for her own lodging.)
It may seem like a lot of effort to work upwards of five tennis tournaments each year on top of a nine-to-five job, but Yuen credits the gig with some of her most memorable life experiences. Two years ago, she was part of the history-making crew working an Alcaraz-Sinner match-up, which set a record for the latest-ever US Open match. (It ended at 2:50 a.m.) Another time, a player threw up in front of her after getting heat exhaustion during one of the hottest days of the summer. (When asked if she could remember the name of the player, Yuen replied, “I don’t know, but I know that she had chicken soup for lunch.”)
Over the years, she has collected a number of balls from special matches (including Alcaraz-Sinner). She’s considering making them into a piece of wall art someday.
The sizzling sports energy and the people keep her wanting more. “You have the best seat in the house,” she says. “You are on the court with tremendous people with talent, and you just get that awed feeling.”
Training For The Courts
After 25 years, Yuen knows what it takes to prepare for the tournament’s rigors. As she’s gotten older, she tries to keep up her stamina all year long so that when the time comes, she’s prepared to jump right onto the court—especially since she still works as a ball person (not a supervisor) at tournaments like the Miami Open.
“Every year, it’s something that helps me focus,” she says. “I’m not in the best shape, but it motivates me to keep the routine up a little bit.”
Two of her favorite workouts are gardening, which she jokes serves as her weight training since she’s frequently picking up large bags of soil, and tennis, which she got into after years of working at the Open and other tournaments.
She takes tennis lessons once a week at the National Tennis Center (where the Open is held), playing matches against friends in her spare time. “Being on court with these incredible athletes, you would hope that some of these skills would rub off,” she says. “They make it look so easy, but it’s not!”
Tournaments typically offer practice sessions for new and returning ball crew ahead of time, which Yuen also attends before she’s due on the court. “Each tournament has different styles and different ways of servicing the player,” she says.
Yuen also credits the ball crew with maintaining her “mental acuity.” During a match, they are tasked with tons of behind-the-scenes logistics: Players need fresh balls every nine points, while the server shifts every two points during a tiebreaker. The crew needs to count the points in their head so they don’t miss critical moments.
“You have to stay focused and sharp on the court,” she says. After getting a “good lesson from [her] crew chief,” Yuen has learned to move on quickly from mistakes—and jump back into the point.
The Magic Of The Open
While most people would probably be overwhelmed by the thought of making sure hundreds of children remain as still as possible during an important rally between star athletes, Yuen takes it in stride. The crew all share a locker room, which Yuen says has a “good, chaotic energy” as the kids are mentally preparing to step out onto the courts. And she teaches them about everything from the pressures of working on high-profile courts to the best way to build a cohesive unit.
“When I’m on court, I’m trying to be the best ball person I can be, but I also let them know it’s also human to make a mistake,” she says. “You work as a team and you can’t have that ‘I’m going to show off’ mentality. You work as a team and you look good as a team. You don’t shine as an individual ball person.”
Yuen on the court.
Despite being quite a bit older than some of her crewmates, Yuen says they’re all “like-minded” and bond over their shared love for the sport. That’s what really matters in her book.
“I want to be the best that I can and show them that you can do this at any age.”
Charlotte Walsh (she/her) is an associate news editor with Women’s Health, where she covers the intersection of wellness and entertainment. Previously, she worked as a writer at The Messenger, E! News, and Netflix. In her free time, she enjoys reality television, tennis and films starring Nicole Kidman.
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