Aces ball kids meet tennis stars

A group of young St. Louis area tennis players have got the best seats in the house when the St. Louis Aces team plays at Forest Park. They are right on the court as ball kids for the matches.

Grace Alexander

Last month, teenagers Grace Alexander and Ty Merkle worked their first Aces matches. The Sacramento Capitols were the Aces opponent.

The Capitols' star attraction is Anna Kournikova. The former pro tour campaigner now plays only part-time. She's mainly trying to use her beauty and glamour for a modeling and movie career.

Ty Merkle

Before the matches started, 13-year-old Ty of St. Peters, Mo., was telling other ball kids when they could get Kournikova's autograph on a tennis ball.

But, for 13-year-old Grace of Ballwin, Mo., she'd be more interested in pro player Andy Roddick. She said top-seeded Roger Federer is her favorite player. But, she admits she liked Roddick "for his good looks."

The Aces' matches in the World Team Tennis league are the best chances for young area tennis players to see professional tennis. And for each set of matches, the Aces recruit 18 kids 10-to-14 to police the courts as ball kids.

The Aces-Sacramento match was a good example why they need 18 ball kids. Although the matches started at 7 p.m., the temperature was still well into the 90s and, of course, the courts were in full sunshine.

Corley Ward is the Aces' ball kid supervisor. He said kids can signup to be a ball kid by registering on the Aces website at www.stlouisaces.com.

Mr. Ward said six kids are on the court for a match. Although they work for free, the kids get to meet the pros after the matches, get a free ticket for one parent and also get refreshment tickets.

The kids made good use of the drink coupons between the Aces-Capitols matches.

For most of the kids, the main attraction is the chance to see the pro players close up.

Derek Hamm

Fourteen-year-old Derek Hamm of Belleville, Ill., said one of his notable tennis experiences involved Andy Roddick. This year is Derek's third as an Aces ball kid.

Two years ago, Roddick was playing a match at the Aces. Derek said, "I did the Roddick match and almost got hit by one of his serves. And it was going fast." Roddick is noted as having one of the fastest serves on the pro tour.

Derek said he pays attention to serve speed. That's because he lists his slow second serve as being one of the weaknesses of his tennis game.

But, he says his favorite tennis player is Jimmy Connors. A former star pro player, Conners is also from Belleville.

Zack Huels

Thirteen-year-old Zack Huels of Fenton, Mo., is in his second year as a ball kid. He said his most memorable Aces memory involved almost being hit by a falling scoreboard.

The almost-accident happened last year. An Aces match started at the Dwight Davis Tennis Center in Forest Park. But, the action was interrupted by rain.

Zack said the match was taken to an indoor racket club at Creve Coeur. He said the relocated scoreboard was shaky and almost hit him when it fell.

Zack said his favorite tennis player with Andre Agassi. He said he likes Agassi's play because of his foot speed in tracking down shots. Zack said his foot speed is the best part of his tennis game also.

However, Ty Merkle said one of his biggest problems is lack of foot speed. He said his lessons at the Creve Coeur Racket Club feature work on conditioning to try to increase his coverage of the court.

Courtney Huels

Eleven-year-old Courtney Huels is Zack's sister. She's also in her second year as an Aces ball kid. She said her favorite memory of her Aces work is "just being here with the players." She said, "We get to meet them afterwards."

Most of the ball kids listed their forehand shots as the strongest part of their own tennis game. And almost all of them list the backhand volley as the biggest weakness.

Grace, Zack and Courtney all said they started playing tennis when they were 3. And they've all continued to take lessons since then.

The kids got to participate in a very competitive match between the Aces and the Capitols. The score was tied when Aces' John Paul Fruttero won the last singles match of the night.

The win put the Aces record to 5-3, just behind Sacramento's 6-3. The Springfield, Mo., team is on top of the Western Division of the World Team Tennis at 7-1. New York leads the Eastern Division with a 7-2 record.