James has a ball at the ATP tennis finals

James Wallace, 15, of Meppershall, spent a week at the ATP World Tour Tennis Finals at the O2 in London.

He was one of just 30 successful applicants to be picked based on a combination of agility, endurance, co-ordination, balance, speed, ball-skills, teamwork and leadership over a series of trials.

Now in its fifth year, the Barclays Ball Kids programme attracts more than 1,500 each year.

From this, 700 are picked to attend a series of half day regional trials, with the top 100 going on to the national trial, which this year was held at St George’s Park, the England football team training ground, near Burton-on-Trent.

James, who had previously applied but not been selected, said: “It was a massive shock. I was shaking for about five minutes afterwards because it was such a shock.”

James attended a week long training camp in Southampton, before heading to stay in Greenwich for a week to work at the event.

He explained: “They line you up at the beginning and you run out on to court as the music plays. You get pretty nervous as you don’t want to make a mistake in front of all those people.”

Due to his speed and agility James was chosen for the very prestigious position at the net where his sprinting abilities were put to regular use and his team of six worked on many of the important matches.

He was the ballboy for around two matches a day, with highlights including the clash between Roger Federer and Andy Murray and the exhibition doubles match that saw Novak Djokovic and John McEnroe beat Tim Henman and Pat Cash.

In between matches the youngsters had the opportunity to meet and get autographs from all the top players and 
also worked in the ATP Fan Zone promoting tennis and the Ball Kids programme to the tens of thousands of spectators who came to visit every day.

James is a keen fan of tennis and has been playing since he was six years old.

Currently he trains at Letchworth Sports and Tennis club.

James has also been invited back to help and assist at the regional and National trails next year, where he will be able to pass on his experience to the next group of hopefuls.

He said: “We will get to take part in the training and picking of the next team and that will be good.

“It will be a different perspective.”

Further details of the Barclays Ball Kids scheme and to register for 2015 can be found at www.barclaysballkids.com