Ball boys and girls are trained to perfection as they share the court with the world's biggest tennis stars
More than 180 hand-picked youngsters are the real stars of the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships and have the training scars to prove it.
Scuffed knees, sprained ankles and the odd burnt brow are just a few glitches these young tennis fans have to endure over the two-week event.
But the signed hats, T-shirts and tennis balls, as well as the fact they get to see the world's tennis greats in action, certainly seem to make up for it.
Different breed
These kids are a different breed. Trained to perfection, they barely speak (unless spoken to), move around the court with military precision and can throw a ball in the straightest line you can imagine.
It takes hours of coaching for Clark Francis - the director of the academy of the same name - to get the kids up to scratch to perform under pressure.
He said: "The youngsters have an incredible responsibility to the tournament and we have to make sure they understand that."
Fun
But an element of fun was introduced before the big matches on Tuesday as the ball girls and boys were involved in the Dugas Kids day at the tennis stadium.
Bursting on court in a seemingly endless snake of Lacoste-clad children, the youngsters were joined by WTA tennis star Rennae Stubbs from Australia.
More than 500 children and teachers from schools across the city participated in the fun and received tennis tips from Francis, his team and Stubbs. Stubbs demonstrated the importance of a good serve as well as a strong forehand and backhand.
Training
The ball girls and boys are mainly selected from the academy, with a few exceptions, so they already have an understanding of the game.
Francis added: "The product of careful selection and rigorous training, these youngsters fully understand the importance of their roles, and, although they may not realise how fortunate they are to share the court with some of the top stars on the international circuit, they certainly take their duties very seriously."
The ball kids are divided into teams of 10, each answerable to a team captain whose job it is to train, motivate and roster his or her team."
Training sessions involve general fitness and movement exercises, circuits, ball skills (rolling, feeding, receiving), developing knowledge of the game, scoring (e.g. knowing which end the balls should be at from the score), and set pieces (marching, start and end of game, tie-break, ball change, suspended play, etc).
