Tennis Mailbag: The Ethics of Ball Kids, Rise of American Player Billionaires and More

Are ball kids being exploited? Plus, should Jessica Pegula and Emma Navarro’s socioeconomic backgrounds influence how people view their success?

Ball kids are an integral part of the tennis ecosystem, helping events run smoothly. / Eric Bolte-Imagn Images

Submissions have been edited for brevity and clarity.

Hey everyone …

• I’m on the road this week, so this will be an abridged mailbag.

• Here’s this week’s episode of the Served podcast. First, Andy Roddick speaks with the great Chris Eubanks. Then, we seek answers from the Professional Tennis Players Association (PTPA).

• Good soldiering: For the Eastern Pennsylvania and Northeast Ohio crowd, I’ll be doing an event with Stephen A. Smith next week. You can find tickets here. 

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Hi Jon. During the COVID-19 years, players would retrieve and return their sweaty towels themselves. Now they are handing/tossing them to the ball kids again, which I don't think was ever a good idea. Perhaps a minor issue, but I wonder if this should be changed back.

Thanks, Sue

• It’s a minor issue in the sense that the exploited party has yet to reach legal adulthood. But, it’s not a minor (i.e. trifling) issue in the sense that the optics are just terrible. 

One of the many things I like about this column and its readership is that it’s an excellent gauge of public opinion. Few topics are as one-sided as this one. It’s a terrible look for players to wipe their faces and even blow snot rockets into towels. To use a medical term, it’s gross. It’s unhygienic. It conveys a flagrant sense of entitlement and it’s exploitative. I am hard-pressed to think of an issue that draws more consensus.

Last week I cited an ATP-commissioned study that said the public regards the ATP as athletic and rigorous but does not associate the brand with coolness. I ask you: What is less cool than well-paid athletes casually tossing their sweaty towels to docile kids? It’s a bad look. And stop with the weak shot clock rebuttal. This is an unforced error the ATP would do well to address.

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I say ban ball kids. Kids shouldn’t be retrieving balls like my border collie. It’s demeaning. They also shouldn’t be holding umbrellas for players. Give that job to an adult and pay them a decent wage.

@witchregacho

• Hard disagree. We should be all-in on ball kids for a variety of reasons. It’s such a memorable experience. They get a peek behind the curtain and the experience of working—teamwork, punctuality, accountability, etc. They get paid, sometimes in swag, sometimes in currency and always in social currency. (Note how many professional players were once ball kids.) They perform a necessary service. Especially as tennis struggles for ways to connect with kids, I say, more ball kids, not fewer.

The issue is the nature of the job. They should be treated with respect. (We’re looking at you, Yulia Putintseva!) They should not be handling soiled linens. They should get free pizza and swag. The end.

Many professional tennis players once served as ball kids. / Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

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I know this is not about tennis, but could you share your opinion of Caitlin Clark with us after interviewing her? 

Bob Diepold, Charlotte NC

• Sure. Disclaimer: Interviewing someone doesn’t give you license to say you know someone. I don’t want to oversell the relationship or depth of interaction. But in a word, I was dazzled. She’s self-possessed, self-aware, good-humored and good company. 

It was made clear to me in advance—and reinforced during our interview—that Clark wants no part of the culture wars. She knows that anything she says is likely to be co-opted by bad-faith actors. And it does her no good to provide fodder. She’s not going to weigh in on identity politics. She is not going to reveal who she is voting for in this presidential election. She is not going to stoke any fires or give debate shows any fodder. She is strenuously careful to give credit to her teammates, her predecessors and the WNBA as an institution. If you see the rot—on both extremes—on social media and clickbait media, you cannot blame her. (I don’t like to brag, but note this New York Post headline.)

Talk about anything else—basketball, her childhood, football, travel, her Midwest upbringing—and Clark is great. Aware. Self-effacing. She is wise to the point you forget she was in high school five years ago. And she can ball.

If I had to draw a tennis player comparison, I might be inclined to say the similarly-aged Coco Gauff. One of those athletes, nay, people where you walk away saying, If you have a problem with them, odds are good, you are the problem.

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Hey Jon! Assuming you’ve seen Paula Badosa’s nonsensical/racist Instagram picture—using chopsticks to racistly mock Asians (with the China Open tagged)—as a mom and former twenty-something, I advocate for teachable moments and forgiveness. However, that doesn’t mean that such flagrant racism should escape all consequences whatsoever … How should the WTA respond?

Best, Dr. Laura Elizabeth 

• Fair question. Let’s deal with Badosa first. This was regrettable, stupid, ill-advised and all sorts of other adjectives. Do I think she is a flagrant racist? No. (There are abundant acts of kindness and empathy.) Do I think she had ill intentions? No. (Note: Her own team posted this.) But perceptions matter, and it’s easy to see how this could cause hurt and offense. Badosa addressed the photo and responded to a post on X, stating, “Hey guys! Really sorry didn’t know this was offensive towards racism. My mistake. I take full responsibility. This mistakes will make me learn for next time. Hope you understand…. I love you all.” 

This is similar to my stance on Alexander Zverev and Nick Kyrgios. No canceling. Let the marketplace distribute the justice. Some fans will consider this harmless. Some will consider it a microaggression. Some will consider it unforgivable. Leave formal policing out of it and let fans make their own judgments.

The WTA is in a bit of a bind here. Obviously, this is not a good look, especially for a tour that has re-engaged with China. (Pause to note: Where is Peng Shuai? remains a question without a satisfactory or reassuring answer.) But when you are not an employer … when you have no collective bargaining with your players … when you tout empowered, autonomous, independent, self-policing women … are your hands not somewhat tied?

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Pegula advanced to her first major final, falling to Aryna Sabalenka in the 2024 U.S. Open. / Robert Deutsch-Imagn Images

Hi Jon,

Hope all is well. I may be on the wrong side of the internet, but I'm seeing a lot of articles criticizing Jessica Pegula and Emma Navarro for their family's wealth. Not sure if you addressed this yet, but to me they both seem pretty down to earth. They grind out matches, don't play flashy and don’t appear to have a sense of arrogance (i.e. Pegula, riding the 7 train to Flushing Meadows). I saw something of Genie Bouchard coming to their defense, stating money does not get you to the U.S. Open semifinals, but I again saw people calling out Navaro for entering a 125 event post-Beijing, for taking a spot for a player who actually deserves it. This is someone who was playing challengers last year to get her ranking up and had a stellar year. Any 125 event would be thrilled to have a top 10 player at their event to drive attendance. Is all this negativity because both of them broke through at the same time at their home slam? Will this continue to follow them or die down once the new season starts?

Pete, Milwaukee, WI

• Is there a right side of the internet?

While pondering that … I agree 100%. Andy Roddick and I talked about it on the Served podcast last month.

A) This is a lazy non-issue. There are children of billionaires doing well in tennis. There are children of far less privilege doing well. If anything, it speaks well of tennis that the sport can accommodate a diversity of backgrounds.

B) The lazy reductive line, They show a lot of hustle, especially for the children of billionaires, is especially absurd. What tennis player says, My folks have bank, I think I am going to let this ball bounce twice or, My family is from the top tax bracket, I am going to remain pinned behind the baseline?

C) Some people inherit great wealth. Many billionaires are self-made. If anything, doesn’t it stand to reason that Navarro, whose grandfather was a college football coach, would be more inclined to grind, not less?

D) There used to be an adage that colleges would be reluctant to recruit kids from three-car garage homes. The thinking: They were soft and coddled and lacked urgency. But where’s the data? And it’s not just tennis. LeBron James and Draymond Green came from very little. Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson are the sons of former professional athletes. The exponent of tennis hustle and industriousness, Rafael Nadal, grew up in comfort. Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams did not. If someone can make the case that athletes from wealthy households over-index lazy or content, I’d love to see the evidence.

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Jon, I know you have talked about Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard before. What are your thoughts about his game and his future?

G.K. Paris 

• We’ve joked about him before as Tennis Wemby, a young French talent, still figuring out the owner’s manual of his body. If this were a stock, I’d buy. He is huge and his upside is huge. Admittedly, my assessment might be tinged by spending a little time with him and finding him fun, age-appropriate and totally without pretense. 

The hitch: He is very much underbaked. His game is incomplete. His body is incomplete. His conditioning needs improvement. He is in the top 50 with a serve, a forehand and only the vaguest idea of how to construct a point. He is working with Emmanuel Planque, who is regarded as a fine coach. 

Perricard reached a career-high ranking (No. 44) in July. / David Kirouac-Imagn Images

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Jon,

I have a question with respect to your latest mailbag. In one of your responses, you wrote, "Both tours have so much to offer. But they cannot simply be sandwich-filling between the eight (soon-to-be 12) weeks when casual fans tune in."

Can you please clarify what you mean by "soon to be 12." Is that a reference to the other three majors following the U.S. Open in making their respective majors a three-week instead of two-week bonanza?

Thanks,

Tom

• Right. In the arms race among the majors, surely the Aussies, French and All England Club saw the smashing success of the U.S. Open’s qualifying week and will stretch their events commensurately.

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Shots

• The International Tennis Federation and Billie Jean King Cup have confirmed the total player prize money purse for the competition will be $9.6 million. The 2024 women’s world champions will receive $2.4 million to be shared amongst the members of the team. 

• Navarro will play in her hometown tournament for the first time since cracking the top 10. The Credit One Charleston Open, the largest women’s-only professional tennis tournament in North America, will begin on March 29.

• The NCAA announced that the USTA National Campus will host the 2027 NCAA DI Men’s and Women’s Tennis Singles and Doubles Championships and the 2028 NCAA DI Men’s and Women’s Tennis Championships. 

UCF will serve as the host institution, as the USTA National Campus will host the NCAA DI Tennis Championships for the fourth time.

• WTA Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the WTA Tour, is honoring Breast Cancer Awareness Month with the ACEing Cancer campaign.