The touring professionals’ annual visit to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island, arrived with major changes in 2025, and one of those changes was the reintroduction of a women’s tournament that was won on Sunday by resurgent American Caty McNally.
Bringing back the women via a WTA Tour 125 event provided a fresh sense of inspiration for many attendees, including a particular ball kid.
“It’s pretty cool, considering it’s only been men. Now with the women it’s even cooler, because it’s more similar to my own game. And they’re closer to my age, which is crazy,” said Neva Matos.
The 17-year-old, Rochester native just completed her fifth year serving as a ball kid for the only tour event played on grass courts in the United States. Traditionally beginning as Wimbledon ends, the revised Hall of Fame Open was held this year during the second week of Wimbledon.
Matos and the ATP and WTA tours turn almost exclusively to America’s hard courts through the rest of the summer, leading up to the US Open. But for one more week, grass was home to tennis, where Matos and many other young players put down their racquets and got a close-up look at some of the elite talent in the world.
“I think one day my mom (Darbi) saw that they were taking kids on the website. They separate you into different courts,” recalls Matos, who eventually worked her way up to being a crew leader. “Your job is to make sure your team is on time, that they’re (in uniform) and doing their job on and off court.”
On the court, ball kids are like fire ants, scurrying about frenetically but with a unified purpose to serve the needs of huffing, puffing, sweating tennis players who are trying to make the very best of anywhere from 10 to 25 seconds in between points.
Sometimes ball retrieval involves the one that got away and might be sent back by a well-meaning spectator but at a poorly timed moment. Somehow, the crews manage the location of six balls, get them to the two ball kids on the server’s end of the court and recover their positions – oftentimes in less than 10 seconds.
There were 121 points played in the ATP Challenger (men’s) singles final and 161 points played in the women’s final. Given all that running around, Matos and the other crew leaders help the chair umpire notice when a ball kid might be lacking proper hydration.
“What we do is we actually have typically more than six people on a team, that way the kids can rotate out on changeovers,” said Matos. “There’s no one staying on the whole match, there’s a time to eat. It’s definitely a long day with back-to-back matches on a hot day.”
In its first year since 1986 with simultaneous men’s and women’s draws, the Hall of Fame Open was challenged with a rainy week. Players, officials, spectators and ball kids did a lot of sitting around for a Thursday session that never got started. Sometimes tennis is a game of hurry up and wait.
“We came in about 11:00 (am) or so and it was still raining,” said Matos, whose team was instructed that tennis would not begin before 2:30 pm. “We got out there… (through the playing of the national anthem before rain resumed), and we left the court.”
Matos continues her playing career throughout the summer. She played two USTA, age-group events prior to the Hall of Fame Open and has two more scheduled. In between competitions, she works on her game at Montoya Tennis Training based in Acton and Tewksbury.
“There’s not a lot of players in our league (South Coast Conference) who play USTA,” she noted. “I play tennis all year round.”
The offseason work will make the rising senior a prohibitive favorite to repeat as SCC Player of the Year, but her mind is more trained on helping the Old Rochester Regional High School girls tennis team achieve its potential.
The Bulldogs went undefeated this past spring through the regular schedule and won the conference tournament before a disappointing, second-round loss in the MIAA Division 3 state tournament.
Matos took up tennis at age nine, started playing competitively at 11, and for the last six years has been a single-sport athlete. Her passion for the game notwithstanding, she keeps tennis in perspective.
“I know I definitely want to go to college… I’m more academically driven… if tennis follows, it follows. Tennis won’t be a deciding factor,” says Matos, who added she would like to major in biology and probably pre-med. “I definitely would still want to play, whether it’s club…”
As for her career as a ball kid at the International Tennis Hall of Fame, that road may continue as well.
“Maybe a few more years,” she said. “I enjoy it a lot, it’s a fun time, you get best seat in the house.”
By Mick Colageo