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Courting controversy: the Madrid ball girls

Britain's Tim Henman, the top seed, will today find himself in the middle of an extraordinary row over ball-girls when he steps on court at the Tennis Masters event in Madrid.

The tournament has made headlines in Spain this week following a decision by organisers to replace the young fans normally used as ball-girls and boys with professional female models.

The 19 to 28-year-olds are now employed in most of the televised matches at the tournament.

Despite winning applause from spectators, they had a mixed reception off-court.

Left-wing Madrid politician Ines Sabanes said employing the women, who wear skirts and tight tops, was sexist and frivolous.

Parents of the teenagers they ousted felt it was heartless. "This kills the children's dreams of sharing a court with their idols," said a 50-year-old mother.

Many fans questioned the models' lack of experience: most knew little about tennis before signing up for the job and have had two weeks of lessons to prepare.

"I started from zero, apart from a bit of messing around on the beach," said Mercedes Munoz, 26, at a pre-game make-up session.

The ball-girls they replaced, who dressed in less glamorous black shorts and shirts, have expressed annoyance and disappointment at the decision, which has been condemned as a politically incorrect publicity stunt. "We think its very, very bad because in a game of tennis the centre of attention should be the player," said one 14-year-old who did not want to be named. "It's sport, not a catwalk."

Only the players seem to have shrugged off the controversy.

"When you're on the court, you only look at the ball and your coach. As long as its the same ball, it doesn't matter [who throws it]," said Spain's Alex Corretja. "You're not going to get distracted, only if they don't know how to throw the ball. I don't care, the tournament can decide what they want. No one is speaking about this in the locker room."

Corretja, whose best showing of the season was the semi-finals at Washington two months ago, stands 86th in the world and has fought hard all season, playing challengers and accepting wild cards into tournaments. His refusal to get involved in the controversy may have something to do with the way he got into the Madrid event.

In another break with tradition, the tournament organisers allowed readers of a Madrid paper to vote for the player they wanted to receive a wild-card entry. That man was Corretja, the popular Catalan from Barcelona.

Meanwhile, Henman, who faces Spain's Albert Costa in the second round tonight, has rated this year his most enjoyable, despite failing to make the last four at Wimbledon and seeing Britain relegated from the Davis Cup World Group.

Henman, who reached the semi-finals at the French and US Opens in 2004 after linking up with with new coach Paul Annacone, said: "It's definitely been my best year. Going back to the first conversation I had with Paul, he said to me, 'I really think you can have some of your best success on clay.'

"He said one of the aspects is my athletic ability. I think there's an art to moving on clay and I think that's why a lot of players in this country struggle because they don't know how to move.

"And he said my style of game [was another aspect] because there aren't many players who play like me any more, coming into the net and using the volley as much.

"I know the out-and-out clay court players who like long rallies from the baseline hate playing me because there is no rhythm and there aren't any long rallies if I can avoid it. I took my game to clay."

 

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