It was a momentous milestone, brought about in no small part by an equally momentous champion, Billie Jean King. In 1973, the US Open became the first of the four Grand Slam tournaments to offer equal prize money to men and women competitors, a pioneering move that shook the sport and began to reshape it toward a more equitable future.
As we this year celebrate the 50th anniversary of this important US Open milestone, USOpen.org will feature a series of reflections upon other major markers of equality in tennis across this past half-century, each of which helped to nudge the sport forward toward the grand goal of a more level playing field for all. In this installment, USOpen.org chats with four members of the historic all-female US Open Ball Crew who worked the 2019 US Open women's final.
Bianca Andreescu's win over Serena Williams in the 2019 US Open women’s final was historic in more ways than one: Andreescu, then just 19, was the first Canadian to win a Grand Slam singles title, and she was the first woman to win the US Open in her main-draw debut (a feat since matched by Emma Raducanu.)
But Andreescu’s milestone for women’s tennis was also one for the US Open Ball Crew, as the 10 team members tasked with working the match were all women.
Whether they work just one US Open event or annually, getting selected to work a final of any kind is a crowning achievement for members of the US Open Ball Crew, just as it is for the players who duel on court for the right to be crowned a Grand Slam champion. Their journey begins, typically, in late June at tryouts, and at the start of the tournament, the crew is comprised of nearly 300 team members. That number is whittled down over the course of three weeks, and those who perform the best throughout the three weeks are rewarded with selection for the finals.
Each honor is special, for rookies and returners alike. But there was something about 2019—where a sold-old crowd in Arthur Ashe Stadium watched a fearless teenager from Ontario go toe-to-toe with one of the sport's most iconic champions, and deny her a record-setting 24th Grand Slam singles title with a 6-3, 7-5 triumph—that made it iconic.
Take it from the team members themselves—including Laray Fowler, who hails from New Rochelle, N.Y., and has been on the US Open Ball Crew for 25 straight US Opens to date.
"I think the most exciting part for me was being able to be a part of someone becoming a new winner again," Fowler said. "To be able to fulfill the goal that they started with from the first round, all the way to the end, especially someone who's playing against the GOAT [greatest of all-time] in women's tennis and in women's sports."
"That's a big task to take on, and Bianca truly showed her fight and her hunger to want to win, which was great. It was exciting to be able to say I was there."
"It can be hard to fully appreciate the match when you're working it, but the second half of the match I remember being particularly exciting," added Kelly Terlizzi, a local from Queens who worked her third Open in 2019 and has worked a total of six to date. Williams famously rallied from 5-1 down to knot the second set at 5-5 before Andreescu eventually won the championship.
"As cheesy as it sounds, the energy and noise level are what I remember most," Terlizzi said. "It was a privilege to be on Ashe for that."
The 2019 final crew was diverse in both their origins and experience, and if you ask them, that was part of what made the moment they shared together all the more special. Veteran team members like Fowler, Terlizzi and Alana Menendez, who worked her first US Open at age 11 in 2004, were joined by others like Camilla Trapness, who was a part of her first Open that year.
"There’s always a lot of buzz and rumors the second week of the tournament about who might be selected for the final crews," Menendez said. "I’ve learned from a young age not to get any hopes up and just keep hustling. I remember in 2019, we received the news via email with the whole crew listed. There was a lot of excitement among us about it being an all-ladies crew—our 'girl gang,' as we called it."
As a rookie, Trapness' road to the final had shades of the improbable: Not only was she working her first Open, but she was ready to leave the tournament early to start a new job in Denver, Colo., which was set to begin the Monday following the tournament.
"My last day was supposed to be Wednesday or Thursday of the second week so I could pack and move," she recalled. "I was in the middle of packing when I got an email which said something along the lines of, 'I know you’re not signed up to work this Saturday, but would you be able to come in?' Knowing I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to work on finals weekend, I immediately responded saying I could rearrange my travel schedule if I was needed for the women’s final. I got an email back that said, 'I strongly recommend you rearrange your travel.'
"Later that day, I got an email thanking us for our work over the past three weeks, and congratulating ball people that had been selected to work the women’s final. Despite the subtle heads up I had been given earlier, I was still shocked to see that my name was one of the 10 selected to work the women’s final. As I re-read the email, I realized that it was an all-female crew. I thought it was so cool and was incredibly honored to be a part of such an event."
Further milestones for the Ball Crew are on the horizon. According to Tiahnne Noble, the USTA's manager of officiating experience and US Open Ball Crew Lead, the percentage of female members in the US Open Ball Crew has increased over the last four years to nearly 40%, and with dedicated initiatives in place to help open further opportunities for women in the role, she expects the gap to continue to narrow in the coming years until a 50-50 split is achieved.
But for one very special day in 2019, the US Open Ball Crew was 100% woman—and more than proud to be so.
