Mastercard |
Australia’s first wheelchair ballkid

As the tennis world geared up for the 2024 Australian Open, we launched Australia’s first wheelchair ballkid pilot program with Mastercard, via Eleven PR, to demonstrate the potential for wheelchair users to be ballkids in tennis tournaments all around the world.

Ballkids are essential to tennis tournaments, yet not all kids have the opportunity to take part. We worked with 11 year-old wheelchair user and Junior Wheelchair Tennis Champion, Sonny Rennison to create an open-sourced device to make one of tennis’ most iconic roles more accessible than ever before.

To create the pilot program, we connected with Grand Slam trainers, current and former world ranked players and disability consulting firm, Get Skilled Access, to design a cutting-edge ball holder and collector that was designed specifically for wheelchair users to use on the court.

Says Sonny Rennison, ‘I have never seen a wheelchair ballkid before, so I thought it would never happen which made me sad when I was younger. I am excited and thankful to have this opportunity and to hopefully encourage other kids in wheelchairs who might want to be ballkids but didn’t think they could, like me. I hope we can show them that nothing is impossible and to keep pursuing their dreams.’