Cricket World Cup history-maker Alana King's history with Serena Williams, Roger Federer, Kim Clijsters & other tennis champions

Alana King, who made history at the recent ODI World Cup match against South Africa, has a past connection with tennis greats like Serena Williams, Roger Federer, and Bernard Tomic, among others. King served as a ball kid and even trained for tennis before making a career shift to cricket.

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Hailing from the south-east Melbourne suburb of Clarinda and born to Anglo-Indian parents originally from Chennai, Alana King first held a tennis racket at the age of five. Having trained under Ben Salmon during her junior and senior years, she served as a ball kid at the 2011 Australian Open final, where Kim Clijsters won her first Australian Open title.

In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, the 29-year-old shared how she lived her ballkid dream as a kid and even had oportunities to watch titans like Federer and Bernard Tomic. However, she missed the chance of meeting Serena Williams, who she idolized all her life.

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"Being a ballkid was a dream for me as a kid. I always dreamed of myself playing in a grand slam. To see the tennis players a few metres in front of you, and see the way they play, it was the best two weeks of school holidays I ever had."

“To see some of the world’s best … was a pretty surreal moment. Bernard Tomic was actually really nice, which surprises people, but he was a ballkid himself. He respected the ballkids a lot, which was really nice. I had Roger Federer, but the one person I did want, but unfortunately didn’t actually get, was Serena Williams, who is my favourite player of all time," she added.

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King also had fan moments with Marco Baghdatis, and Lleyton Hewitt, watching them play from close proximity.

Alana King, the Australian leg-spinner made history at the recent Women's World Cup match against South Africa, becoming the first bowler to take seven wickets in a Women's ODI match.

Alana King talked about her relationship with tennis coach Ben Salmon

Alana King, who followed her brother’s sporting pursuits, first took up tennis and trained extensively for it. She even competed in the Tennis Victoria Pennant, Australia’s largest inter-club tennis competition. The top sprinter balanced her cricket career with tennis practice under Ben Salmon. Although the latter was supportive when she made a full shift to cricket, he was initially disappointed.

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"He didn’t like it at the time when I picked cricket, but now he is seeing the rewards of me picking cricket over tennis. He is very proud, for sure," she shared in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald.

Besides representing Australia in the international level, she played domestic cricket for a couple of teams as well.

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About the author

Agnijeeta Majumder

Agnijeeta is a US Olympics journalist at Sportskeeda. She holds a Master’s degree in English and has worked as a school teacher, a blogger, a content writer and a sports writer over the past 5 years. A lover of high-adrenaline track and field events, she was also a sprinter during her school days.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone happens to be her favorite Olympian, and the athlete’s feat of breaking four records within 13 months inspires her, apart from the American's body language on and off the track. Grant Hackett swimming with a partially dysfunctional lung and winning gold in Athens is her all-time favorite Olympic moment.

Agnijeeta believes that deriving of unique angles from podcasts and interviews carried out by Olympics.com, along with hype-building of potential Olympic events on social media can help fill the coverage gap during the off season.

When not at her work desk, Agnijeeta likes to sing and paint. She also plays string instruments like guitar and ukulele and is an avid player of word puzzles.

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Edited by Agnijeeta Majumder

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