KEY POINTS:
Ballgirl Rachael Murray can count on a watchful expert eye to check her skills - her grandmother was a ballgirl and so was her mother.
Twelve-year old Rachael - a Year 9 student at Diocesan School - is captain of one of the ballkid teams at the Heineken Open in Auckland.
Her allowance of $15 a day is $14 more than her mother Robyn Murray, a ballkid in 1974, used to earn.
Mrs Murray served as a ballkid when John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg and Ivan Lendl were still the prima donnas of the courts.
Grandmother Elisabeth Wilson said times had changed since she was on the courts as a ballgirl.
"It didn't matter if you were a girl - you'd still be called a ballboy back then," Ms Wilson said.
Ballboys in her time were not given any training and uniform, and were only paid with free bottles of Cokes, said Ms Wilson, who served in the first international tournaments in New Zealand.
"When I'm watching matches now, I often meet some players who I used to ball boy for," she said.
Six teams of eight ballkids are working in rotation on all four courts at the ASB Tennis Centre.
Team leader Lenore Clark said every team would be given a chance to serve on centre court where they can have the television experience.
It is Rachael's third year serving at the international tournament and - despite being hit in the shoulder by a ball travelling at 198km/h - she says she loves the job.
"It's fun being a ballkid because I can get really close to famous tennis players."
