KEY POINTS:
Catherine McGrath has been a regular at Auckland's international tennis tournaments for more than half of her 21 years but don't look for her name in lights.
One of the all-important team who work the lines, McGrath loves her time courtside at the ASB Classic and Heineken Open seeing it as the chance to watch the best playing at a level she could never aspire to. And pick up some useful pocket money.
Modestly she admits to playing ladies midweek interclub - often in a doubles pairing with mum Louise - but sees Auckland's international fortnight as the opportunity to get up close with many of the world's best.
One of a handful to have progressed from the ranks of ballkids to the linesperson's role, McGrath, heading into her fifth year of her double [law and arts] degree course at Auckland University, is fully aware of the importance of the job.
"There is a lot more pressure doing the lines than being a ballkid," said McGrath in one of her short breaks on a busy second day at the Classic yesterday. "You are aware that players' livelihoods are involved in the calls you make but we all do the best we can.
"You can't let the crowd or the players influence you. Luckily, I haven't been involved in any controversial incidents. Yet."
McGrath first ran around stadium court at the ASB Tennis Centre as a 10-year-old joining brother Joseph, responding to a call to join the team of boys and girls who scurry back and forth to retrieve balls and ensure the flow of on-court action.
"There is a real advantage in progressing from one to the other," said McGrath, who has followed her mother and grandmother (who played for 83 of her 87 years) on to the courts at Pakuranga's Sunnyhills club. "You know what it is like to spend long hours here."
And, unlike some sports, rotation is not an unfathomable word.
"We have a rotational system which means you are either on centre court - which entails one hour on, one hour off - or working the back courts where you do 1h 20m and have just a 40-minute break."
McGrath, who last year also did the job at a Davis Cup tie, calls the side and base lines - or long lines - leaving the service lines to the more experienced.
On Monday she reported for duty at 9am and left the court 11 hours later.
The going rate of $70 for a day's work it is not a lot but for a student looking for any extra, and with it the chance to work with the best, it's better than nothing and a pretty good way to while away a few hours.
McGrath will not want for advice if she falters during today's action. Her mother won tickets in a club raffle and will be among the huge crowd expected when local favourite Marina Erakovic steps on court to battle seventh seed Eleni Daniilidou.
But whether McGrath will be part of that action or out back will not be known until today's rotation has been sorted out.
