With more than $100 million in prize money on the line, hundreds of thousands of the famous Honey Deuce cocktails sold and the potential for more than a million attendees, The 2026 U.S. Open has been no small feat for New York City.
One of the tournament's smaller numbers, yet arguably as impactful, is the 315 members of the ballcrew. This year, 15-year-old Nikolay Klioutchnikov from Bensonhurst made the cut.
Nikolay has grown up not only playing tennis, but also attending the US open.
“Every single time I went there, I really wanted to be a part of the team that’s being the backbone of the whole tournament,” Nikolay told BK Reader.
The impact of having a world-renowned tournament in their home city is huge, said Udai Tambar, president and CEO of New York Junior Tennis & Learning. “To be literally on the court, to hold the same ball as a professional tennis player, it is so inspiring,” Tambar told BK Reader.
NYJTL — A Beacon of Support
Nikolay has been a member of NYJTL’s Scholar Athlete Program for three years. The program gives students academic support and top-tier tennis instruction, sending 100 percent of its graduates to college.
Although NYJTL will serve nearly 90,000 students across New York City this year, their Scholar Athlete program selects only a hundred.
Since its founding by Arthur Ashe — the first Black man to win singles titles at the US Open, Australian Open and Wimbledon — NYJTL’s mission has been to help develop young people during the sport, but also outside of it.
Tennis, Tambar said, is unique in the ways that it develops both individual and team skills for athletes. If you have a bad turn of events on the court by yourself, he said, “You have to dig deep to get out of it. But you train with a group of people as a community. You have a family that supports you.”
Developing tennis skills both on and off the court, Tambar said, has been part of the organization’s DNA for more than 50 years.
“It’s a blessing for New York City parents to have something like this that’s public,” said Nikolay’s mother, Tamara Klioutchnikov, regarding NYJTL’s programming. It’s especially special, she said, given that tennis can be so expensive.
Originally from Ukraine, Tamara works tirelessly to support her family. She teaches English as a Second Language, often having to work overtime hours. Tamara, her husband and their two kids have been based in Bensonhurst for more than 20 years.
Tennis has been integral to their lives since her daughter, now 24, took an interest in the sport as a teenager, all the way up until the 2026 U.S. Open.
Making the Cut
During tryouts, Nikolay said he had to do exercises to test his fitness, including intense ball rolling and ball tossing to practice for the tournament. One of the most integral elements of their job, he said was nailing their hand signaling to players on the court.
“I don’t think they really care how athletic you are,” Nikolay said. “They mostly care about how you can move on with your mistakes.”
That lesson has been relevant to Nikolay in more ways than one. He noted he not only made mistakes during this year’s practice trials, but also that he had been rejected from the program when he had applied the first time last year.
This year, he felt his essay was much stronger.
During the tournament, Nikolay uploads his availability for shifts during matches and hears back about his schedule the night before. Each shift was 90 minutes, and he worked between one and three shifts a day.
Despite the chaotic nature of the ballcrew’s tasks — constantly being on alert, sprinting back and forth during match points and knowing when and when not to be in communication with players — Nikolay said his team prepared him well.
The first few days of work, he said, he practiced during qualifiers where there were little to no attendees in the stands.
Nikolay’s favorite part of working at the US Open has been his crew. “Everyone is super friendly and understanding of the new people that show up,” he said. “Even the people that have been doing this for many years.”
As the US Open comes to a close Sept. 13, the winning athletes won’t be the only tennis players walking away having advanced their tennis careers.
