Every spring, it’s an absolute honor to be invited back as the official photographer of the Credit One Charleston Open!

Since 1973, the Charleston Open has been a pioneer in women’s professional sports, creating milestones that have directly influenced the popularity of women’s professional tennis. It was the first women’s tennis event to offer $100,000 in prize money. The tournament was the first women’s event to be broadcast on network television. More recently, the Credit One Charleston Open was named WTA 500 Tournament of the Year. Kicking off the clay season, it’s grown to be the largest women’s professional tennis tournament in North America.

Day 2 of the tournament found me covering tons of action! The first two days are known as Qualifying Rounds. These are players who aren’t high enough in the rankings to make the Main Draw of the tournament, and have to “play their way in”. The winners from the “Qualies” move into the Main Draw on Day 3. Plus it was Family Weekend, which means I got to photograph lots of player appearances like Caroline Wozniaki at Talking Tennis on the grand lawn, Sloan Stephens signing autographs and posing for photos with her fans, Jessie Pegula promoting her new line of cosmetics and interacting with her fans, etc.