Credit One Charleston Open – Iconic Photo Shoot

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.

Early on Day 2 of the tournament I got to capture the tournament’s Iconic Photo Shoot. This is a tradition every year where two top players are chosen to join me and the video team at an iconic location, indicative of our beautiful city and the lowcountry area, for a private photo session. This year the players selected were 2023 Guadalajara Open Champion, Maria Sakkari (Greece) and 2021 Monterrey Open Champion, Leylah Fernandez (Canada). The location for this year’s shoot was Shem Creek Pier. Both Maria and Leylah were fun, friendly, and wonderful to work with!

Credit One Charleston Open – Day 1

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 1 of the tournament had lots of tennis action, tons of activities on the Grand Lawn, live Tennis Talks with players, and even a Padel exhibition match. Padel, sometimes called Padel Tennis, is a racket sport of Mexican origin, typically played in doubles on a glass-enclosed court that is slightly smaller than a doubles tennis court. Although Padel shares the same scoring system as tennis, the rules, strokes, and technique are different.

Credit One Charleston Open – Charity ProAm

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.

Arriving early on the first day of Qualifying Rounds, I got to photograph the Celebrity Pro-Am benefitting Madison Keys’ non-profit, Kindness Wins. Some of the celebrity players included Tracy Austin, Jessica Pegula, Shelby Rogers, Jennifer Brady, Emma Navarro, Taylor Townsend, and so many more.

Credit One Charleston Open – Pre Tournament

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.

The week before the tournament began, I had the pleasure of photographing some pre-event photos! Working with the new DJI Mavic 3 Pro, I got some cool drone shots of the grounds. Then I brought out the Z9 for details of the trophy. And I even caught a few practice shots of last year’s champion, Ons Jabeur!!!

Credit One Charleston Open – Day 7

It was another EXCITING year for me to be covering the Credit One Charleston Open!!!

Since 1973, the Charleston Open has been a pioneer in women’s professional sports, creating milestones that over the years have directly influenced the popularity of women’s professional tennis. Much has changed over the years. But to this day, the tournament remains the largest women’s only tennis tournament in North America. This year’s roster included 5 of the Top 10 women on tour, 5 past champions, and 5 Grand Slam champions. Previous winners include notable names like Chris Evert, Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova, Serena Williams, Tracy Austin, Martina Hingis, Jennifer Capriati, Nadia Petrova, Madison Keys…and so many more!

With bad weather predicted for the weekend, Day 7 seemed to have an added urgency for getting great photos of the action on Credit One Stadium, fans having fun around the grounds, autograph sessions, TV appearances at the Tennis Channel desk, and VIP suite visits!  Plus I got to photograph the trophy sitting proudly on center court.  🙂

Credit One Charleston Open – Day 5

It was another EXCITING year for me to be covering the Credit One Charleston Open!!!

Since 1973, the Charleston Open has been a pioneer in women’s professional sports, creating milestones that over the years have directly influenced the popularity of women’s professional tennis. Much has changed over the years. But to this day, the tournament remains the largest women’s only tennis tournament in North America. This year’s roster included 5 of the Top 10 women on tour, 5 past champions, and 5 Grand Slam champions. Previous winners include notable names like Chris Evert, Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova, Serena Williams, Tracy Austin, Martina Hingis, Jennifer Capriati, Nadia Petrova, Madison Keys…and so many more!

Day 5 of the COCO started off with a private shoot at Charleston Place Hotel with doubles specialists, Sophie Chang & Angela Kulikov, to promote pickle ball!  Then it was on to Credit One Stadium for some amazing matches, player interviews, and VIP appearances.  What a great day of tennis!!!

Credit One Charleston Open – Player Party

It was another EXCITING year for me to be covering the Credit One Charleston Open!!!

Since 1973, the Charleston Open has been a pioneer in women’s professional sports, creating milestones that over the years have directly influenced the popularity of women’s professional tennis. Much has changed over the years. But to this day, the tournament remains the largest women’s only tennis tournament in North America. This year’s roster included 5 of the Top 10 women on tour, 5 past champions, and 5 Grand Slam champions. Previous winners include notable names like Chris Evert, Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova, Serena Williams, Tracy Austin, Martina Hingis, Jennifer Capriati, Nadia Petrova, Madison Keys…and so many more!

After 2 days of qualifying rounds, the tournament welcomes all the main draw players, as well as those who made it through qualies, to a wonderful Player Party before the competition begins. This year’s Player Party was held at the historic Riviera Theater!

Volvo Car Open 2017 – Day 9

Day 9 of the Volvo Car Open was an epic finish to a fantastic week of tennis!

Bethanie-Mattek Sands and Lucie Saffarova showed why they are such good friends, and why they are the #1 doubles team in the world!!! After clinching this, their second title in Charleston, defeating Katerina Siniakova and Lucie Hradecka, the dynamic duo shared an adult beverage before meeting up with me to photograph their Doubles Champions Photos.

Later, in the battle of the 19-year-olds, Daria Kasatkina prevailed over fellow youngster, Jelena Ostapenko, to claim her very first WTA tour title. Overwhelmed with raw emotion during her trophy presentation, she nearly had me in tears!!! What a special moment for this adorable young lady!  “I’m just enjoying it every moment, every second,” she said. “And really, when I was on the court after the last point, I just wanted the moment to stop because it was one of the best moments in my life.”

After a celebratory meal with her team, Daria met up with us in downtown Charleston for her Champions Photos.

Many thanks to all the amazing players, tournament staff, the WTA, all the volunteers, grounds crew, ball kids, umpires, line judges, marketing team, and my photography partner, Alice, for another AMAZING Volvo Car Open!!!