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!!!

Volvo Car Open – Champions Photo

With Sloane’s big breakthrough this week at the Volvo Car Open, a NEW Champion is crowned!!!

After winning one match in five previous Charleston tries, Sloane Stephens, the 23-year-old American, found her fire this year. She made her first-ever final here, saving a match in the quarterfinals and playing standout tennis before Angelique Kerber was forced to retire. In the championship bout, she stopped a red-hot Elena Vesnina, earning her fourth WTA singles title, third in 2016 and first-ever on clay.

To top it all off, besides winning the trophy, plus a $128,100 check, she gets a NEW CAR!!! With Volvo Car USA as the new title sponsor, it had one more surprise up its sleeve by presenting Stephens with a brand-new limited edition Volvo. “Oh my goodness!” a shocked Sloane said on court. “You guys, I Just won a car.”

As the official photographers, after our champion had a chance to freshen up and catch her breath, Alice, Arielle, and I whisked her away for a private photo shoot with her new hardware. We had fun using our cameras as “stand-in” trophies to test the light. It was a chilly, overcast afternoon. But Sloan was a real trooper. And her hardware was waaay prettier than ours. We all had a BLAST!

CONGRATULATIONS to our new champion, Sloan Stephens!!!

Volvo Car Open – Day 7

Well, it was an eventful week! After eight 12-hour days in a row, of constant hustling, shooting, editing, and transmitting images for the tournament, we finally have a NEW Volvo Car Open Champion!!!

Congratulations to the French duo of Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic for taking home the doubles trophy.

And congratulations to American Sloan Stephens for weathering several years of early-round losses before finally going the distance and taking home the 2016 crown…AND a brand new limited-edition Volvo Car!!! 🙂

Volvo Car Open – VIP Welcome Reception at The Cedar Room

As the Official Photographer of the Volvo Car Open, my job isn’t just to cover on-court action! Here are a few scenes from this year’s amazing VIP Welcome Reception.

This was the first year it was held at the Cedar Room. I must say, this venue at the beautifully restored old Cigar Factory is absolutely incredible! Many thanks to Graham, Lauren, and all the talented folks that made this year’s event such a huge success!

Of course the usual VIP’s from Meredith came out in full force. This year also saw all the incredible folks from Volvo, as well as other great sponsors like Lisette, in attendance. Tennis celebrities like Pam Shriver, Cliff Drysdale, Rennae Stubbs, and Lisa Raymond were there. Even the one and only Martha Stewart made an appearance!

There are many behind-the-scenes parties and events that I have the pleasure of photographing…but the VIP Welcome Reception is always one of my favorites!

Family Circle Cup Photo in Charleston Magazine

 

Most of you know I’m one of the Official Photographers of the Family Circle Cup.  Last year I had the honor of meeting a fabulous sports writer by the name of Bobby Chintapalli!  She was terrific to work with and a pleasure to be around.  She just emailed me a link to this article she wrote for Charleston Magazine because she realized the photo they used was one of mine.   Thanks Bobby!

Family Circle Cup Wrap-Up

It’s been over a week since the Family Circle Cup, and I’m FINALLY feeling fully recuperated.  J  This year’s tournament was a AWESOME. 

Sam Stosur literally CRUSHED Vera Zvonareva to win her second (and biggest) WTA Tour Championship.  She had an amazing 36 winners in the 6-0, 6-3 final that was the fastest in the history of the tournament!  Liezel Huber and Nadia Petrova were able to hold on to capture the Family Circle Cup doubles title, beating Vania King and Michaella Krajicek in straight sets.  King & Krajicek were playing together for just their second tournament.  Huber, the #1 doubles player in the world, normally plays with Cara Black.  This was her first time playing with Petrova! 

Aside from the great tournament action, there were tons of off-site player appearances and VIP parties to photograph.  But most would agree that the Game, Set, Rock event with legends John McEnroe, Jim Courier, Monica Seles, and Anna Kournikova was the big hit of the week! 

Mike Saia, Communications Director of the FCC, did a great job keeping all the media organized.  My former colleague, Doug Cunningham, retired last year.  But it was nice to see him come back to assist on some of the VIP events.  The super talented Alice Keeney took his place.  She really stepped up to the plate, did a great job filling some big shoes, and was wonderful to work with.  I’m already excited to see what NEXT YEAR has in store!!! 

Portrait of a Champion

After the final ball was struck, the trophy was raised, the last interview was made, and Samantha Stosur was able to relax for a few minutes…a small group of five photographers was granted an exclusive photo shoot with the Champion on the roof of the Market Pavilion Hotel in downtown Charleston.  We had a beautiful view of the city skyline.  Since the sun was at her back, I used it as her hair light and set up an off-camera SB-800 to my left as the main light and another SB-800 behind her as a kicker or rim light.  Both were fired by an on-camera SB-900 in Commander Mode using RadioPoppers to translate the signal.  I used a Nikon D3 with 70-200 f2.8 for the shot.  Sam was a pleasure to work with.  I wish her all the best and hope she goes on to win many more titles! 

Family Circle Cup Finals

Well, the Family Circle Cup is over!  But what an AMAZING display of power and domination in the 52-minute final.  Samantha Stosur completely dominated Vera Zvonareva and took the championship match into the record books as the fastest final in the history of the tournament!  I think Vera’s an excellent player.  But Sam was just “in the zone”. 

“To be able to play that well in a final is a great feeling. You always hope you’ll do that, but to actually go and perform that way is very, very pleasing,” said Stosur, who has now beaten Zvonareva five straight times. 

Another fact for the record books is that Sam is now the first Australian to ever win the title!  Up until recently she’s been known as more of a doubles specialist.  But she’s decided to concentrate more on singles and is doing quite well.  This is her second singles title. 

“The first title I won is always going to be very special. It took me a while to get that,” Stosur said. “This is bigger than Osaka though. To do it on clay and playing well all week is just a great feeling. You can’t really compare the two, but this is definitely a bigger event and I’m very pleased I was able to play so well.” 

CONGRATULATIONS Samantha! 

 

Family Circle Cup Doubles Champions

Even though the media world doesn’t pay as much attention to doubles as they do singles, I LOVE doubles.  So I decided to cover the doubles final of Liezel Huber and Nadia Petrova vs Vania King and Michaella Krajicek.  Fortunately, somebody else thinks doubles is still an important part of the sport as well.  Tennis Magazine used my photo of the four finalists in a nice article on their website.  Click Here to check it out!

Game, Set, Rock!

“Game, Set, Rock!” was a HUGE success this year at the Family Circle Cup.  The match between John McEnroe and Jim Courier couldn’t have been any better.  With John showing his deft touch and Jim showcasing that raw power, both champions obviously still “have it”!  The match was tightly contested, ending with McEnroe prevailing in the third set tiebreaker.  Following that, Anna Kournikova and Monica Seles joined the boys for some mixed doubles.  At this point they all put on wireless mics and really had fun with it, making jokes and keeping the crowd entertained with their running commentary.  It made for a late night, but I’m glad I got to stay and cover it from my premier seating on the court.  J  (More at www.chrisandcami.com/blog.)