Day 7 of the Volvo Car Open brought us down to JUST FOUR playeers left!!! Each of them survived the round of 16 through fearless play, upsetting all the top seeds along the way. I look at each of the four players left in the draw and find I like every single one of them for different reasons: Laura Siegemund, Daria Kastkina, Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, Jelena Ostapenko. Who will YOU be cheering for as we enter Semi-final Saturday?!?
Day 5 of the Volvo Car Open had a number of major upsets…as well as some huge triumphs. Not the least of which was Charleston’s own Shelby Rogers, who defeated the Number 1 seed, Madison Keys, in 3 sets!!! And who can forget Laura Seigemund’s battle over Venus Williams?!?
Day 3 of the Volvo Car Open started with me hanging out with Jennifer Brady at Charleston Day School. The kids LOVED her!
Then it was on to the MUSC Children’s Hospital where Darija Jurak and Misaki Doi took time out of their busy practice schedules to go and play with some kids that really needed some cheering up!
I then zipped over to the Daniel Island Club to photograph the All Access Media Hour, where 8 of the top seeds gather to be interviewed by various media outlets. Madison Keys, Johanna Konta Venus Williams, Samantha Stosur, Elena Vesnina, KiKi Bertens, and Daria Gavrilova were among the stars I got to photograph. Even last year’s Champion, Sloan Stephens, made in appearance, in spite of not being able to play this year due to injury.
Finally, I headed to the Family Circle Tennis Center to photograph several matches, including former Champions Andrea Petkovic and Jelena Jankovic, plus local home-town hero Shelby Rogers, before the rain drove us all indoors.
It’s all in a day’s work when you’re the official photographer at this world-class professional women’s tennis tournament!!!
Day two of the Volvo Car Open had me photographing what’s known as the Iconic Photo Shoot. This is where we photograph two of the top players at an iconic Charleston location. Previous locations have included the beach on Isle of Palms, and the flight deck of The USS Yorktown!
This year the selected location was The Cistern on the College of Charleston campus. The team from WTA even set up a net across The Cistern so the players could play a few points during the photo shoot. Before the players arrived, the C of C tennis team arrived for a couple cool photos!
Eventually, Elena Vesnina and Daria Gavrilova arrived for the shoot. We all had a BLAST and came away with some really cool images with which to promote this year’s Volvo Car Open!!! 🙂
A big sight of relief! After another year of anticipation and preparation, day 1 of the 2017 Volvo Car Open is under the belt.
The first Saturday is always full of fun. It’s not only the first day of qualifying for the un-seeded players, but it’s also Family Day. There are tons of activities for the kids, tennis clinics, autograph sessions, and of course world-class tennis matches!
To add to the excitement, this year the PowerShares series was moved from the second Saturday to the first Saturday of the tournament. Featuring legends of the game like John MacEnroe, Andy Roddick, James Blake, and Mark Philippousis, the evening was not only a showcase of the men’s talent, but also entertaining with the humerous banter between them!
Stay tuned for tons more action to come as I cover this annual WTA tournament, my 16th as their official photographer!!!
The fun continues at the Volvo Car Open on Day 6 with lots of action, plus special guest appearances by Martha Stewart and Governor Nikki Haley!
Day 4 at the Volvo Car Open saw the field slimmed down with even more upsets!!!
Mike Saia, my “Boss” for the week at the Family Circle Cup when I photograph the professional tennis tournament there every spring, just sent me this note: “Check out the WTA home page: www.sonyericssonwtatour.com. Wait for the Flash to move to More News!” Turns out the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour is using my image of Samantha Stosur, last year’s champion, on their main page. I love it!!!
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!!!
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!
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!
