Picture perfect? How one of the best tennis photos of all time was taken at the US Open | US Open Tennis 2025
Among the dozens of photographers from around the world who have taken thousands and thousands of photos to US Open this year, an image has stood out above all the others so far in Grand Slam tennis in New York.
A slight imbalance in the seventh seeded Paolini and with a relevant hand relevant the photographer Ray Giubilo to nail a million on meadows of Flushing this week.
Paolini praised him as “perhaps the image of the year”, but the whimsical image taken during the meeting of the first round of the Italian player with Destanee Aiava of Australia could claim a title even bigger than that.
Tennis photography is not known for its sense of humor. The images are often clean, clear and intense, but they are rarely hilarious. A nanosecond later or before would have made a frame completely different and missed the pure comic value behind the image of Giubilo.
Half terrifying and half sublime, the image was captured by a complete stroke of luck. Giubilo told the Guardian that he “had been waiting for a long time like that”, and that he knew what a beautiful image he had taken when he had seen him at the back of his Nikon Z9.
The only way in which Giubilo was able to align the shot so perfectly due to Paolini which was unbalanced when she finished her forehand. “She has just replaced the racket in a way that she does not normally do,” he said. When he tried to capture the same image the following night, the frame after the frame could not be reproduced.
Paolini was so in love with the shooting, she distinguished Giubilo the next time that she was on the field for a second round match to express her admiration.
“Tonight, after the match, when she won, I was sitting under her box and she ran to the box, smiling as she always does, and I thought she was going to tighten her coach. But she came to me instead and she gave me five and said to me:” Great photo “.”
Before becoming a professional photographer, Giubilo was an agent for a tennis clothing company in Australia. His passion has always been photography, and with the help of people such as John Newcombe and John Alexander, he started photographing local matches. Thirty-seven years later, he spent seven months a year browsing the tennis circuit, pulling up to 20 games per day on exhausting 14 hours.
Patience, creative rocket and impeccable technical capacity are what defines incredible sports photographers; Sitting again for hours while watching the match after the match, while remaining laser focuses on each shot. “You must be patient, you must be fast, you must be in good shape,” he said.
