Among the thousands of images captured by photographers at this year’s US Open in New York, one photograph has distinguished itself from the rest.
The perfectly timed, one-in-a-million shot was taken by photographer Ray Giubilo at Flushing Meadows, thanks to a slight imbalance from seventh-seed Jasmine Paolini and his own steady hand. The Italian player was so impressed she called it “maybe the picture of the year.”
The whimsical image, taken during Paolini’s first-round match against Australia’s Destanee Aiava, stands out in a field known for clean, sharp, and intense action shots rather than humor. A fraction of a second’s difference would have resulted in a completely different, more conventional frame.
Giubilo told the Guardian that the sublime, slightly surreal image was a complete fluke. He recognized its quality instantly on the back of his camera, noting he had “been waiting for a long time for something like this.” The perfect alignment was possible only because Paolini was off-balance finishing a forehand. “She just moved the racket back in a way that she normally doesn’t do,” he said. An attempt to replicate the shot the following night proved unsuccessful.
Paolini’s admiration for the photograph was so strong that she singled out Giubilo after winning her second-round match. “I was sitting underneath her box and she ran towards it, smiling,” Giubilo recalled. “I thought she was going to go and hug her coach. But she came to me instead and she gave me five and said, ‘Great photo.’”
Before becoming a professional photographer, Giubilo was an agent for a tennis clothing company. His passion for photography eventually led him to shooting local matches, and 37 years later, he spends seven months a year traveling the tennis circuit, covering up to 20 matches a day during grueling 14-hour shifts.
Success in sports photography, he explained, requires immense patience, creative flair, and impeccable technical ability while remaining laser-focused through hours of play. “You have to be patient, you have to be fast, you have to be fit,” he said.
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