Grant W Tennis | Cincinnati Sports Photographer

Tennis has always been a part of my life. I was a kid who basically grew up on the tennis court since my dad was a coach and teaching pro.  My first job was working at the tennis club and I taught junior tennis for years. I was a ball girl for some of the pros as a teenager. I was fortunate to have enough success to play a bit of Division 1 NCAA tennis, with my best win coming at the hands of my opponent from the Ohio State University.  If you know me, you know how sweet THAT was.

Anyhow, I’ve always loved everything about tennis and so I jumped at the chance to snap some action shots of my friend’s son Grant.  Grant is a rising tennis star and watching his “career” grow is a treat for me, because at one time long long ago, I was doing what he’s doing now and trying to fight my way up the rankings.

We did these shots at Sawyer Point with his former coach Federico Mas.  Federico teaches at Sawyer Point and at Eastern Hills Indoor, and if you want a beast of a tennis workout, I highly recommend his cardio tennis class. It was a bit too much for my bad foot, but it’s a great class and a heck of a workout.

Of course, this isn’t the first time I got pics of Grant on the court. This is him at the Western Southern Open last summer trying to keep a grumpy pro happy. I don’t think it worked, but he did a great job regardless.

And finally, because this is a post about tennis and it’s Wimbledon Week 1 (ah, how I miss actually GOING TO WIMBLEDON!), I couldn’t NOT show you some of my favorite shots from last year’s Western Southern Open in Mason. Too bad we won’t be watching Roger or Rafa in the Wimbledon finals this year.  ::::::: sniffle :::::::  But I love Nole too, so go Djokovic!

Finally, for what it’s worth. The following shot I took of Roger Federer was my favorite photo that I took in all of 2012, and I shot about 25,000+ frames!

So go Grant!  We hope to be watching YOU at Wimbledon some day, and if you beat Roger, Rafa, or Nole, that will be fine with me!