This 100-year-old tournament is one of the top professional tennis events in the world. Nearly all the world's top-ranked players do battle here at the last warm-up leading to the US Open in New York.

I arrived in the early rounds without credentials, so I had to shoot as a tourist confined to the spectator areas. Thankfully, it wasn’t a problem getting my big white pro 200mm lens in. As a photographer of multiple genres, it’s ingrained in me to “get the shot” by any means. The mission was to get popular players and I had to do it as a commoner without access to scrums or privileged areas. It’s not as hard as you’d think in the early rounds of tennis tournaments, since you can get very close to any player on the outside courts.

The top 128 players are spread out over acres of tennis courts and only the highest ranked are secluded in the event’s main stadium for that day. You can however, get shots of the biggest names while they practice on non-stadium courts. It’s probably the only time masses of people can get within 5 feet of Roger Federer unencumbered by security, the media, or the fear of disturbing play. You can get candid photos and great action shots of them doing their thing. My pro photo tip for shooting tennis: use at least 1/1600 shutter speed and practice capturing the ball and the player in the shot. My super pro tip: time single-frame shots rather than shooting continuously.

A professional tennis match is something I think everyone should see. It looks A LOT different in person than on TV. It’s much faster and more frantic in real life. It sounds bigger. The shots are more violent, amazingly accurate and surprisingly soft when intended. The ground-level view also contributes to the excitement as the flat perspective on TV really slows the game visually. When you witness the top players sustain a back-and-forth rally of 25 shots at full savage swing on the run, you’ll understand why tennis players are likened to gladiators.