A Salute to Tennis Balls September 13, 2026

I was lucky to be able to work at the US Open for about five years. What did I do there? I was a ‘runner’ for the Associated Press. I essentially sat next to their photographer(s) at court side and when their camera’s memory card was either full or an amazing event happened on the court the memory card had to be ‘run’ back to the media center and given to their editors to send out across the ‘wire.’ It was always fun. It was sometimes hot. It was sometimes  rainy. And by the end of my eight hours I was exhausted. I got to see some amazing tennis, talented athletes and probably saw enough tennis in those years to last a life time. I was lucky to be able to get some souvenir tennis balls to take home to my pets. Those years saw a lot of fetching to not only my fabulous dogs…but it turns out my cats enjoyed tennis balls too. Today’s montage salutes those chewed up tennis balls. Here are some photos I took while working at the US Open all those years ago.US Open 2015, the US Open 2014, the US Open 2013 and the US Open 2012 – Game, Set, Match!