Carole Newsom + Her Love of the Tennis Shot — the Perfect Photograph
As the Miami Open goes finishes its third day, the tour's first female photographer's one-of-a-kind pictures finally get their spotlight
The math teacher sat and watched the veteran broadcaster mesmerised. Bud Collins, still relatively early in his tennis commentating — but not new to the Boston sport scene — was hosting a television program about the Open Era on the U.S. Public Broadcasting System (PBS). She liked his enthusiasm, but most of all, she was inspired by the way the man in his blue balzer and yellow pants could paint a picture with his words.
By then an amateur photographer, Carol Newsom pulled out her cameras and started taking snaps at local tournaments. With a spot of luck and some sheer will at a World Team Tennis Boston Lobsters event, she met Billie Jean King. The photog wanted a gig; the upstart pro team tennis league needed a chronicler. Kismet. Newsom became the official photographer of the Lobsters and then the Longwood Cricket Club, one of the Brahmin City’s oldest tennis outfit.
Newsom had talent, precision, something noticed by King and her close Rosie Casals. In the days before digital cameras, Newsom would run through rolls and rolls of film, and still come through with dozens of incredible shots — the ball on the racquet, players in the air, those special interactions between competitors and friends. She began traveling the country to cover the action on and off the court in the fledgling WTA and Virginia Slims Circuit and in 1980 became the first women photographer to earn Wimbledon Centre Court press credentials in 1980.
“She broke a barrier. Now when you see a woman photographer, you don’t even think about it. She was the first one there,” says Martina Navratilova in an episode of the International Tennis Hall of Fame’s (ITHF) YouTube show Tennis Worthy. “She was a pioneer.”
On March 22, the ITHF will open a Carol Newsom retrospective Hit Me with Your Best Shot, featuring a collection drawn from Newsom’s archive, containing more than a million images, which had been gifted to the ITHF’s permanent collection by the estate of her husband, David G. Newsom. Newsom’s photos are in the process of complete digitization by the ITHF for use in the museum, educational initiatives and public access.
News from the Miami Open
American women fared well in the first round of their second home tournament of the swing, with Washington, DC, Haitian-American upstart Hailey Baptiste winning her first round in three sets, as well as Taylor Townsend, Sofia Kenin, Lauren Davis, Ashlyn Krueger and Peyton Stearns, who knocked out British No. 1 Katie Boulter. The 28-year-old had lost to Stearns (WTA No. 43) on their previous two meetings. Egyptian player Meyer Sherif, a Pepperdine University player who has struggled to match her college success on the tour, also made it to the second round in a tight three-setter. In the second round, Townsend again advanced, as did Krueger in a surprise win over Elena Rybakina, who has been travelling nonstop since January. Coco Gauff took out Kenin and Ons Jabuer squeaked out a win over Kateřina Siniaková
On the men’s side, Nick Kyrgios re-emerged for the first time since Australia winning his first-round match over American McKenzie McDonald in three sets, but Jensen Brooksby prevailed, as did a rehabbed Reilly Opelka. With Brit Jack Draper taking a break after winning the Sunshine Slam in Palm Springs last weekend, fellow countryman Jacob Fearnley prevailed while former British No. 1, Cameron Norrie exited in the first round — one in a string of early losses that has left him out of the good graces of the LTA. Tomorrow (Friday) with former ATP No. 1, Jannik Sinner still suspended for doping, the Top Ten come into action, as tennis scions Casper Ruud and Seb Korda see action, along with Tommy Paul, Lorenzo Musetti and Grigor Dmitrov, ready to dive for balls again.
Back to Newsom, the photographer
Born in Brookline, Massachusetts to an upper-middle class family, Newsom gradiated from the prestigious Girls Latin School before attending Boston University where she graduated with a degree in mathematics. She went on to a steady, yet mundane career as a high school math teacher at Milton High School, a nearby suburb of the city.
When she turned his mathematical exactitude to photography, her late 1970s ournament and Lobster photos were soon being picked up by international wire services, such as United Press International, Agence France-Presse, Reuters and the Associated Press. She started to travel, documenting both the women's and men's professional tennis circuits and events around the world, and regularly attended the French Open, Wimbledon, US Open championships, and other significant tennis tournaments in England and the United States from 1980 until her death in 2003. "I believe that if I keep my eyes open, I'll find a shot. Sometimes you just feel the magic,” Newsom often told fellow photographers,
Worldwide publications, such as Sports Illustrated, Tennis Week and others also featured Newsom’s work.
“Hit Me With Your Best Shot! documents some of tennis’ most historic moments as seen through Carol’s lens.he captured the legendary rivalry between Björn Borg and John McEnroe, ‘Super Saturday’ at the 1984 US Open, Steffi Graf’s Golden Slam, the early years of the Williams sisters’ careers, and much more,” says Julianna Barbieri, an ITHF's Senior Vice President. “Carol’s passion, professionalism, and kindness served to inspire a generation of the sport’s photographers… we look forward to sharing her talent with the world."
By 1991, Newsom was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, but nonetheless prevailed with her work by controlling the disease with medication that affected her vision. She still managed to take some of the best photos of her career. In 2000, Newsom was diagnosed with breast cancer, yet she still continued her grueling schedule, attending tennis events across the globe. "I have two jobs — pictures and fighting [the cancer],” she told friends and colleagues at the 2002 U.S. Open. “It's a good fight.” Despite plans to attend all the majors in 2003, including the French Open, to keep on working, she succumed to breast cancer on March 13, 2003.
‘We loved Carol. Carol was so easy to be around. She was completely dedicated to the tour, to taking photographs, to getting the best photographs that she could,” said Tracy Austin. Veteran player Pam Shriver concurs. “She was one of these photographers who could kind of blend in and you wouldn’t even necessarily know she was there, which I think the best photos come when you don’t even know you’re being photographed.”
“She was one of the few photographers you were happy to see,” continues Navratilova on the ITHF 2022 Tennis Worthy. “Most of them you run away from, but with Carol it was like, ‘hey Carol, how’s it going?” All three players took pains to describe how much they relied on Newsom to tell their stories accurately in the days before the Internet and Social Media. “She loved the sport; she loved interacting with the players and she was just really good at what she did,” Navratilova says.
Below are a few more of Newsom’s best shots that will be on display at the ITHF and online beginning next week.
