He shot to the top

In a career spanning half a century, tennis photographer Russ Adams has amassed 1.6 million tennis images through his coverage of virtually every major competition including the four Grand Slam tournaments, the Davis Cup, the Fed Cup, and the Olympics. His work, which has appeared on more than 250 magazine covers, is thought to be the largest privately held collection of tennis photographs in the world.

Those numbers alone may have ensured Adams's election to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, R.I., this year. But perhaps more important is his influence on his fellow tennis photographers and, ultimately, the evolution of tennis photography.

"When I was nominated, I thought it was wonderful, and when I was told I got in, I thought it was wonderful," the 76-year-old resident of Reading said in an interview. "There's never been a photographer [inducted] before. It means our work is being recognized for contributing to the growth of tennis."

Adams will be recognized Saturday as a member of the Hall of Fame's Class of 2007, surrounded by friends and family, including his wife, Betty, and their son, Richard, who lives in Colorado. Adams will be among great company: Headlining this year's inductees are Pete Sampras, who claimed his record 14th Grand Slam singles title over Andre Agassi at the 2002 US Open; Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, three-time French Open singles champion and the first Spanish woman to capture the US Open; and Sven Davidson, who became Sweden's first Grand Slam tournament winner at the French Open in 1957.

Adams is being honored as a contributor who has furthered the growth, reputation, and character of the sport. Established in 1954, the Hall of Fame has inducted 204 people, including this year's crop, representing 18 countries.

"Russ is a national treasure," said Billie Jean King, a 1987 Hall of Famer who met Adams at the Longwood Cricket Club in Chestnut Hill in the early 1960s. "He's our dean, our guru, our guardian. Believe me, the players look for him and love him."

Former world No. 1 ranked player Jim Courier, a 2005 inductee, said Adams, among the phalanx of camera-laden shooters at top tournaments, is immediately recognizable by his trademark floppy-brimmed hat.

"He is incredibly friendly and certainly has the respect of the tennis family worldwide," said Courier, whose autographed 1992 Davis Cup championship team photo with captain Tom Gorman and teammates Sampras, Agassi, and John McEnroe is one of the few photos hanging in Adams's home office.

"This is a very well -deserved honor for Russ. The hard part for him is that he won't get to take pictures of the ceremony this year. "

Born in Worcester July 30, 1930, Adams got his start in photography at age 14 by covering events in his hometown of Spencer for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. He said the Massachusetts State Police, after learning of his willingness to cover any story at any time, soon began calling on him "at all hours of the night" to document accident and crime scenes.

"I wasn't old enough to drive," he said, "so they'd send a cruiser to pick me up."

Adams, who served in the Air Force's photo department and Strategic Air Command, later worked at the Boston Herald for more than 20 years, covering house fires, Boston sports teams, and fashion shows in Milan, Rome, Paris, and Florence. In 1955, he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for photography for his shot of then-Boston Mayor John Hynes chasing Boston Marathon winner Hideo Hamamura of Japan across the finish line so he could crown Hamamura with the customary laurel wreath.

"I was supposed to be at the Red Sox game, but when it rained I was sent to work the Marathon instead," Adams recalled. "I was late, so they wouldn't let me go with the other photographers on the truck. Instead, I stood off to the side of the finish line and got a shot no one else did."

After leaving the Herald to freelance in 1971, he worked as a cook to earn extra money and ran side businesses providing and processing film for bank security cameras and photographing the construction of high-rise office buildings throughout Greater Boston. But it is tennis, and the players he chronicled, that best captured his imagination, spirit, and talent.

"To get good photos, you have to study what the players can do. On grass, they might jump in the air for a ball, but not as often on hard courts because they might get injured," Adams said. "Today it's just a different type of game than you saw in the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s. The new racquets have made it more of a power game. There's not as much finesse, but the young players still do wonderful things with the ball."

Although he refuses to single out favorite players, tournaments, or career moments, his indelible images speak for themselves. He photographed the first time Chris Evert and Evonne Goolagong of Australia met in the early 1970s; Arthur Ashe walking off the court to protest Romanian Ilie Nastase's boorish behavior in 1975; Boris Becker of Germany diving for a ball at Wimbledon and Frenchman Yannick Noah doing the same at the US Open in the 1980s; and Sampras cradling his 9- month-old son, Christian, as he said goodbye to his fans and the game at the US Open's Arthur Ashe Stadium in 2003.

During his career, Adams gained the trust and respect of tennis luminaries as well as his colleagues worldwide. In 1969, he persuaded then-US Open tournament director Bill Talbert to relocate photographers from a far-away corner of the court onto the sidelines, providing unprecedented proximity to the action and revolutionizing tennis photography in the process. He has served as director/liaison of photographers at the US Open since that time, and later supervised the photographers under the auspices of the International Tennis Federation at the Olympic Games at Seoul in 1988 and Barcelona in 1992. Adams was also instrumental in developing the ethical code of conduct for photographers in conjunction with the Professional Tennis Council.

The accolades aside, Adams is quick to acknowledge those who helped him during his career. Jack Kramer once described in painstaking detail how a forehand volley should be hit so he could correctly stage a series of instructional photos.

Martina Navratilova hastily arranged a practice session hours before leaving for Paris after a photo lab ruined a portion of his film.

Vitas Gerulaitis's mother allowed Adams to drop in on her son's practice with Bjorn Borg at their Long Island home so he could get an exclusive during a time when the Swede would not meet with other members of the media.

In turn, Adams has been generous with his time and skill. He recently loaned some of his famous photographs to two events sponsored by the Friends of Reading Tennis Task Force, a local group that is attempting to raise $350,000 to rebuild six tennis courts at the Birch Meadow Athletic Complex. He also gladly indulges players who ask for copies of photos of their families and playing days.

While Adams acknowledges he doesn't "travel like I used to," he recently returned from New York where he helped the US Tennis Association determine which photographers will receive credentials to this year's US Open. He also covers the occasional event and fills orders for publications that continually request photographs of players and tournaments, present and past -- such as trend-inspiring Agassi wearing denim tennis shorts in 1988.

"It's been a great ride," Adams said. "I feel lucky I've been involved with tennis for as many years as I have."

Cindy Cantrell can be reached at cantrell@globe.com.