It’s a stroke of luck!
A veteran Italian photographer snapped a whimsical, one-in-a-million viral photo of tennis pro Jasmine Paolini’s face peeking through a design on her racket at the exact moment she took a swing at the US Open — an image he called “impossible to reproduce.”
The perfectly timed shot — which makes the Grand Slam doubles champ look like a sporty jack-o-lantern with a triangle-shaped mouth — was captured by Ray Guibilo on Sunday during his 31st trip to the tournament, he told The Post Thursday.
“It just happened, it’s one of those things you cannot explain. It’s impossible to reproduce,” Guibilo said of the photo, which had raked in more than 78,000 likes on Instagram as of Wednesday.
“I think it’s really funny,” the seasoned shutterbug said of going viral.
“The greatness of the photo is that it makes you laugh, even Paolini laughed. She thanked me after the match yesterday,” said Guibilo, a staff photographer at Il Tennis Italiano, who has covered the sport for 37 years and has taken thousands of photos.
Paolini, 29, had been competing against Destanee Aiava, of Australia, in the opening round of the tournament Sunday when she took a swing at the exact right moment and angle.
“The hardest picture to capture… but it’s the easiest Halloween costume!” Paolini later quipped in the photo’s comment section.
She later hailed it as “maybe the picture of the year.”
Paolini was eventually victorious against Aiava — 6-2, 7-6 (7-4) — Sunday. She also beat American Iva Jovic in straight sets Wednesday 6-3, 6-3 to advance to the third round of the women’s singles.
