Australian Open photos show shafts of light at Melbourne Park

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Associated Press photographers take a look at the Australian Open through the light and shadows at Melbourne Park. The images capture tennis players hitting their shots in shafts of light. Instead of zooming in on the stars, the photographers focus on the harsh contrasts created in the middle of a sunny Southern Hemisphere summer.

This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.

Alex de Minaur of Australia plays a backhand return to Hamad Medjedovic of Serbia during their second round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Gabriel Diallo of Canada plays a forehand return to Alexander Zverev of Germany during their first round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

In this image taken with a slow shutter speed, Andrey Rublev of Russia plays a forehand return to Jaime Faria of Portugal during their second round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

Daniil Medvedev of Russia serves to Jesper de Jong of the Netherlands during their first round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Raphael Collignon of Belgium plays a backhand return to Lorenzo Musetti of Italy during their first round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Andrey Rublev of Russia serves to Jaime Faria of Portugal during their second round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

Lorenzo Musetti of Italy plays a forehand return to Raphael Collignon of Belgium during their first round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Mackenzie McDonald of the U.S. plays a forehand return to Alex de Minaur of Australia during their first round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Raphael Collignon of Belgium plays a backhand return to Lorenzo Musetti of Italy during their first round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Oleksandra Oliynykova of Ukraine plays a forehand return to Madison Keys of the U.S. during their first round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

Flavio Cobolli of Italy serves to Arthur Fery of Britain during their first round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Flavio Cobolli of Italy plays a backhand return to Arthur Fery of Britain during their first round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, Jan. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Raphael Collignon of Belgium plays a forehand return to Lorenzo Musetti of Italy during their first round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada serves to Nuno Borges of Portugal during their first round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Monday, Jan. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — In two decades of kicking in doors for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Joseph Bongiovanni often took on the risks of being the “lead breacher," meaning he was the first person into the room.

On Wednesday, he felt a familiar uncertainty awaiting sentencing for using his DEA badge to protect childhood friends who became prolific drug traffickers in Buffalo, New York.

“I never knew what was on the other side of that door — that fear is what I feel today,” Bongiovanni, 61, told a federal judge, pounding the defense table as his face reddened with emotion. “I've always been innocent. I loved that job.”

U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence J. Vilardo sentenced the disgraced lawman to five years in federal prison on a string of corruption counts. The punishment was significantly less than the 15 years prosecutors sought even after a jury acquitted Bongiovanni of the most serious charges he faced, including an allegation he pocketed $250,000 in bribes from the Mafia.

The judge said the sentence reflected the complexity of the mixed verdicts following two lengthy trials and the almost Jekyll-and-Hyde nature of Bongiovanni's career, in which the lawman racked up enough front-page accolades to fill a trophy case.

Bongiovanni once hurtled into a burning apartment building to evacuate residents through billowing smoke. He locked up drug dealers, including the first ever prosecuted in the region for causing a fatal overdose.

“There are two completely polar opposite versions of the facts and polar opposite versions of the defendant,” Vilardo said, assuring prosecutors five years behind bars would pose a considerable hardship to someone who has never been to prison.

Defense attorney Parker MacKay noted the judge had acknowledged Bongiovanni as a “beacon” of the Buffalo community. The government's request for a 15-year sentence, he added, was “completely unmoored to the nature of the convictions.”

“As Mr. Bongiovanni told the judge at sentencing, he is innocent, and we look forward to continuing to work with him to prove that,” MacKay told The Associated Press.

A jury in 2024 convicted Bongiovanni of four counts of obstruction of justice, counts of conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and making false statements to law enforcement.

Prosecutors said Bongiovanni's “little dark secret” caused immeasurable damage over 11 years. They likened him to Jose Irizarry, a disgraced former DEA agent serving a 12-year federal sentence after confessing to laundering money for Colombian drug cartels.

Bongiovanni upheld an oath not to the DEA, they argued, but to organized crime figures in the tight-knit Italian American community of his North Buffalo upbringing. During sentencing, Bongiovanni’s family dissolved into tears on the front row of the packed courtroom in downtown Buffalo.

Prosecutors said Bongiovanni's corruption involved as much inaction as calculated coverup. They pointed to a turning point in 2008 when Bongiovanni could have acted on intelligence about traffickers he knew whose operation would evolve into a large-scale organization with links to California, Vancouver, and New York City.

He also was accused of authoring bogus DEA reports, stealing sensitive files, throwing off colleagues, outing confidential informants, covering for a sex-trafficking strip club and helping a high school English teacher keep his marijuana-growing side hustle. Prosecutors said he brazenly urged colleagues to spend less time investigating Italians and focus instead on Black and Hispanic people.

“His conduct shook the foundation of law enforcement — and this community — to its core,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Tripi told the judge. “That's what a betrayal is.”

The ex-agent's downfall came amid a sex-trafficking prosecution that took sensational turns, including an implicated judge who killed himself after the FBI raided his home, law enforcement dragging a pond in search of an overdose victim and dead rats planted outside the home of a government witness who prosecutors allege was later killed by a fatal dose of fentanyl.

It also involved the Pharoah’s Gentlemen’s Club outside Buffalo. Bongiovanni was childhood friends with the strip club’s owner, Peter Gerace Jr., who authorities say has close ties to both the Buffalo Mafia and the violent Outlaws Motorcycle Club. A separate jury convicted Gerace of a sex trafficking conspiracy and of paying bribes to Bongiovanni.

The prosecution also cast a harsh light on the DEA after a string of corruption scandals prompted at least 17 agents brought up on federal charges over the past decade. Last month, prosecutors charged another former agent with conspiring to launder millions of dollars and obtain military-grade firearms and explosives for a Mexican drug cartel.

Frank Tarentino, the DEA’s northeast associate chief of operations, said Bongiovanni’s sentence “sends a powerful message that those who betray their badge will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”

Joseph Bongiovanni, center, leaves federal court with his wife, Lindsay Bongiovanni, right, after being sentenced to 5 years in prison on corruption charges, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026, in Buffalo, N.Y. (AP Photo/Jim Mustian)

Joseph Bongiovanni, left, leaves federal court with his wife, Lindsay Bongiovanni, after being sentenced to 5 years in prison on corruption charges, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026, in Buffalo, N.Y. (AP Photo/Jim Mustian)