Summary: Exploiting insights on strings moving in pp-wave backgrounds, we show how open strings emerge from \(\mathcal N= 4\) \(SU(N)\) Yang-Mills theory as fluctuations around certain states carrying R-charge of order \(N\). These states are dual to spherical D3-branes of \(AdS_{5} \times S^{5}\) and we reproduce the spectrum of small fluctuations of these states from Yang-Mills theory. We discuss the emergence of the \(G^{2}\) light degrees of freedom expected when \(G\) such D3-branes nearly coincide. The open strings running between the branes can be quantized easily in a Penrose limit of the spacetime. Taking the corresponding large charge limit of the Yang-Mills theory, we reproduce the open string worldsheets and their spectra from field theory degrees of freedom.