Drawing: Kei Nishikori

Posted on November 15, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

In a breakout season, Japan’s Kei Nishikori became the first Asian-born man to reach a Grand Slam final, losing to Marin Cilic of Croatia in the US Open this year.

He has won a career high four titles and 54 matches (54-12) and will end the season no lower than number 5. Described as an “offensive baseline player” Kei is known for his speed and footwork and has developed a style of taking the ball early and gaining control of the point immediately on both serve and return.

Yesterday he advanced to the knockout semi final phase of the ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 in London in his debut year. He takes on Novak Djokovic today for a place in the final, and will be happy to repeat his US Open semi final win over the world number one.

Kei signed my sketch at the O2 pier as the players left for the ATP World Tour Finals Launch gala last Friday evening.

Drawing: The Bryan Brothers

Posted on November 14, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

There is little to prove for Mike and Bob Bryan. The 36 year old identical twins from California are the most dominant ‘doubles act’ in the history of tennis, winning every significant doubles record. They showed up at the ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 in London this week with the number one ranking already in the bag. In 13 visits to the elite year end event they have won three titles. They won their 100th career title at this year’s US Open, which extended their record haul of majors to 16 and enabled them to achieve the top ranking for a record 10th year. The Bryans have also won numerous Olympic medals, including the gold at the 2012 London Games.

The two are equally known for their post victory flying chest bump – a tradition they started back in their college days at Stanford in 1996. I drew this quick pencil sketch of the famous act.

The trick was working out who was who, because for the past few days they have not arrived at or left the O2 together. “Bob?…… Or is it Mike?”

I got Bob (the younger by two minutes) first. The next day a friend said, “there’s a Bryan,” …. but which one?

“Mike?” I said in hope. He looked at me and said nothing.

“Bob?”

“No, I’m Mike.” Oh, a twin tease. He happily signed.

Sketch: Roger Federer

Posted on November 11, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Roger Federer is considered by most to be the greatest tennis player of all time. Winner of 17 Grand Slams and a record 302 weeks as Number 1 in the world cements his status.

Currently ranked at Number 7, The Fed Express reached the semi finals of the ATP World Tennis Finals in London this week with a stunning comeback against Del Potro, but lost to Rafa.

He proved a bit more elusive at this year’s event than previously, travelling by car and not boat, so opportunities to get his sig were limited. Prior to his semi, he did a 30 minute warm up and signed for a large throng, using the same Sharpie throughout! So the distinctive ‘graph is on the light side, but a graph nevertheless.

Sketches: Novak Djokovic

Posted on November 10, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Novak Djokovic is currently No 2 in the tennis world, but he’s definitely tops when it comes to accommodating his fans and signing autographs.

This week I’ve been at the ATP World Tour Finals in London’s O2 arena, battling weather and malfunctioning pens. Most of the players use the Thames Clipper boat to travel to the venue, so we collect signatures at the O2 Wharf area.

To give you some idea of what a racket this ‘graph collecting can be, here’s a sequence of sketches and their respective signing success over 3 consecutive days.

The Sharpie Bullet Point
To save time, it’s easier to use on pen, usually the pen belonging to the first autograph collector waiting, and do all the signing with that. The pen Djokovic grabbed was a normal, fine point black sharpie, but the owner had left the cap off in preparation for its use and in the moist, windy air it was not flowing too well… aaargh

The Sharpie W10 Chisel Head
My fault this time. I have zillions of pens, so why did I give him a dried up Sharpie W10 chisel point marker? In mitigation it was raining we were partially protected under a walkway, but the rain was sweeping in and water and ink are not a good doubles combination. He was great – kept going over it and used the point with the remaining ink to write ‘to Mark’.

The Pentel N860 Permanent Marker
Perfecto sig – with a Pental N860 marker. Raining again, and he was running late, but happily stopped to sign and dedicate. He told me, “This is excellent”.

Game, set and match