Drawing: Nick Kyrgios

Posted on July 5, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

The overnight sensation of this year’s Wimbledon has been 19 year old Nick Kyrgios, the 1.93m Australian teenager with a Greek father and a Malaysian mother. Making his debut at SW19, he was playing courtesy of a wild card entry and ranked 144 in the world. Very few thought he had any chance of beating world number 1, Rafa Nadal on centre court in the fourth round. Four sets later he produced the shock of the tournament, blitzing the two time champion 7-6 (7-5), 5-7, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3.

He put his motivation down to his mother’s prediction that he would lose. “My mum said Rafa was too good for me and it made me a bit angry.”

In the second round he saved nine match points to beat 13th seed Richard Gasquet, but fell to Canadian eighth seed Milos Raonic in the quarters. However, from a ranking of 838 last season, he is guaranteed to read the mid 60s. Going into the quarter finals, Nick was leading the ace standing with 113. A staggering 37 of those were bashed past Nadal. He is donating £5 for every ace served at Wimbledon to the Rally for Bally fund – set up in memory of former British No 1 Elena Baltacha.

His cheeky ‘tweener’ – a beteen the legs stoke that sent the ball out of Nadal’s reach, went viral on YouTube, amassing more than 500,000 views. I was actually at The Championsoips on ‘the’ day and watched events unfold from ‘the hill’, amongst a very vocal group of Aussie supporters and manged to get this sketch to him the next day, which he signed and returned along with a clipping from The Times reporting his sensational victory.

Drawing: Ana Ivanovic

Posted on June 18, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Serbian tennis star and former World No. 1 Ana Ivanovic lost only 21 games last week at the Aegon Classic in Birmingham to win her first grass court title. The 26 year old won the French Open in 2008 and is currently 11th in the WTA rankings.

Ana signed this quick sketch after her victory in the final at Edgebaston over unseeded Czech Barbora Zahlavova – Strycova. She heads to Wimbledon next week with plenty of confidence to challenge for the title at SW19.

Drawing: Pat Cash

Posted on May 23, 2014 by Mark Winter / Chicane

The former World no. 4, Pat Cash won the Wimbledon Men’s Singles final in 1987 beating Ivan Lendl in straight sets. In fact he only lost one set in the entire tournament that year. To date he is the only player to win junior, tour and legends Wimbledon titles. Oh, yes and he plays guitar in his own band.

This is a very quick portrait sketch of Pat wearing his trade mark chequered bandana. I met Pat at the World Tennis Day at London’s Earls Court where he repeated his Wimbledon triumph over Ivan 8-6.

Drawings: Pat Rafter and Goran Ivanisevic

Posted on December 9, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Pat Rafter and Goran Ivanisevic contested the 2001 Wimbledon Men’s single’s final. The former was one of the top seeds, the latter was ranked 125, although he had been runner-up in three previous occasions, in 2001 he went one better.

I accidentally placed a $5 bet on the Ivanisevic to win and considered it money not well spent, given the huge odds. Actually I meant to back 4th seed Marat Safin, but not being an experienced gambler I selected the wrong number when filling in the betting slip. Ironically Goran beat Marat in the Quarterfinals and went on to turn my fiver into a wad of cash.

With back to back US Open titles in 1997-98 briefing holding the World Number One ranking, Pat was favoured. Goran became the champion, winning 9-7 in the fifth set, and becoming the only person to win with a wild card and the lowest ranked player to win in history.

He did have a career high Number Two ranking in 1994 behind Pete Sampras and won bronze medals in both singles and doubles at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

Both players were part of the ATP Champions Tour Masters’ Tournament at the Royal Albert Hall this week and they signed their respective sketches for me. For the record, Pat won this time.

Drawing: Stefan Edberg

Posted on December 8, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Stefan Edberg (or Iceberg as he was called in jest) along with Boris Becker, dominated Wimbledon in the latter part of the 1980s. The diffident Swede’s style was made for the lawns of the All England Club, his deportment complementing the ambience of the sport’s traditional theatre, as impressively as his strokes.

The 6’2″ right hander was one of the major proponents of the serve-and-volley, arguable the greatest of all time. He reached 11 Grand Slam singles finals, winning six, twice claiming victory at Wimbledon, The Australian and US Opens. In his ATP World Tour profile, Bud Collins describes him as a stylistic misfit among the Swedish legion that rose in Björn Borg’s sneaker steps and image, Stefan Edberg was an extraordinarily graceful attacker.”

Along with John McEnroe, they are the only players to reach World No. One in both singles and doubles. Stefan also won all four Junior Grand Slam titles in 1983 – the only person to do so.

The French Open evaded him, but only just! He reached the final in 1989, losing in a close five setter to Michael Chang. He also won three Grand Slam men’s doubles titles.

Unfortunately, knee surgery sidelined him at this years Statoil Master’s Tennis Tournament on the ATP Champions Tour. But, luckily for me, he did turn up yesterday to watch and even more luckily, I had my sketch of him with me and he was happy to sign.

Drawing: Mats Wilander

Posted on December 7, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Mats Wilander is one of the main reasons I began to follow tennis in the 1980s. In fact it was three Swedes – Mats, Stefan Edberg and the legendary Björn Borg that galvanised my attraction for the sport. Mats was a great fighter. He didn’t possess big weapons, but would grind out victories, plus he was an all round good guy.

He won his 4th Grand Slam title at the age of 20 – the youngest in history to achieve that feat and is one of only 5 men (Connors, Agassi, Nadal and Federer) to have won Grand Slam singles titles on grass, hard and clay courts. (Two of his Australian victories were when the tournament was still played on grass). He did collect a Wimbledon title in 1986, partnering Joakim Nyström in the men’s doubles.

1988 was a defining year. He won three out of the four Slams, losing to Miloslav Mecir in the Wimbledon quarter, finishing the year ranked number one. He was booked on Pan Am Flight 103 in December – had he boarded he would have died ranked number one. The plane exploded over Lockerbie from a terrorist bomb, killing all on board. And I would not have been able to meet him last night at London’s Royal Albert Hall after his match at the Statoil Masters’ Tournament. He had to wait for his car, so I was lucky enough to have a brief chat while he signed this sketch and my World Number One’s book.

Drawing: John McEnroe

Posted on December 6, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

John McEnroe is a legend, to put it mildly. Perhaps the most iconic player in the history of tennis, and only one of a handful from his generation to have transcended the sport.

Famous for his temper as for his precocious talent, he is without doubt one of tennis’ all time greats with 17 Grand Slam titles – including 7 Singles (3 Wimbledons and 4 US Opens).

He became the top ranked singles player in the world on March 3, 1980 and spent a total of 170 weeks at number one between 1980 and 1985.

John has also been called “the greatest doubles player of all time,” forming a powerful partnership with Peter Fleming. They won 57 men’s doubles titles including four at Wimbledon and three at the US Open.

On the few occasions I have met John he has been extremely pleasant and has happily signed. After beating Wayne Ferreira in his opening game at the Statoil Masters at the Royal Albert Hall – a title he has won on four previous occasions – he signed and dedicated my sketch.

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

Drawing: Juan Martin del Potro

Posted on November 8, 2013 by Mark Winter / Chicane

Affectionately called ‘Delpo’ by his fans, the 6 foot 6 inch Argentinian tennis playerJuan Martin del Potro is currently ranked number 5. Winner of the 2009 US Open and the bronze medal in the men’s singles at the 2012 London Olympics, he possesses what many consider to be the most powerful forehand in the game. A right-handed, two handed backhand player, he used the former to sign my sketch at the ATP World Tennis Finals at London’s O2.