Back during the 2013 Rogers Cup, we watched Petra Kvitova practice her serves when I figured I would do something different: she was relatively close, so I thought I would grab some head shots. They turned out to be fairly popular in my flickr stream. So, this year with seats closer to the court than ever, I figure I would try and try that technique again. What resulted was an interesting range of expressions of pro atheletes at work.

 

This year it was the third round day sessions at the York University Tennis Centre. 

It's our third time watching Roberta Vinci live. She's a very expressive player when her eyes are focused on the ball. She easily makes the cut for this photo series.

Swinging the back-hand with her eyes on the ball.

All shots are with a Nikon D7200 with a 70-200mm lens and 1.7x Tele-converter. Some will have the camera set with an additional 1.3x crop. All shots here may be adjusted for exposure, but none are cropped in post.

Four shots of Vinci coming into the net for the ball -- got the angle of her coming at me, and the ball coming across the shot.

What about Vinci's opponent, Daria Gavrilova? Did she just get hit in the face?

 

Actually no. The ball is just coming in to her fore-hand.

Did she get hit in the head?

 

Again, no. Just setting up for a back-hand. Notice the matching outfits? I guess Nike was providing the same red and white for the Canadian matches.

All right then, a shot that's a little more typical full body action shot. In the past I would always try to get a ball in shot, but it was difficult due to shutter lag. With the new camera body this year, I made less effort into that and just getting a shot where the player looked good. The new D7200 shutter is much snappier, and there was barely any anticipation as I framed most shots.

 

Vinci defeated Gavrilova 6-4, 6-3.

Since the 2013 Wimbledon finals, I've been looking forward to seeing the two finalists live. I got shots of Marion Bartoli two years ago (shortly before her retirement), so I was quite happy to finally see the other half this year: Sabine Lisicki. She currently holds the record for the fastest serve on the Womens' tour.

An action shot of Lisicki. It took a set for her to start moving, but by then we needed to join the other match in progress.

No action shot for Bencic, but after reviewing some footage later in the week, apparently this is her ready pose. Different.

I did manage this shot of Bencic smiling in my direction during practice in the morning.

 

Sadly, this Rogers Cup, there was too much overlap. We left the grandstands after the first set to catch the other match at centre court. Bencic defeated Lisicki 6-1, 1-6, 7-6(3) and would go on to win the tournament.

After leaving one match, we found ourselves in the middle of a three set epic. Actually, I pretty much missed the match since both players were a photographic gold mine!

 

Angelique Kerber Shows her teeth before every strike.

My companion talked of getting the reaction shot after each ball strike, which means not trying to get the ball in shot all of the time, but capturing what the player does afterwards. I did a bunch of that last year, but this year I went for whatever shot looked good to me. This post-strike expression with the hair twisting in the air is what I mean.

Simona Halep ended up being the gold mine for action shots. Here she is about to hit a big fore-hand -- mouth open.

And here: the follow-through on her serve.

And then ready for a big back-hand. I'm sure the shot would be more perfect if I could get the racquet into the shot, but it is difficult enough to frame the player into shot and also adjust for a swinging object -- especially when the camera is set for an additional crop mode for that extra bit of reach. I'd like to have framed her further to the left, much like the Vinci shot earlier.

And here, Halep celebrates after a particularly gruelling point.

 

Halep defeated Kerber 6-3, 5-7, 6-4. She would eventually run out of steam at the final -- this match must have taken too much out of her.

I was also looking forward to fan favourite and last year's Rogers Cup champion Agnieszka Radwanska -- no way would I miss a chance to catch that gold dress!

Known for her versatility and intelligence on court, one would really need to be lucky to catch some of her signature moves -- like the over-the-head moves, or the squat. Again, we had to move on after only one set, so I probably missed the opportunity to catch more.

And one more, with ball in shot and a good look at the golden dress.

Her opponent Alize Cornet seems to reach further forward than the others as she prepares to serve.

Cornet actually has quite good expressions as she goes to strike the ball. I think I would enjoy shooting more from her in the future.

Got the ball, got the expression, but no racquet. Would this have worked better if she were further left and looking out of the frame? 

Radwanska defeated Cornet 6-2, 4-6, 6-4

Last match of the day includes Sara Errani. One of the smaller players on the tour, and always looks focused on the game.

As one of the smaller players, she has a distinctive serve. Instead of raising her racquet during the toss, she starts with her racquet behind her back.

We get a toss, the open mouth, and the rest of the service with a grunt.

Victoria Azarenka is one of the top players on the tour with a distinctive grunt of her own. Not so many action shots of her — by this time of the evening my eyes were tired, and may explain why the D7200’s auto-focus wasn’t as sharp by this time either.

So, while not so much expression from Azarenka during the shots, but she can get very emotive between games. The last shot missed by “that much”.

And this time, slapping the ground after a particularly good point.

Errani defeated Azarenka 7-5, 6-3

My fifth Rogers Cup and once again showing myself that there is always more to learn about shooting the same subject year after year. Looking through my results I’m not so sorry that I missed actually enjoying the games — which is probably why I shouldn’t go more than one day a year. I hope you too enjoyed the beauty and diversity of the sport.

 

More photos on my flickr stream: https://flic.kr/s/aHskiCUyBd