This is an excerpt from my latest book, Tennis Players as Works of Art, now available on Amazon. Called “madly ambitious” and named one its 5 featured books of 2024 in the category of Art/Imagination/Creativity by Publisher’s Weekly Booklife, Tennis Players as Works of Art has also been named “One of the Best Books we Read in 2024” (Independent Book Review) and “Book of the Year” (Inside Tennis Magazine.)
“I like to draw people in their habitat.” Bogdan Shiptenko
Note: Inspired by Shiptenko’s painting of Tennis Players, I sketch tennis players at the Men’s 65 National Indoors in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.
Mark Vines (#1 in the US): So much devilish spin on his lefty serve. How does he do it at 5’7?” Does he lift weights as much as his significant other, a professional weightlifter? If I lifted more weights without hurting myself, could I spin it like Vines does? No way.
Michael Tammen (#2 in the US): His game a combination of fairly flat forehands, slice backhands, solid volleys, and high-percentage serving. Everything he hits is placed with consistent precision and depth. He rarely misses and almost never hits a so-so shot his opponents might attack. I’m working hard to do all this, especially eliminating the so-so shots. It’s harder than eliminating the so-so hours and days of the week. The better players can do it. That’s why they’re the better players.
Ross Persons (# 5 in the US): Fun to watch his quick-twitch muscles cover every ball. Fun to watch his buggy-whip forehand, his deft touch from everywhere on the court. Half panache, half precision.
Stewart Jackson (#6 in the US): You can’t teach height. That’s what they say. Stewart’s long arms and long fluid strokes produce lots of power on every shot. Wish I could be that smooth, that powerful.
Michael Starke (#9 in the US): Short, stocky, powerful, fast . . . Runs down every ball and hits every shot with bodily commitment, energetic glee. Would give half my retirement savings for his two-handed backhand. Doubt he would accept it.
Juan Lopez (#9th seed): So much pop on his graceful, big forehand. He tries to hit it every chance he gets. If I tried to hit forehands as big as his, I would have to donate my elbow to science.
Artist Bio: Bogdan Shiptenko is a watercolor artist of urban landscapes and figurative painting. In his works he combines acrylic, markers, watercolor painting and graphics. The artist’s works differ from others by their recognizable style and unique plots. The vocation of his works is to show the world what it really is and to evoke in people the most pleasant emotions from art.
The artist’s paintings are in the contemporary collections of such countries as the UAE, USA, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Slovenia, etc. He collaborates with The O Walpapers as an artist and graphic designer. He has engaged in projects with such companies as Volkswagen, Renault, Epicenter.
Bodgan Shiptenko on his art: “Figurative painting has become the space in which I reflect through my works the perceptions of the environment, activities people’s, and where I view this on a deep societal scale. There are many figures in my paintings, where each character lives separately, but in an ideological sense, they are all united in a common activity that brings them together and carries a meaningful message.”
For more on Bogdan Shiptenko’s art, you can check out his Website or Instagram.
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