Wheelchair Tennis Players

We jammed at Kanteerava Stadium yesterday. After drawing the archers for a bit, I walked over to the adjoining court, which had Wheelchair Tennis Players. I discovered later that one of the players I drew was Prathima Rao, who has represented India in international events and won the Indian Wheelchair Tennis Tournament, TABEBUIA OPEN five years in a row.

I drew some quick gestures while she and her tennis partner Dev were zipping around the court.

It was great to study how the players move. They have to predict where the ball will be, which in turn requires them to predict how the other player will counter the shot. So using wheelchairs to move laterally across the court to put themselves where the ball will be, requires the ability to manoeuvre the machine and predict, which makes this game far more complicated than regular tennis. Now, I don’t know anything about tennis or the rules of tennis tournaments, but I really enjoyed watching the players and breaking down their movements into lines in my sketchbook.

See a video player-profile of Prathima Rao by the IWTT here and an article by the Better Indian here. Also this entry on Wheelchair Tennis on Wikipedia.