Shot Master

The tributes paid by former players and colleagues are fulsome and fabulously flattering. Michael's father owned a photographic shop in Beckenham, Kent so the groundings were there. This led to him becoming serious about photography, though he began his working life as a graphic artist. Arthur, Michael's father, was mad about tennis and combined his passions by photographing Wimbledon, commencing straight after the war. From 1970 Cole covered Wimbledon and the other major tournaments, such as the US Open in New York, the French Open in Paris and the Stella Artois at Queen's. He travelled to Monaco, Portugal, Florida and Moscow to shoot the tennis stars in action, and often not in action. His speciality was the outré, the humorous and off-the-wall. Tennis Week stated, 'While everyone else is focused on forehands and backhands, Cole will notice the caterpillar climbing up the net post, the humorous moment as a ball kid tries to catch a moth. The combination of creativity and quirkiness,' takes Michael's photography to another level. One event was a particular favourite for him. He states 'The French Open lends itself so much to ambience pictures. The people there are so well dressed, there's women, hats and children... In fact, I had more non-tennis pictures in my files from the French Open than any other.' In this book is a distillation of Michael Cole's brilliant tennis photography. For him the biggest challenge in creating this wonderful visual celebration of lawn tennis was deciding what to exclude. He has a passion and emotional attachment to every single one of his stunning photographs. One can see why.