Anyone for tennis ?

This is the reason I am in London currently to see the final stages of the Barclays APT World Finals. This was courtesy of a seventieth birthday present from my wife and children.

This is the last of the group doubles matches between Leander Paes and Radok Stepanek who won the American Open this year and Marcel Grenoliers and Mark Lopez. Stepanek is serving. His partner Andreas Paes (Indian) is now the oldest player on the APT circuit aged 40yrs. They lost to Lopez and Grenoliers who were subsequently beaten in the semi-finals by Marrero and Verdasco who went on to win the doubles with a surprise win over the famous Bryan twins. Spain has two sets of doubles players in these finals and this must therefore must be a great benefit for Davis Cup matches.

You are not allowed to take SLRs into the O2 Arena (which are regarded as professional cameras !) though some people did manage to smuggle them in.. I did not bother to try as if you were found to have them with you, they could be confiscated for the match and unfortunately there is no left luggage at O2 for you leave them anywhere safely. So all my photography was done with my compact and an iPad. It took me some time to work out was was the best setting to get a reasonable picture though noise was inevitable. Eventually I settled on an ISO 800 with a stop under-exposure and did not use my zoom as I lose a couple of stops when I use this, though this image was taken at ISO 1600