Shooting some tennis tomorrow, any advice?

I took some shots at Wimbledon last year when I was a newbie to DSLR stuff and more by luck than judgement they came out OK. Tomorrow I'm going to the Nottingham Masters event and I'm hoping to be a bit more on top of it.

I'll probably have my 70-210 on most of the time, with my kit lens for some wide angle stuff, and plan on shooting wide open with a shutter speed of around 1/640-1/2000 if the light permits a tolerably low ISO [the forecast isn't great!] using AI Servo mode.

Am I barking up the right tree with this, anything else?

Electric Shepherd wrote in post #8096979
I'll probably have my 70-210 on most of the time, with my kit lens for some wide angle stuff, and plan on shooting wide open with a shutter speed of around 1/640-1/2000 if the light permits a tolerably low ISO [the forecast isn't great!] using AI Servo mode.

Where will you be sitting relative to the courts? The 70-210 is (IMO) a bit short unless you're right on top of the court. If you're close enough, it will allow you to get full body shots of the players shot in portrait orientation and decent shots of forehands/bakhands taken in the near court.

Personally, I think the kit lens will only get you some wider angle shots and won't be of much use for action. It's gonna be pretty loose for anything else.

Even though your 70-210 is a variable aperture lens, I'd still suggest shooting Av with the lens as wide open as it will go, and using the ISO to keep your shutter speeds high enough to stop the action. If the ambient lighting gets too dark, you might have a challenge since you're going to be at f/4.5 fully zoomed so you may need to bump your ISO up over 800. I don't know if the 450D allows fractional ISO stops, so you may be choosing between 800 and 1600.

As far as composition goes, head over here and study the shots taken at the highest level of the game.

http://espn.go.com/esp​n/apphoto/wire?id=850

Notice they are almost all tight shots, with the player's eyes and usually their racquet and/or the ball.

If the light gets too dim, put away your camera and enjoy the matches, 'cuz you can't fool the Physics of the situation (even in post processing).

Thanks for the input mate, much appreciated.

I'll actually be very close to courtside, about 3 rows back, and more in a corner unfortunately but you've got to work with what you've got.

As for the kit lens, yes I was thinking of using it at the wide end for more overview and "feel" of the place shots rather than any action.

The 450D will allow fractional ISO increments when set to auto in AV/TV modes but only between 200-800 in my experience. If I'm struggling with shutter speed left in auto ISO I may have to manually move to 1600 but I'll play it by ear. I've seen a lot of people advocating M mode for sport shooting but as a novice at shooting this stuff I reckon I'll be on safer ground in AV mode as the weather does look to be promising intermittent cloud/sunshine, hopefully not too much rain.

Unfortunately my only longer lens is the 75-300 whose reputation proceeds it so I'll stick with the 70-210!

Working through today's shots now, hopefully have some posted up later. I think things mostly went to plan although I need to preempt the shots and press the shutter a little sooner if I'm to increase my percentage of shots with the ball in frame.