David Liss, Lindsay Deschamps & Karl Hale

Beautiful Strokes: Students Display Artful Racquet-work at Rogers Cup Tournament
By Joanne Eidinger

August 18, 2007 - While Justine Henin and Nadia Petrova brushed up their strokes on the practice courts at the Rexall Centre this week, tennis fans outside stadium court enjoyed brush-strokes of a different kind, displayed on colourful giant Wilson racquets that flank the pedestrian path like playful sentries.

“Tennis Canada and the Etobicoke School for the Arts are doubles partners in this community exhibition,” said Karl Hale, Tournament Director of the 2007 Rogers Cup presented by American Express.

The racquet art competition enabled the school to showcase the talents of 20 student artists, explained artist and designer Brenda Bent, who championed the project on behalf of Tennis Canada. At the same time, the decorative out-sized racquets provided a festive dimension—and an appealing backdrop for tennis fans to take a commemorative snapshot—to one of the Tier I tournaments on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour.

Bent invited David Liss, Director of the Museum of Canadian Contemporary Art (MOCCA), to judge the eight-foot-high plywood racquets for originality and creativity. Today, he presented cheques totalling $1,000 from Tennis Canada to the student winners of the competition: Lindsey Deschamps, Maya Misztelal and Filip Matovina. The students also received complimentary tickets to the tournament’s quarter-final matches.

The racquet art project was created for the Rogers Cup “Outside Centre Court” program, which includes live shows on the history of tennis fashion, interactive video exhibits and displays of historical memorabilia.

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