She's long been an artist on the tennis court but tennis legend Martina Navratilova now has a new canvas on which to express herself.
Martina has an exhibition of artwork produced by her hitting tennis balls dipped in paint and it opened in Paris this weekend in Paris. She has been working on the project in secret for four years with Slovak artist Juraj Kralik. Between 2001 and 2005, the pair created the works on the courts of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments in New York, Melbourne, Paris and Wimbledon. The tennis balls were covered in paint and hit onto a canvas that was hung on a wall or laid out on the ground at each of the four Grand Slam venues. Navratilova mostly used her forehand when hitting the painted balls.
"What I like is that you hit the ball but you don't exactly know what you're doing," Martina told the AFP news agency.
More than 60 canvases have been created for the Art Grand Slam show at Roland-Garros, home of the French Open which Martina won in 1982 and 1984. She won 18 grand slam singles titles in all, including nine at Wimbledon.
Her favorite canvas is titled "Way of My Life," featuring two loops that spiral upwards to the edge of the painting.
"It represents my career, with a small loop and a big loop and at the end it shows I'm finished," she said.
The exhibition, which also includes a documentary about Navratilova, is in Paris until August 20.