OTA Pro-Am Fundraiser

Highlights of the 2010 Pro-Am Fundraiser.

Enjoying Davis Cup at Rexall

Kim Fraser and Pam Olley enjoy an afternoon of Davis Cup action at Rexall Centre as Team Canada compete against Dominican Republic. After Saturday's doubles action, Canada had swept DR, taking a 3-0 lead. This means Canada gets to keep their Americas Zone Group 1 position for another year, one tier below the 16-country world group.

Daniel Nestor Charity Event 2010

I was fortunate enough to be able to attend this year's Daniel Nestor Charity Event at the Donalda Club. This was the 8th annual event in support of both Tennis Canada's Go for Gold program and the North York Hospital's Maternal Newborn Program. The $260-a-plate evening includes a silent/live auction, dinner and some short speeches. There was even some celebrity watch opportunities which includes Daniel himself (shown here thanking sponsors, donors and guests), guest chef Susur Lee, Tennis Pro to the Stars Karl Hale, Jake Gold, Gord and Sharon Martineau and yes even Frank Sinatra who entertained us all with a few golden oldies.


I would be remiss if I didn't mention the highlight of the evening...the food itself! I'm no Toronto Star Food reporter, but all guests were presented with a series of food stations that were to die for. The explosive flavours and artistic presentations were amazing to behold. We started with Susur Lee's Marinated Rack of Lamb with Curried Lentils and moved on to try thinly sliced sword fish by Terroni's, sushi rolls from Rick Mak's Sushi Supreme, jerk chicken and plantain from Dream Caribbean Caterer, various salad appetizers by George, and a wonderful beef tenderloin plate by Donalda executive chef Henry Fisher and his team.


The silent auction portion started at 7pm and finally closed at around 9pm. An amazing assortment of prize items (over 65 silent items and 5 live auction items) were on display to entice all interests and price ranges. My favourites included the Chocolate Lovers Gift baskets filled with Lindt chocolate, a number of wine baskets, electronic items like a Blackberry, digital camera and a Suunto T4 sports watch, many autographed and mounted photographs, racquets and shoes signed by Nadal, Federer and Nestor. For those with more spare cash on hand, the live auction included an incredible pair of centre court tickets to Wimbledon 2011 for two days during opening week, along with a $1000 travel voucher. A surprise bonus was added in at the very end to also include a personal tour of the players lounge by none other than Daniel Nestor. This item was so popular, a second set of tickets was generously added to accommodate a second bidder! Another outstanding evening all for worthy causes indeed.

Birmingham Dedication

In July 2010, Betty Birmingham's husband, Bruce, lost a brave battle with liver cancer. At Wednesday's officials' morning meeting, Tennis Canada CEO Michael Downey made a special presentation to Betty in honour of her husband with a plaque to rename our lounge the "Birmingham Officials' Lounge". In addition, Betty & Bruce have donated some funds to refurbish the lounge for next year's Roger's Cup. They have also renewed their gift to Wheelchair tennis in Canada for another 5 years. Wow, two very special people indeed!

OTA Hosts Nikolay Davydenko at Fifth Annual Presidents' Day

Michel Lecavalier, President of the OTA, presided over a short Q&A session with Number 6 seed Nikolay Davydenko at this year's President's Day event at the Roger's Cup. After the session, 4 lucky tables were drawn to receive a photograph with the star player himself.

Rogers Cup Toronto - Sunday Quals

Rogers Cup 2010. Men's qualifying action on Sunday. What better place to be! As line umpires in training, we always hope for lots of court time to hone our skills, but Sunday provided more training in patience than anything else as the intermittent rain delayed the action numerous times throughout the day. There were only 7 matches scheduled for Sunday, so luckily all were completed by around 5pm, even though most matches didn't get underway until around 2:30pm. Alas, our Canadian hopeful in the qualifiers, Philip Bester of Vancouver, could not outgun Michael Russell of the U.S. However, we still have high hopes for other Canadians such as Peter Polansky, Vasek Pospisil, Milos Raonic, Frank Dancevic and of course Daniel Nester. Go Canada go!

This picture was taken Sunday evening after the last of the qualifiers were completed. Shown, left-to-right, are line umpires Wail, Murad and Scott, enjoying the Official's BBQ.

Meet Bob Brett

Internationally renowned tennis coach Bob Brett takes time to promote the OTA's ProAM Fundraiser. Listen as he describes the key attributes of a world-class tennis player. Also includes a short interview with up-and-coming tennis player David Volfson, Boys U14 Indoor National Champion.