Tennis Canada goes purple in salute to gender equity

If you've been watching the tennis in Canada this week, you might be feeling the lavender haze creepin' up on you ... and that's by design.

Purple has been the color of the week at the ATP Masters 1000 and WTA 1000 events in Montreal and Toronto, and for good reason: Tennis Canada is using its highest-profile tournament to support gender equity.

The umpires' chairs at both events are colored purple, the official color of International Women's Day, as a part of a series of initiatives by the national governing body to support the advancement of women inside and outside the sport through its "Game. Set. Equity." campaign. What started as an element of Tennis Canada's efforts to augment the sport's recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic has since developed into a holistic strategy that has already paid dividends.

"The message is clear: the umpire’s chair sits atop our sport, where we believe all women and girls have a place," said Tennis Canada in a media release.

"Our commitment is crystal clear," added Gavin Ziv, CEO of Tennis Canada. "We want to move gender equity forward across the Canadian tennis ecosystem and will continue to build awareness of our initiatives in order to do so."

The efforts have been supported by a 10-year sponsorship from National Bank, which according to the ITF has already supported more than 2,000 women and girls in nearly 40 events across Canada since the campaign's launch. $50,000 has already been invested in grassroots gender equity initiatives, and the Canadian events have promised to offer equal prize money by 2027.

Thursday at both tournaments was an entire day devoted to the promotion of gender equity with various on-site activations, special guests, and at the end of the night, the illumination of the Olympic Stadium Tower in Montreal in purple.

The event came on the back of Tennis Canada's third annual conference for gender equity in sports, fittingly dubbed "Unmatched," with Venus Williams, who famous helped secured equal prize money for women at Wimbledon, as the keynote speaker.