Tennis star Martina Navratilova and Slovak artist Juraj Kralik have created an art show based on tennis balls dipped in paint slammed against the canvas.

Navratilova, 50, has been working on the project in secret for four years, hitting tennis balls against a canvas on the courts of the four Grand Slam tennis tournaments in New York, Melbourne, Paris and Wimbledon.

Martina Navratilova at the U.S. Open in New York in 2006. She used her forehand to hit paint-covered balls at a canvas on four Grand Slam courts.
(Kathy Willens/Associated Press)

The exhibition of 60 canvases opened Friday at Roland Garros Stadium in Paris, home of the French Open.

"I met Juro [Kralik] in New York in 2000 at the U.S. Open," said Navratilova, a winner of 81 Grand Slam singles titles.

"He told me about the art project and later sent me a written description of his final concept. As it appeared to me well conceived, it held my attention and I agreed to take part in it."

Navratilova, now retired from the professional circuit, met several times with Kralik to create the works, which appear as pointillist images. She mainly used her forehand to send the ball against the canvas, she said.

"What I like is that you hit the ball but you don't exactly know what you're doing," she told the AFP news agency.

The ground of each Grand Slam court is mixed with the paint on the canvas, forming both abstract paintings and tennis-related images such as shoes and racquets.

She said her favourite canvas is 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.

Kralik, 43, a graphic artist and freelance photographer born in Bratislava, said he had the idea for quite some time, but needed someone capable of controlling the ball in the way he had in mind.

"I had need of a partner … someone I respect and admire, as much for her success in her art — tennis — as for her human qualities," he said.

A documentary film accompanying the show allows viewers to see how this marriage of art and sport was achieved. The exhibit runs until Aug. 20 in Paris.