The first professional tennis tournament at the new $38-million Rexall Centre at York University was by most accounts a success, due largely to the marquee matchup opening night between Andre Agassi and Tommy Haas, and the thrilling conclusion in the final between Roger Federer and Andy Roddick, reported the Toronto Star Aug. Tennis Canada announced total attendance for its week-long Tennis Masters Canada tournament of 165,508. That’s just shy of the record of 165,611 set by the tournament in Montreal in 2002, but far above the record for the tournament of 149,168, set in Toronto in 2001. Television coverage was beamed around the world, and it was a great opportunity for Tennis Canada to show off its new facility. The tournament looked promising from the start, with 45 of the top 50 men’s players in the world participating. Players said they loved the new 11,500-seat main stadium and the amenities it provided, such as spacious locker rooms and a players lounge.
Bravo for playwright prof
Robert Fothergill, theatre professor in York’s Faculty of Fine Arts, was mentioned in a National Post Aug.5 roundup on “the best of Toronto.” Fothergill is the author of a new play, which is mentioned in context of the riches of this year’s Summerworks festival. The Post noted that Fothergill’s play may just be the first ever written about the Rwanda massacres. Called Borderline, the work is set after the 1994 genocide in a refugee camp where a Canadian aid worker finds that her lover, who is also her former student, may have been one of the killers.
Sex offender released
High-risk sex offender Philip Foremsky, 22, who attacked six women in three months in the York University area during the summer of 2000, was released Aug. 4 from prison in Campbellford, Ont., reported the Toronto Star, Toronto Sun, Ottawa Sun and Peterborough Examiner Aug. 5. Foremsky was 18 when he pleaded guilty to groping, sexually assaulting and robbing women – two at knifepoint – as they walked near York’s Keele campus. He has been ordered to live in a federal or community halfway house for the remaining two years of his sentence, and was expected to go to a federal halfway house in Kingston. News of Foremsky’s release was also broadcast on Toronto and Kingston radio and television stations Aug. 5.