Arthur Ashe

File:ArthurAshe.jpg

Arthur Ashe (1943-1993)

Arthur Ashe

Country:	United States
Height:	6 ft 1 in
Weight:	160 lb
Plays:	Right
Turned pro:	1966
Retired:	1980
Highest singles ranking:	1 (1968 and 1975)
Singles titles:	34
Career prize money:	$2,584,909
Grand Slam Record Titles: 3
Australian Open	W (1970)
French Open	QF (1970, '71)
Wimbledon	W (1975)
US Open	W (1968)

Arthur Robert Ashe, Jr. (July 10, 1943 – February 6, 1993) was a prominent African American tennis player who was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia. During his playing career, he won three Grand Slam titles. Ashe is also remembered for his efforts to further social causes. The Arthur Ashe Courage Award is named after him.

The only black male to win a major singles title in tennis history (three of them, in fact), Ashe also set a record in 1968 that may never be equaled. He won both the U.S. Amateur and Open championships, the first time such a double win was possible. Since then, no one has come remotely close to this accomplishment.

For 12 years Ashe was in the World Top Ten, and for 14 years, through 1979, in the U.S. Top Ten. He was No. 1 in 1968 and 1975. ATP was one of the founders of the influential Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) in 1972, served as president, and was a highly respected spokesman for the game. Ashe served on numerous corporate boards, wrote books, and received several honorary degrees.

Ashe was a vocal and long-time protester of apartheid in South Africa. After several refusals, he was granted a visa to visit that country in 1973, becoming the first black to win a title—a doubles match—in the South African Open. "You have shown our black youth that they can compete with whites and win," exclaimed poet Don Mattera.

Arthur Ashe died of complications from AIDS on February 6, 1993, after he had contract HIV from a blood transfusion during heart surgery.

Tennis career

Early life

In his youth, Ashe was small and decided to start playing tennis. He was coached by Ron Charity and later coached by Walter Johnson.

Ashe began to attract the attention of tennis fans after being awarded a tennis scholarship to UCLA in 1963. That same year, Ashe was the first African American ever selected to the United States Davis Cup team.

In 1965, Ashe won the individual NCAA championship and was a chief contributor in UCLA's winning the team NCAA tennis championship. While at UCLA, Ashe was initiated as a member of the Upsilon chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity. With this successful college career behind him, Ashe quickly ascended to the upper echelon of tennis players worldwide after turning professional in 1969.

By 1969, most people considered Ashe to be the best American male tennis player. He had won the inaugural US Open in 1968, and had aided the US Davis Cup team to victory that same year. Concerned that tennis pros were not receiving winnings commensurate with the sport's growing popularity, Ashe was one of the key figures behind the formation of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). That year would prove even more momentous for Ashe, when he was denied a visa by the South African government, thereby keeping him out of the South African Open. Ashe chose to use this denial to publicize South Africa's apartheid policies. In the media, Ashe called for South Africa to be expelled from the professional tennis circuit. In 1970, he added a second Grand Slam title to his resume by winning the Australian Open.

In 1975, after several years of lower levels of success, Ashe played his best season ever by winning Wimbledon, unexpectedly defeating Jimmy Connors in the final. He remains the only African American player ever to win the men's singles at Wimbledon, the US Open, or Australian Open, and one of only two men of black African ancestry to win a Grand Slam singles event (the other being France's Yannick Noah, who won the French Open in 1983). He would play for several more years, but after being slowed by heart surgery in 1979, Ashe retired in 1980.

In his 1979 autobiography, Jack Kramer, the long-time tennis promoter and great player himself, ranks Ashe as one of the 21 best players of all time.

After his retirement, Ashe took on many new tasks, from writing for Time magazine to commentating for ABC Sports, from founding the National Junior Tennis League to serving as captain of the US Davis Cup team. In 1983, Ashe underwent a second heart surgery. To no one's surprise, he was elected to the Tennis Hall of Fame in 1985.

HIV, death

The story of Ashe's life turned from success to tragedy in 1988, however, when Ashe discovered he had contracted HIV during the blood transfusions he had received during one of his two heart surgeries. He and his wife kept his illness private until April 8, 1992, when reports that the newspaper USA Today was about to publish a story about his condition forced him to make a public announcement that he had the disease. In the last year of his life, Arthur Ashe did much to call attention to AIDS sufferers worldwide. Two months before his death, he founded the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health, to help address issues of inadequate health care delivery and was named Sports Illustrated magazine's Sportsman of the Year. He also spent much of the last years of his life writing his memoir Days of Grace, finishing the manuscript less than a week before his death.

Ashe died of complications from AIDS on February 6, 1993.

Personal life

Ashe married Jeanne Moutoussamy, on February 20, 1977. Jeanne was a photographer whom Arthur had met four months earlier. Andrew Young, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, performed the ceremony at the U.N. chapel in New York. Arthur and Jeanne adopted one child together, a daughter, who was born on December 21, 1986. She was named Camera after her mother's profession. Camera was only six years old when Arthur died of AIDS.

Civil rights leader

Arthur, being the first African-American male to win a Grand Slam event, was an active civil rights supporter. He was a member of a delegation of 31 prominent African-Americans who visited South Africa to observe political change in the country as it approached racial integration.

He was arrested on January 11, 1985, for protesting outside the South African embassy in Washington D.C during an anti-apartheid rally. He was also arrested again on September 9, 1992, outside the White House for protesting on the recent crackdown on Haitian refugees.

Quotes

• "From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life."
• "Let me put it this way: I think Republicans tend to keep the ball in play, Democrats go for broke."
• "True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever the cost."

During his battle with AIDS, from the world over, he received letters from his fans, one of which asked: "Why does God have to select you for such a bad disease"?

To this Arthur Ashe replied: The world over — 50,000,000 children start playing tennis, 5,000,000 learn to play tennis, 500,000 learn professional tennis, 50,000 come to the circuit, 5,000 reach the grand slam, 50 reach Wimbledon, 4 to the semi-finals, 2 to the finals, When I was holding a cup I never asked God "Why me?" And today in pain I should not be asking God, "Why me?"

Honors

• After Ashe's death, his body lay in State at the Governor's Mansion in his home state of Virginia. The last time this was done was for Stonewall Jackson of the Confederate Army during the Civil War.
• The city of Richmond posthumously honored Ashe's life with a statue on Monument Avenue, a place that was traditionally reserved for statues of key figures of the Confederacy. This decision led to some controversy in a city that was the capital of the Confederate States during the American Civil War.
  File:Arthur Ashe stadium 2005.jpg

  The Arthur Ashe Stadium in 2005.
• The main stadium at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows Park, where the U.S. Open is played, is named Arthur Ashe Stadium in his honor. This is also the home of the annual Arthur Ashe Kids Day.
• UCLA's Student Health and Wellness Center, opened in 1997, is named after Ashe.
• In 2002, Arthur's achievement at Wimbledon in 1975 was voted 95th in Channel 4's 100 Greatest Sporting Moments.
• In 2005, the United States Postal Service announced the release of an Arthur Ashe commemorative postal stamp, the first stamp ever to feature the cover of a Sports Illustrated magazine.
• Also in 2005, TENNIS Magazine put him in 30th place in its list of 40 Greatest Players of the TENNIS era.
• His wife wrote a book, Daddy and Me, a photographic journey told from the perspective of his young daughter. Another book, Arthur Ashe and Me, also gives young readers a chance to learn about his life.

Grand Slam singles finals

Wins (3)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1968	U.S. Open	Tom Okker	14-12, 5-7, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3
1970	Australian Open	Dick Crealy	6-4, 9-7, 6-2
1975	Wimbledon	Jimmy Connors	6-1, 6-1, 5-7, 6-4

Runner-up (2)

Year	Championship	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1971	Australian Open	Ken Rosewall	6-1, 7-5, 6-3
1972	U.S. Open	Ilie Nastase	3-6, 6-3, 6-7, 6-4, 6-3

Singles titles (33)

• 1968 – U.S. National Chps., US Open (Grass)
• 1970 – Australian Open (Grass), Berkeley, Paris Indoor;
• 1971 – Charlotte, Paris Indoor, Stockholm Open
• 1972 – Louisville WCT, Montreal WCT, Rome WCT, Rotterdam WCT
• 1973 – Chicago WCT, Washington
• 1974 – Barcelona WCT, Bologna WCT, Stockholm
• 1975 – Barcelona WCT, Dallas WCT, Los Angeles, Munich WCT, Rotterdam WCT, San Francisco, Stockholm - WCT, Wimbledon
• 1976 – Columbus WCT, Indianapolis WCT, Richmond WCT, Rome WCT, Rotterdam WCT
• 1978 – Colombus, Los Angeles, San Jose

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Ashe, Arthur. Days of Grace, Random House Value Publishing, 1996. ISBN 978-0517157619
• Ashe, Arthur, & Deford, Frank. Arthur Ashe: Portrait in Motion, Carroll & Graf Publishers, 1993. ISBN 978-0786700509
• Martin, Marvin. Arthur Ashe: Of Tennis & the Human Spirit, Franklin Watts, 1999. ISBN 978-0531159590
• Steins, Richard. Arthur Ashe: A Biography, Greenwood Press, 2005. ISBN 978-0313332999

External links

• Sports Illustrated Arthur Ashe tribute website
• Official Arthur Ashe website
• Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health
• Arthur Ashe's Gravesite

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