Arthur Ashe

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Arthur Ashe
Image:ArthurAshe.jpg
CountryImage:Flag of the United States.svg United States
ResidenceRichmond
Date of birthJuly 10, 1943
Place of birthImage:Flag of Virginia.svg Image:Flag of the United States.svg Richmond, USA
Height1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Weight73 kg (160 lb/11.5 st)
Turned Pro1966
Retired 1980
PlaysRight
Career Prize MoneyUS$2,584,909
Singles
Career record:
Career titles:33
Highest ranking:No. 1 (in 1968 and 1975)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open W (1970)
French Open QF (1970, 1971)
Wimbledon W (1975)
U.S. Open W (1968)
Doubles
Career record:
Career titles:
Highest ranking:

Infobox last updated on: July 24, 2007.

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.

Contents

[edit] Biography

In his youth, Ashe was small and decided to start playing tennis. He was coached by Ron Charity and later coached by Walter Johnson. Tired of having to travel great distances to play caucasian youths in segregated Richmond, Virginia, Ashe accepted an offer from a Saint Louis, Missouri tennis official to move there and attend Sumner High School.[1] Young Ashe was recognized by Sports Illustrated for his playing.[2]

Ashe was awarded a tennis scholarship to the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1963. That same year, Ashe became the first African American ever selected to the United States Davis Cup team.

In 1965, Ashe won the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) singles title and contributed to 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.

In 1968, Ashe won the inaugural U.S. Open and aided the U.S Davis Cup team to victory. Concerned that tennis professionals were not receiving winnings commensurate with the sport's growing popularity, Ashe supported formation of the Association of Tennis Professionals. 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 used 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 1969, Ashe turned professional. In 1970, Ashe won his second Grand Slam singles title at the Australian Open.

In 1975, Ashe won Wimbledon, unexpectedly defeating Jimmy Connors in the final. He played for several more years, but after being slowed by heart surgery in 1979, Ashe retired in 1980.

Ashe remains the only African American player ever to win the men's singles at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, or Australian Open. He is one of only two men of black African ancestry to win a Grand Slam singles title (the other being France's Yannick Noah, who won the French Open in 1983).

In his 1979 autobiography, Jack Kramer, the long-time tennis promoter and great player himself, ranked Ashe as one of the 21 best players of all time.[3]

After his retirement, Ashe took on many new tasks, including writing for Time magazine, commentating for ABC Sports, founding the National Junior Tennis League, and serving as captain of the U.S. Davis Cup team. In 1983, Ashe underwent a second heart surgery. He was elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1985.

[edit] Personal life

Ashe served in the U.S. Army from 1966-68, reaching the rank of second lieutenant.

Image:Monument-AveAA.jpg
Statue of Arthur Ashe on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia.
On February 20, 1977, Ashe married Jeanne Moutoussamy, a photographer he 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 her father died.

In 1979, Ashe suffered a heart attack, an event that surprised the public in view of his high level of fitness as an athlete. His condition drew attention to the hereditary aspect of heart disease. After a quadruple coronary-bypass operation, he appeared to have made a full recovery, but was obliged to give up competitive tennis.

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 from complications from AIDS on February 6, 1993.

[edit] Civil rights leader

Arthur, 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.

[edit] Quotes

  • "From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a life."
  • "For every hour spent on the playing field, two should be spent with a book"
  • "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, one of his fans asked: "Why does God have to select you for such a bad disease"? To this Arthur 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?".
  • "Clothes and manners do not make the man; but when he is made, they greatly improve his appearance."
  • "You are never really playing an opponent. You are playing yourself, your own highest standards, and when you reach your limits, that is real joy."[1]

[edit] 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.
    Image: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.
  • ESPN's annual sports awards, the ESPY Awards, hands out the Arthur Ashe for Courage Award to a member of the sports world who best exhibits courage in the face of adversity.
  • Philadelphia's Arthur Ashe Youth Tennis and Education Center is named for Ashe.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ "TRAVEL ADVISORY; Black History in St. Louis", The New York Times, May 10, 1992. Accessed December 11, 2007. "Sumner High School, the first school west of the Mississippi for blacks, established in 1875 (among graduates are Grace Bumbry, Arthur Ashe and Tina Turner)..."
  2. ^ http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/tennis/features/1997/arthurashe/faces1960.html
  3. ^ Kramer considered the best ever to have been either Don Budge (for consistent play) or Ellsworth Vines (at the height of his game). The next four best were, chronologically, Bill Tilden, Fred Perry, Bobby Riggs, and Pancho Gonzales. After these six came the "second echelon" of Rod Laver, Lew Hoad, Ken Rosewall, Gottfried von Cramm, Ted Schroeder, Jack Crawford, Pancho Segura, Frank Sedgman, Tony Trabert, John Newcombe, Arthur Ashe, Stan Smith, Björn Borg, and Jimmy Connors. He felt unable to rank Henri Cochet and René Lacoste accurately but felt they were among the very best.

[edit] Grand Slam singles finals

[edit] Wins (3)

Year Championship Opponent in Final Score in Final
1968 U.S. Open Image:Flag of the Netherlands.svg Tom Okker 14-12, 5-7, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3
1970 Australian Open Image:Flag of Australia.svg Dick Crealy 6-4, 9-7, 6-2
1975 Wimbledon Image:Flag of the United States.svg Jimmy Connors 6-1, 6-1, 5-7, 6-4

[edit] Runner-ups (4)

Year Championship Opponent in Final Score in Final
1966 Australian Championships Image:Flag of Australia.svg Roy Emerson 6-4, 6-8, 6-2, 6-3
1967 Australian Championships Image:Flag of Australia.svg Roy Emerson 6-4, 6-1, 6-4
1971 Australian Open Image:Flag of Australia.svg Ken Rosewall 6-1, 7-5, 6-3
1972 U.S. Open Image:Flag of Romania.svg Ilie Năstase 3-6, 6-3, 6-7, 6-4, 6-3

[edit] All finals

[edit] Singles

[edit] Wins (33)

1. 1968 U.S. National Championships, USA
2. 29 August 1968 U.S. Open, New York City, USA Grass Image:Flag of the Netherlands.svg Tom Okker 14-12, 5-7, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3
3. 19 January 1970 Australian Open, Melbourne, Australia Grass Image:Flag of Australia.svg Dick Crealy 6-4, 9-7, 6-2
4. 1970 Berkeley, California
5. 1970 Paris, France
6. 1971 Charlotte, USA
7. 1971 Paris, France
8. 1971 Stockholm, Sweden
  • 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

[edit] References and external links

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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Arthur Ashe
v • d • e
Australian Open men's singles champions*

* Open Era • (1969) Rod Laver • (1970) Arthur Ashe • (1971-72) Ken Rosewall • (1973) John Newcombe • (1974) Jimmy Connors • (1975) John Newcombe • (1976) Mark Edmondson • (1977 [Jan]) Roscoe Tanner • (1977 [Dec]) Vitas Gerulaitis • (1978-79) Guillermo Vilas • (1980) Brian Teacher • (1981-82) Johan Kriek • (1983-84) Mats Wilander • (1985) Stefan Edberg • (1986) No competition • (1987) Stefan Edberg • (1988) Mats Wilander • (1989-90) Ivan Lendl • (1991) Boris Becker (1992-93) Jim Courier • (1994) Pete Sampras • (1995) Andre Agassi • (1996) Boris Becker • (1997) Pete Sampras • (1998) Petr Korda • (1999) Yevgeny Kafelnikov • (2000-01) Andre Agassi • (2002) Thomas Johansson • (2003) Andre Agassi • (2004) Roger Federer • (2005) Marat Safin • (2006-07) Roger Federer

v • d • e
Wimbledon men's singles champions*

* Open Era • (1968-69) Rod Laver • (1970–71) John Newcombe • (1972) Stan Smith • (1973) Jan Kodeš • (1974) Jimmy Connors • (1975) Arthur Ashe • (1976–80) Björn Borg • (1981) John McEnroe • (1982) Jimmy Connors • (1983–84) John McEnroe • (1985–86) Boris Becker • (1987) Pat Cash • (1988) Stefan Edberg • (1989) Boris Becker • (1990) Stefan Edberg (1991) Michael Stich • (1992) Andre Agassi • (1993–95) Pete Sampras • (1996) Richard Krajicek • (1997–00) Pete Sampras • (2001) Goran Ivanišević • (2002) Lleyton Hewitt • (2003–07) Roger Federer

v • d • e
US Open men's singles champions*

* Open Era • (1968) Arthur Ashe • (1969) Rod Laver • (1970) Ken Rosewall • (1971) Stan Smith • (1972) Ilie Năstase • (1973) John Newcombe • (1974) Jimmy Connors • (1975) Manuel Orantes • (1976) Jimmy Connors • (1977) Guillermo Vilas • (1978) Jimmy Connors • (1979–81) John McEnroe • (1982–83) Jimmy Connors • (1984) John McEnroe • (1985–87) Ivan Lendl • (1988) Mats Wilander • (1989) Boris Becker • (1990) Pete Sampras • (1991–92) Stefan Edberg • (1993) Pete Sampras • (1994) Andre Agassi • (1995–96) Pete Sampras • (1997–98) Patrick Rafter • (1999) Andre Agassi • (2000) Marat Safin • (2001) Lleyton Hewitt • (2002) Pete Sampras • (2003) Andy Roddick • (2004–07) Roger Federer

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