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Arthur Ashe A singular figure in the game's history as the only black male to win a major singles title - three of them in fact - Arthur Robert Ashe, Jr., also set a record in 1968 that is most unlikely to be equaled. He won both the U.S. Amateur and Open Championships, the first time such a double was possible. No one has come remotely close since. That first season of the open era was a whirlwind year for him, then 1st Lieutenant Ashe of the U.S. Army. In order to maintain Davis Cup eligibility and gain time away from duty for important tournaments, Ashe was required to maintain his amateur status. Determining that the traditional - and previously amateur - U.S. Singles Championships at Forest Hills would become the inaugural U.S. Open in 1968, the USTA designated Longwood Cricket Club in Boston as the site for a U.S. Amateur tournament. Seeded first in Boston, Ashe won the title by surging past teammate Bob Lutz in the exciting final, 4-6, 6-3, (8-10), 6-0, 6-4. However, with professionals introduced to Forest Hills, Ashe was a lightly regarded fifth seed. Nevertheless, at 25-years-old he came of age as an internationalist. Unflappable over the New York fortnight, he served-and-volleyed splendidly. In the final he clocked 26 aces, returned with precision, and held his cool in a five-set final-round victory over pro Tom Okker, 14-12, 5-7, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
An amateur would never do so well again. As the last remaining pro, Okker got the $14,000 first prize while Ashe was happy to settle for $28 daily expenses for his historic triumph, the first major for a black since Althea Gibson´s Forest Hills triumph a decade before. Ashe's victory also boosted American morale by ending the United States male Championship drought that dated back 13 years to Tony Trabert´s 1955 win. That year Ashe was also a Davis Cup drought-buster, spearheading the U.S. drive to the sterling pot, last won five years before. He won 11 straight singles - the most in one campaign for an American - in the drive to retrieve the Cup from Australia. In the finale he beat Ray Ruffels easily on opening day, and, after the Cup was clinched by Bob Lutz and Stan Smith in doubles. Ashe finally gave way, losing to Bill Bowrey in a meaningless third-day match. The season closed with Ashe winning 10 of 22 tournaments on a 72-10 win-loss match record. He would win both his singles in 1969 and 1970 as the U.S. successfully defended the Cup against Romania and then West Germany. In the latter his third day defeat of Christian Kuhnke, 6-8, 10-12, 9-7, 13-11, 6-4, was the longest match (86 games) in a Cup-deciding round. Eight years later he reappeared for a vital cameo that led to another Cup for the U.S.; his 6-2, 6-0, 7-5 singles victory over Kjell Johansson was the clincher over Sweden, 3-2, in the semifinal at Goteborg. Ashe put in 10 years of Davis Cup, topped for the U.S. only by John McEnroe´s 12 and Bill Tilden and Stan Smith's 11 each, and won 27 singles, second only to McEnroe's 41. He returned in 1981 as captain for five years, piloting the victors of 1981 and 1982 and the infamous 1984, final battle. Ashe was born July 10, 1943, in Richmond, Virginia, where he grew up. Since racial segregation was the law there during his childhood and early youth, Ashe could not play in the usual junior tournaments. With the aid of the concerned Lynchburg, VA, physician, Dr. Walter Johnson (who had also befriended and helped Althea Gibson), Ashe finished high school in St. Louis, where he could get the necessary tennis competition. In 1961, after Dr. Johnson's lobbying got him into the previously segregated U.S. Interscholastic tourney, Ashe won it for Sumner High. Four years later, leading man of his alma mater's Varsity (University of California at Los Angeles), he won the U.S. Intercollegiate singles. Although Ashe was always a winner, a man of strong character, poised and able to overcome racial blocks, it took him a while to harness his power, groove, his groundstrokes and become a thoughtful player, comfortable on all surfaces. As one whose career overflowed the amateur and Open eras, he followed the 1968 breakthrough with 11 sterling years as a professional that netted 33 singles titles including the 1970 Australian and the gloriously unexpected Wimbledon '75. He won 35 amateur singles tournaments.
In 1975, days before his 32nd birthday, seeded sixth, he was a longer shot than he had been seven years earlier at Forest Hills. Defending champion Jimmy Connors, seemingly inviolable, was a 10-to-1 favourite in the final, but Ashe was too slick and cerebral in one of the momentous upsets 6-1, 6-1, 5-7, 6-4. Changing pace and spin cleverly, startling Connors with a sliced serve wide to the two-fisted backhand, Ashe foxed the man a decade his junior. This was the centerpiece of Ashe's pre-eminent year, a heavy-duty season when he won 9 out of 29 tournaments on a 108-23 match win-loss record and wound up becoming number one player in the United States and the fourth best player in the world. He reached No. 2 in 1976. Improving with age, he unfortunately was grounded prematurely, and permanently, by a heart attack in July 1979. In 1992 he revealed that he'd contracted AIDS through a 1988 blood transfusion. For 12 years he was in the world top ten, and for 14 years, through 1979, in the U.S. Top Ten, reaching number one in 1968 and 1975. He was one of the founders of the ATP in 1972, served as president and had been a reasoned, intelligent spokesman for the game, served on numerous corporate boards and received several honorary degrees. A long-time protester of apartheid in South Africa, he was, after several refusals, granted a visa to visit that country in 1973. There he became the first black to win a title, the doubles (with Okker) in the South African Open. "You have shown our black youth that they can compete with whites and win," poet Don Mattera lauded him. He was gratified to return again after the overturning of apartheid and meet with President Nelson Mandela (who identified himself as "an Ashe fan.") Ashe lent himself, his name and his money to various enlightened causes. He was arrested shortly before his death, while protesting against what he regarded as cruel U.S. policies toward Haitian refugees. His principal cause was fostering and furthering education for needy kids, and he was the guiding light in the Safe Passage Foundation for that purpose.
He was also a warrior in the fight against AIDS. A tennis player who went well beyond the game, Ashe upheld the qualities that distinguished him as a champion. He showed that it was possible to compete ferociously while maintaining personal honor and sportsmanship.He died February 6, 1993, leaving his wife, Jeanne and six-year-old daughter, Camera. Grand Slam Record Australian Singles 1970; Singles finalist 1966, 1967, 1971; Doubles 1977 French Doubles 1971; Doubles finalist 1970 Wimbledon Singles 1975; Doubles finalist 1971 U.S. Championships Singles 1968; Singles finalist 1972 Tournament Record (inc. Davis Cup and Olympics) United States Davis Cup Team member 1963, 1965-1970, 1975, 1977-1978; winning side 1968-1970; Captain 1981-1985; winning captain 1981-1982 Inter-Collegiate Singles 1965; Doubles 1965´
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