By Elliott West
“Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome”.
Arthur Ashe
Introduction
Arthur Ashe remains to this day, one of the most significant figures that sport has ever witnessed. An African American who grew up in the harsh cultural and political landscape of Richmond, Virginia in the 1950s, a time when the colour of your skin affected every aspect of your life and racism was rife. Yet despite these many obstacles and challenges, Arthur was determined to break the mould, facing them with a degree of dignity and integrity and chose tennis as his vocation in life, a sport that at the time was elitist. A clique that resisted change and only opened its doors to the privileged few. However, Ashe stood at those doors and knocked till they opened will the full force of the electricity that he brought to a tennis court. A man who wanted to shape his legacy in a unique way, his way.
The Breakthrough
Ashe’s lightning bolt moment in tennis, his breakthrough came in 1968. It was significant for multiple reasons, firstly because he won the US Open and secondly due to the fact that this was the moment that Ashe emerged from the conformity of a white society and started to establish a black identity for himself. A burning desire turned political with Arthur campaigning for US sanctions against South Africa and the nation’s expulsion from the International Lawn Tennis Federation.
No more can this be seen when Ashe travelled to South Africa in 1973, becoming the first black professional tennis player to be allowed to play despite having his visa application rejected multiple times in previous years and being seen as too political. Having boycotted Wimbledon, Arthur hoped that his visit would inspire social change in a country where 80 percent of the population was excluded under apartheid, a terrible political dogma that Ashe was determined to expose to be a lie. He had become an ambassador for his race, a role that he didn’t like but one that he didn’t shrug off.
Arthur Ashe was a gentleman rebel who had a quiet rage in his soul and this was proven in so many ways in his South Africa visit. The black population referred to him as the gift that was coming. They were desperate to not only catch a glimpse of him playing but also find out how he had become free. Ashe refused to take part in the tournament until the tournament was integrated and black fans were allowed to attend. This demand paid off and became the first time in South Africa’s history that black people were allowed to compete as well as being spectators, a monumental moment in time.
Arthur would go on to reach the final and faced the dangerous and brash American, Jimmy Connors. The pressure was immense for both players with an added weight on Ashe as he strived to change history. Played on a blue hard court, Connors beat him in three straight sets. Although dejected, this moment proved that Arthur was triumphant in defeat. He had achieved so many things by attending and helped cracks to form in a brutal and barbaric ideology. It was a victory that was much more than anything he could have achieved on a tennis court.
The Grudge Match
“I’m trying for Christ’s sake”.
Jimmy Connors
The 1975 Wimbledon final will go down in history as one of those defining moments. Arthur Ashe and Jimmy Connors were definitely not friends off of the court and at the time of play, Connors was suing his opponent for defamation of character. The bad boy American was the clear favourite but Arthur had a plan up his sleeve. Spending the previous night at the Playboy Club in London, Arthur accompanied by his manager, set about putting the meat on the bones to their plan. One that completely changed Ashe’s game from hard-hitting to soft and calculated play with an aim of completely deconstructing Connors’ plan of action.
Contrary to his natural style, Ashe gradually turned Connors into a quiverring wreck as self-doubt and mistakes crept in his game. Arthur won the first set 6-1 and the second set by the same scoreline. Staring down the barrel of defeat. Despite Connors winning the next set, spurred on by a letter from his mother, Ashe sat in meditated contemplation, determined not to let this victory pass him by. What followed was probably one of the greatest moments in the history of tennis with Daniel fighting off Goliath to win the game 6-4 and 3 sets to 1. The first black tennis player to win Wimbledon.
The Legacy
Arthur’s victory at Wimbledon in 1975, followed his win at the 1968 US Open and the 1970 Australian Open, making him the first black player to win the trifecta. His career tally would run to 76 titles and although he didn’t at first support Billy Jean King’s fight for equality and parity in tennis, he would eventually come around to her way of thinking. Both King and Ashe were pivotal in changing the course of tennis and helping it form the modern game that it is today. Arthur retired in 1980 and would continue to be a champion for racial equality for the rest of his life.
During heart bypass surgery in 1983, it is believed he was given infected blood during a transfusion containing the HIV virus. Arthur would go public on his illness in 1992 and went on to help the programme to educate people on HIV and AIDS. He founded the Arthur Ashe Foundation to help medical research defeat AIDS and the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health. Ashe sadly died in 1993, aged only 49 from AIDS-related pneumonia and was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by the then US President Bill Clinton.
