I began taking a casual interest in tennis when I was about 12 years old. Though it was still a couple of years before I would pick up a racket with any serious intention of playing, I did start following the major tournaments. One of the rising stars in the men’s game at that time was a brash, twenty-two year-old American from Illinois. His name was Jimmy Connors. In 1974, Connors won three of the four grand slam titles, including Wimbledon. At the start of the 1975 season, he stood poised to bump the likes of Rod Laver, John Newcombe and Stan Smith from the top tier of men’s tennis.
There was another player on the men’s tour who had gained notoriety during the mid-1960s and early 1970s. In 1968, he became the first African American to win the U.S. Open. He also won his second of five Davis Cups that year as a member of the U.S. team; something that was a continual source of pride for him. From 1968 to 1975, he was ranked no lower than 5th, and in 1970, he backed up that U.S. Open victory by winning another major – the Australian Open. His name was Arthur Ashe.
Going into the 1975 Wimbledon tournament, Arthur Ashe and Jimmy Connors appeared to be on diverging paths professionally. Connors was the defending champion, ranked #1 in the world, and seeded first in a star-studded field. Ashe’s ranking had dropped to #5 in the world, and he had only managed to earn the sixth seed. The two players also had contrasting styles. Connors was left-handed and played a power game from the baseline. His ground strokes from both the forehand and backhand sides were punishing, and he was one of a growing number of men who had adopted a two fisted backhand. Connors also possessed one of the best returns of serve in men's tennis at that time. Ashe, on the other hand, was an aggressive serve and volley player. He had a strong serve that he used to get opponents out of position, and then he hit accurate, well-angled volleys to put away the points. Grass was his favorite surface, and although he had reached the semifinals twice in 1968 & 1969, he had never made it to the finals at the All England Club. At age 32, his chance to win the most prestigious tournament in tennis appeared to be slipping away. But Ashe was able to fight through his side of the draw, upsetting the #3 seed Bjorn Borg in four tough sets in the quarterfinals and then surviving a marathon five set semi-final match against Australian Tony Roche. Waiting for him in the final was one James Scott Connors, who had cruised through the entire tournament without dropping a single set.
Connors was an overwhelming favorite to defend his title. In fact, few people gave Ashe any chance of even taking a set from him. And as if this match needed any more build up, these two men simply did not like each other. Ashe was a perennial Davis Cup competitor. Nothing made him more proud than competing for his country against other nations to win the most coveted international team trophy in tennis. Connors had no interest in playing on the Davis Cup team. Ashe, seeing it as somewhat of an obligation for top American players to represent their country, criticized him in public by calling him unpatriotic. Connors responded by filing a $5,000,000 libel suit against him. He also refused to join the Association of Tennis Professionals (the union that represented the players) and had several lawsuits outstanding against them as well. Ashe was the president of the ATP at the time. So the stage was set; the irreverent and seemingly invincible upstart against the quiet African American who, despite the long odds, had a chance to make tennis history.
We lived on the east coast in 1975, so I had to remember that the match would begin in the morning due to the five hour time difference. NBC was broadcasting it, and referred to their coverage of the Men's Final as “Breakfast at Wimbledon.” Frankly, I was too nervous to eat breakfast. I wanted Arthur Ashe to win so badly, my stomach was twisted up into more knots than I could possibly count. As he and Connors made their way to Center Court, I noticed that Ashe was wearing his Davis Cup warm up jacket. It was dark blue with the letters “USA” emblazoned across the front. This was a metaphorical poke in Connors’ eye. I think Arthur knew how much it would get under his skin, and that's why he did it. But I was also superstitious and wasn’t sure it was such a good idea to stir things up like that.
From the moment the match began, it was clear that Ashe had a specific plan to try and beat the hard-hitting Connors. It seemed like the ball was travelling at two dramatically different speeds on each exchange. When Connors hit the ball, it came rocketing back to Ashe with all kinds of pace. Then he hit it back using a variation of slices and spins that took all of the pace off the ball. Connors would crush it back, but he was having to generate his own power. It also threw off his rhythm and timing. Incredibly, Ashe won the first set by a score of 6-1. Not only had Connors dropped his first set of the tournament, but he had gotten positively smoked in the process. I was pretty fired up, but it was far from over. I had a sense that Connors would finally figure out a way to overcome Ashe's strategy. After all, he was the #1 player in the world.
The second set practically mirrored the first. Connors hit forehand after forehand into the net. And they weren’t just clipping the tape and falling back either. They were being smacked right into the middle of the net. This was a sign of a player who had clearly been thrown off his game. Ashe was relentless in his attack, and Connors was back on his heels. In what seemed like a matter of minutes, Ashe had put away the second set by an identical 6-1 score. Now he had a two sets to none lead. That’s when I began to think he might have a chance.
It was the third set that brought me back to earth. Connors managed to find his game and broke Ashe’s serve for the first time. He hung on to win the set 7-5, and I instantly became worried. It was my feeling that if he was going to win the match, Ashe was going to have to do it by taking the fourth set. Having played a long five setter against Roche two days previously, I just wasn’t sure he would have enough left in the tank to win if the final match went the distance.
The fourth set was tightly contested. Ashe stuck to his strategy by hitting a dizzying array of chip shots, lobs, and low slices designed to frustrate Connors. After eight games the set was knotted at four all. Then Connors' serve was broken in the 9th game after he hit a weak cross court forehand that landed wide, giving Ashe a chance to close out the match on his serve. After splitting the first two points of the game, two unforced errors by Connors (a forehand and backhand into the net that weren’t even close) brought the score to 40-15. Now, Arthur had two points to win the championship sitting on his racket.
He only needed one of them. A big, slicing serve to Connors’ backhand pulled him wide of the court. He managed to get a racket on it, but there was no power on the return at all. Ashe closed to the net and buried the volley into the open court, winning the match and securing his place as the first (and still only) African American male to win the Wimbledon Championship. When he put away that last point, I went absolutely crazy. I couldn’t believe that he had taken down the #1 player in the world so convincingly. To this day, Ashe’s win over Connors remains the biggest upset in the history of the Men’s Wimbledon Final.
That was the last major title that Arthur Ashe won as a professional tennis player. It solidified his legacy as one of the greats in the game. But outside of tennis, the victory was worth a great deal more. This leads me to one last difference between Jimmy Connors and Arthur Ashe. Connors also went on to have a hall of fame career. He won 109 singles titles and several more major championships. But Connors was known only as a tennis player. Arthur Ashe was a civil rights activist who happened to be an exceptional tennis player. From early in his career, he recognized that he could use his status as one of the best tennis players in the world to increase public awareness to society’s ills. In addition to fighting social injustice in the United States, Ashe was intent on ridding the world of the scourge of apartheid in South Africa. Apartheid was the country's government sponsored policy of political, social and economic discrimination against blacks and other people of color. It enabled the white population, which at the time represented less than 20% of all the South African people, to oppress the remaining 80% consisting of African Blacks, Indians, and other non-whites. South Africa had not been allowed to participate in the Olympics since 1963 because of this policy, but they still enjoyed the freedom to compete internationally in other sports as a team, including tennis. Due in part to Ashe’s efforts, South Africa was banned from Davis Cup play in 1970. He continued to use his position as a top ranked player and president of the ATP to further pressure the South African government to change their policies. In 1973, he was able to finally obtain a visa and broke the sports color barrier by competing in the South African Open. He made it to the men’s singles final and then teamed with Dutchman Tom Okker to win the men’s doubles championship. After his victory over Connors at Wimbledon, Ashe was able to use the win to create even more leverage in his fight against apartheid. He made three more trips to South Africa, each time exposing the world to a society in which over 80% of the population lived in complete subjugation.
In 1979, Ashe suffered a heart attack at the age of thirty-six. It ended his playing career. After he had recovered, his fight against apartheid continued. Eventually, the world community began to bring enormous pressure on South Africa to change their policies. In 1990, the end finally came. Nelson Mandela, the former head of the African National Congress, was released in February after being imprisoned for 27 years. The ban on the ANC was lifted later that year. Though there was some resistance to change, apartheid was dead for all intents and purposes. Negotiations took place over the next few years to effect a smooth transition. This culminated with the election of Mandela as President in 1994.
Unfortunately, Arthur Ashe did not live to see that day. After having a second heart attack in 1983, he contracted the AIDS virus from a tainted blood transfusion. Even though his health continued to worsen, he stayed focused on his humanitarian efforts. Here in the United States, he co-founded National Junior Tennis Leagues all over the country. He also wrote a comprehensive history of the African American athlete and earned an Emmy Award for co-writing the television adaptation. In 1992, Ashe’s health took a major turn for the worse. On February 6th, 1993, he passed away at the age of 49 due to AIDS-related pneumonia. Later that year, President Clinton posthumously awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
We lived on the east coast in 1975, so I had to remember that the match would begin in the morning due to the five hour time difference. NBC was broadcasting it, and referred to their coverage of the Men's Final as “Breakfast at Wimbledon.” Frankly, I was too nervous to eat breakfast. I wanted Arthur Ashe to win so badly, my stomach was twisted up into more knots than I could possibly count. As he and Connors made their way to Center Court, I noticed that Ashe was wearing his Davis Cup warm up jacket. It was dark blue with the letters “USA” emblazoned across the front. This was a metaphorical poke in Connors’ eye. I think Arthur knew how much it would get under his skin, and that's why he did it. But I was also superstitious and wasn’t sure it was such a good idea to stir things up like that.
From the moment the match began, it was clear that Ashe had a specific plan to try and beat the hard-hitting Connors. It seemed like the ball was travelling at two dramatically different speeds on each exchange. When Connors hit the ball, it came rocketing back to Ashe with all kinds of pace. Then he hit it back using a variation of slices and spins that took all of the pace off the ball. Connors would crush it back, but he was having to generate his own power. It also threw off his rhythm and timing. Incredibly, Ashe won the first set by a score of 6-1. Not only had Connors dropped his first set of the tournament, but he had gotten positively smoked in the process. I was pretty fired up, but it was far from over. I had a sense that Connors would finally figure out a way to overcome Ashe's strategy. After all, he was the #1 player in the world.
The second set practically mirrored the first. Connors hit forehand after forehand into the net. And they weren’t just clipping the tape and falling back either. They were being smacked right into the middle of the net. This was a sign of a player who had clearly been thrown off his game. Ashe was relentless in his attack, and Connors was back on his heels. In what seemed like a matter of minutes, Ashe had put away the second set by an identical 6-1 score. Now he had a two sets to none lead. That’s when I began to think he might have a chance.
It was the third set that brought me back to earth. Connors managed to find his game and broke Ashe’s serve for the first time. He hung on to win the set 7-5, and I instantly became worried. It was my feeling that if he was going to win the match, Ashe was going to have to do it by taking the fourth set. Having played a long five setter against Roche two days previously, I just wasn’t sure he would have enough left in the tank to win if the final match went the distance.
The fourth set was tightly contested. Ashe stuck to his strategy by hitting a dizzying array of chip shots, lobs, and low slices designed to frustrate Connors. After eight games the set was knotted at four all. Then Connors' serve was broken in the 9th game after he hit a weak cross court forehand that landed wide, giving Ashe a chance to close out the match on his serve. After splitting the first two points of the game, two unforced errors by Connors (a forehand and backhand into the net that weren’t even close) brought the score to 40-15. Now, Arthur had two points to win the championship sitting on his racket.
He only needed one of them. A big, slicing serve to Connors’ backhand pulled him wide of the court. He managed to get a racket on it, but there was no power on the return at all. Ashe closed to the net and buried the volley into the open court, winning the match and securing his place as the first (and still only) African American male to win the Wimbledon Championship. When he put away that last point, I went absolutely crazy. I couldn’t believe that he had taken down the #1 player in the world so convincingly. To this day, Ashe’s win over Connors remains the biggest upset in the history of the Men’s Wimbledon Final.
| Ashe - The Athlete (lecoqsportif.com) |
In 1979, Ashe suffered a heart attack at the age of thirty-six. It ended his playing career. After he had recovered, his fight against apartheid continued. Eventually, the world community began to bring enormous pressure on South Africa to change their policies. In 1990, the end finally came. Nelson Mandela, the former head of the African National Congress, was released in February after being imprisoned for 27 years. The ban on the ANC was lifted later that year. Though there was some resistance to change, apartheid was dead for all intents and purposes. Negotiations took place over the next few years to effect a smooth transition. This culminated with the election of Mandela as President in 1994.
| Ashe-The Activist (lecoqsportif.com) |
Unfortunately, Arthur Ashe did not live to see that day. After having a second heart attack in 1983, he contracted the AIDS virus from a tainted blood transfusion. Even though his health continued to worsen, he stayed focused on his humanitarian efforts. Here in the United States, he co-founded National Junior Tennis Leagues all over the country. He also wrote a comprehensive history of the African American athlete and earned an Emmy Award for co-writing the television adaptation. In 1992, Ashe’s health took a major turn for the worse. On February 6th, 1993, he passed away at the age of 49 due to AIDS-related pneumonia. Later that year, President Clinton posthumously awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
I am not one for hero worship. But when I look at the life Arthur Ashe led, I can’t help but be inspired. Here is a man who found a way to take advantage of his considerable athletic talent in such a way as to fight against social injustice on a global scale. When I turned on our television 40 years ago to watch that Wimbledon final between Arthur Ashe and Jimmy Connors, I thought I would just be witnessing a potentially historic tennis victory. It was definitely an unforgettable triumph, but what that win helped Ashe accomplish in the years that followed was even more unforgettable.
Until, next time . . .
Karl
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