TENNIS ACHIEVEMENTS
Davis Cup
After joining the Davis Cup team in 1963, Ashe won twenty-seven Davis Cup matches, the most that any American had ever won. From 1980 to 1985, he served as the Davis Cup captain.
"Even as race relations in America became increasingly stormy, I nevertheless saw my Davis Cup appoinment as the outstanding honor of my life to that point."
-Arthur Ashe
Source: Days of Grace: A Memoir
US Open 1968
Arthur Ashe's US Open win made him the first black man to win a Grand Slam.
Wimbledon 1975
"I couldn't find an opening.... Everything he did was good: fine returns, short and long, and hard serves and volleys."
-Jimmy Connors on Ashe's Wimbledon match
Source: Arthur Ashe: Tennis Great & Civil Rights Leader, Chros McDougall
Perhaps Ashe's biggest tennis achievement, he won the 1975 Wimbledon against the highly favored Jimmy Connors. Ashe then became, and still is, the only black man to ever win the title.
Association of Tennis Professionals
Arthur Ashe helped found the ATP [previously known as the International Tennis Players Association] in 1968. Today, the ATP organizes tournaments and helps protect the interests of professional tennis players worldwide.
"I got invovled with ATP because it affects my destiny and that of any other Black who may come into professional tennis."
-Arthur Ashe in an article in the August 1975 edition of the Black Sports magazine
125 words