Arthur Ashe
Tennis Player — born 1943
Arthur Ashe was a professional tennis player, and the first black man ever to win singles title at at Wimbledon, the US Open, and the Australian Open.
Arthur Ashe was an American tennis player who became the first Black man ever to win the singles title at Wimbledon, the US Open, and the Australian Open. He was born Arthur Robert Ashe Jr. on July 10, 1943, in Richmond, Virginia. His mother died when he was six, and he was raised primarily by his father — a park-supervisor for the Brookfield Park, where Ashe first learned to play tennis on the segregated public courts.
He attended UCLA on tennis scholarship from 1962 to 1966, leading the Bruins to the 1965 NCAA team and singles championships, and graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in business administration. He served in the US Army from 1966 to 1969, during which he won the 1968 US Open title — the first Black man ever to win a Grand Slam singles title — and reached the world #1 ranking. His subsequent Grand Slam titles came at the 1970 Australian Open and the 1975 Wimbledon Championships, where he defeated the heavily-favored Jimmy Connors in the final — one of the most-iconic upsets in Wimbledon history.
Ashe was unusually politically engaged for a professional athlete of his era. He was an outspoken opponent of apartheid in South Africa, was arrested at multiple anti-apartheid protests in the 1980s, and led the 1973 American campaign to deny apartheid-era South African players entry to international tennis tournaments. He served as captain of the US Davis Cup team from 1981 to 1985.
His career was ended by a 1979 heart attack at age 36 and a 1983 second heart attack, after which he received the blood transfusion that — unbeknownst to either him or his doctors — was contaminated with HIV. He was diagnosed with AIDS in 1988, kept the diagnosis private for four years, and was forced to disclose it publicly in April 1992 after a USA Today journalist threatened to publish the story. He died of AIDS-related pneumonia on February 6, 1993, at age 49. The Arthur Ashe Stadium at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens, New York, is named in his honor and is the largest tennis-specific stadium in the world.
His name Arthur is from the Welsh arth meaning "bear," anchored in mythological tradition through King Arthur of Camelot. Arthur has been continuously climbing in American naming since the 2010s vintage-revival wave.
About the name Arthur
Gender: Male · Origin: Arthurian
Noble: Courageous. Legendary Sixth Century King Arthur Of Britain And His Round Table Of Knights.