Ashe, Arthur, Jr.

Ashe, Arthur (Robert), Jr.

(born July 10, 1943, Richmond, Va., U.S.—died Feb. 6, 1993, New York, N.Y.) U.S. tennis player. He won his first grand-slam singles title (the 1968 U.S. Open) as an amateur. The first African American member of the U.S. Davis Cup team, he helped win five championships (1963, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1978). In 1975 he won the Wimbledon singles title and received World Championship Tennis top ranking. He retired in 1980 and became captain of the U.S. Davis Cup team (to 1985). Off the court he was a critic of racial injustice, including South Africa's apartheid policy. In 1992 he revealed that he had been infected with HIV by a transfusion following surgery, and he thereafter devoted time to increasing public awareness of AIDS. The U.S. Open is now played at Arthur Ashe Stadium, which opened at the National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y., in 1997.