My Tennis Role Model

I played competitive tennis as a child. That’s a fancy way of saying I played in tournaments, traveled to regional cities to compete, and followed my rankings in the Southeast. I began playing at a young age. I was seven years old when my sister began at eight–my mother wanted us to take lessons at the same time, so the pro let me start early. The entire time I was playing, so was Arthur Ashe, my tennis role model.

In 1963, Ashe was the first Black player on the Davis Cup Team. I was six years old. In 1965, he won both the NCAA singles and doubles title for UCLA. I was eight years old. In 1968, he won the US Open, the first Black man to do so. In 1970, when I was thirteen, he won the Australian Open. The year I went to college, in 1975, he won Wimbledon.

Ashe was always active in Civil Rights, much of it focused on South Africa’s apartheid. Because of his protests, Davic Cup expelled South Africa from competition for its hateful policies. After contracting AIDS during open heart surgery, he worked to de-stigmatize the disease and increase research and funding, speaking before the United Nations on World Aids Day in 1992. He died far too young in 1993 at age 49.

How did Arthur Ashe impact my life? He was a beautiful tennis player. Not everyone was–looking at you, Jimmy Connor. He had gorgeous strokes, pure grace on the court. Because of that, I prized more than anything a beautiful stroke. Yeah, winning was nice. But not if my stroke wasn’t smooth, poetry in motion, it was a fail. That’s all I ever wanted to be, as beautiful a player as Arthur Ashe.

My tennis role model: today’s story on Black American History impacting my life