Episode 21 - Arthur Ashe and the US Open

New York, a city of lights, of energy, of movement, and every summer for over 100 years, the home of the US Open. It was here that Arthur Ashe became the first African American man to win the title, then used his platform far beyond the court, against apartheid, against AIDS, for people without voices. And he was led first by Althea Gibson, the daughter of sharecroppers who became the first black player to win a Grand Slam. She went on to blaze a trail in professional

golf too. And, I think you'll agree, she could sing a bit too. From there, Billie Jean King fought for titles and equality. Borg and McEnroe turned matches into theatre. Venus and Serena carried American tennis to new heights. The stage is the Arthur Ashe Stadium, the largest in the sport. a monument to a player whose influence stretched far beyond the baseline. Night matches run late, because in the city that never sleeps, tennis doesn't stop either. Crowds live every

point, loud, smiling, proud. This tournament has given us super Saturdays, million -dollar mixed doubles, and the richest prizes in tennis. It's crowned legends, Federer, Everett, Sampras, Connors. But it's now watched American men wait, more than two decades and counting. for another champion from their ranks. The US Open is tennis played to the rhythm of New York. And this is the Sporting Almanac podcast. Hello Ben, how are you today? I know the answer to that. Yes

you do, yes you do. I am very, very happy with an away win at Old Trafford. You are? No VAR controversy against Arsenal at least, this week? Not yet, not yet. This week, I said. It's only a matter of time. It was all Crystal Palace today. Ah, yes it was. First game in your game. Yes. So, OK, I'm going to say a couple of things. I'm apologising to all tennis fans joining this. We're going to start off with some VAR chat in football. But the issue I have with the Liverpool

one, yes, it was a clear handball. Yes, it was stopping a goal scoring opportunity. You can debate on whether it was a red card or not, all you like. That's fine. That's a fair debate. The problem I have is the message that came out. Clearly, they missed the fact that there was a handball entirely. They missed the fact that he flailed at it. They took it as being the bounce

off from his knee. towards his arm and they said there was no handball because it wouldn't be in that scenario they then failed to go on and check for the actual handball half a second later but then retrospectively at half time came out and said the VAR check was dismissed because it was deemed to not be denying a clear goal scoring opportunity but that's just bollocks that's not what they checked for in the first place so I've got no problem with the fact that

they were incompetent and they missed the handball I do have a problem with them trying to lie about it immediately afterwards. That's what winds me up. Yeah, well, you know, strap in. Game one. First half of game one, you get your first scandal, and then you get that absurd decision in the Palace game, which is just a pointless technical infringement. It's like the kicking ball away thing last year. It drives me insane. So this

always happens. They'll give messages to the officials, certain things they have to check, and they will check them for about the first four weeks of the season. then they'll forget all about them. I'm guessing checking positioning of players near the wall for free kicks is one of them. Yes, players have to be at least a yard

away from a set wall for a free kick. Yes, Gray was within a yard of that wall because he was battling out with a Chelsea defender and they ended up within a yard of the wall when the free kick was taken. It had no bearing on that free kick going in, yet technically speaking, it was the correct decision. I'm just going to stand here and say, no football fan wants them to check that. No one. Yes, Chelsea fans might be relieved today that they got away with it and got a point

out of that game instead of a defeat. Crystal Palace fans are equally furious as the Chelsea fans are relieved. But surely no football fan wants them to check that. Am I right, Ben? Yes, you are right. Everyone will be angry when they're on the receiving end of that. Exactly. And no one will be angry until they are, which is why these stupid things are allowed to persist, as we have whinged about in the past. I actually thought today in the Arsenal game, I was watching

Martin Zubermendi quite carefully. And he looked genuinely perplexed by the way in which the game was officiated in England. I don't blame him. There were like robust tackles, you know, like being let go and like head clashes being let go. And then someone would make, you know, like someone would be booked for taking half a second too long taking a throw in. And he was just like, you could see the look on his face. He was like looking at the referee like, can you just explain

the logic just so I can understand? there would have to be logic for them to explain it it's it's bonkers yeah that's what we have to deal with anyway we have been in the safe embrace of association football uh and rugby union for several weeks now but we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna transition we're gonna divert our attention back to the calendar in a way well we've always been following the calendar but we're following the calendar back wherever it's

going and we're going to america for tennis We're going to Flushing Meadows. We love tennis, obviously. We have somewhat been in our comfort zone the past few weeks. Football, double helping, and then rugby. Tennis, again, it's not far out of our comfort zone, but probably US Open is something we know less about than Wimbledon. So, eh, good chance to learn and a good chance for me to dive into a couple of extremely interesting characters

from the history of this tournament. Yeah. Which will come to no shock to anyone who I'm talking about who knows about this tournament. Yeah, and that's the thing. The reason this is such an interesting one to explore, actually, is because there is actually a lot of history behind it. There are a lot of interesting characters. I mean, it's in America, therefore you can assume that there's going to be politics involved and

things like that. Race, yeah. Race, of course, a prominent feature of this episode, I suspect. Yeah, and it's just probably the third most watched

slam. over here in the uk just because of time zone ahead of the australian i love australian sport because it's on in the morning in the uk um i might mention this before i love the afl and the nrl particularly because they're on it first thing in the morning that's obviously true as well the rugby championship that we're talking about to a certain extent when they're at home new zealand and australia depending on where the games are obviously if they're in if they're

in argentina it's the opposite effect it's very late very early in the morning but it's it's quite hard to stay up to watch that especially because the games do go on late as well in new york which makes it four or five in the morning here before they finish, yeah. Primetime TV, yeah. The US Open, officially named the US Open Tennis Championships, colloquially known as the US Open, it is a staple, the fourth of the slams

in the year. Fourth and final, rather. Actually, with the exception of the ATP Tour Finals, it is the last major, major event. It is the actual

last official slam. organized by the united states tennis association and traditionally starts as is the case this year the last monday of august two -week tournament as all slams middle weekend coinciding with the united states labor day holiday there you are fantastic there you go i mean how much do you know about this tournament because i don't know much so i had a look at the history in in generic terms yeah i mean its origins sort of matched the origins of tennis in the uk for

those of you who would like to know more about the origins of tennis in the United Kingdom, or the origins of tennis full stop, the origin story of tennis, are episode 13, I want to say. Oh, Wimbledon episode. Yeah. You can go back to and listen to that. Again, you don't need to listen to it before this, but it does tell you where tennis itself came from and how quickly it spread. The creation of the game of tennis to the first Wimbledon Championships was, I think,

four years. And then four years after that... So really not long in the grand scheme of things, especially in a world, you know, which moved a lot slower in those days. Four years later was the first US National Championships, the tournament that later became the US Open. 1881 was the first creation. It's the same as ever. It's a mix of timing, social setting, tennis

rapidly growing in the United States. There being a big middle and upper middle class in the United States at that time, particularly in the northeast of America, around New York, around Boston. around places like that. The type of people who'd holiday at Cape Cod and at the other places up around there. Big boom in the 1870s, same as in England, same reasons, same as in the United Kingdom.

People with lawns to use, people with wanting to have social functions which were inclusive, wanting to have women and men in a social situation they could play together. Very similar. And then that came... to popularity, clubs founding and the need for a national championship. Same as what happened with the creation of Wimbledon. So the US National, the United States National Lawn Tennis Association, USNLTA was founded and in 1881, they sought to organise and unify the

game in America. So establishing rules, coordinating clubs, and most importantly for this episode, creating a national championship to mirror what Britain had with Wimbledon. So the stage was Newport Casino. It was. Yeah. In Rhode Island. It's probably worth mentioning here in 1881, it was only the men's singles and men's doubles though. Women would come later. Yeah, 1887. But yeah, sorry, Newport Casino, Newport, Rhode Island. Yeah. So again, it's a place with a lot of elite,

a lot of social elite in America. It was chosen both because it had high quality grass courts and because it fit the fashionable image tennis wanted to cultivate worldwide. So in terms of eligibility, only members of US NLTA affiliated clubs were allowed to enter. They made it immediately an exclusive upper and upper middle class competition from the start. So immediately excluded those working class people, excluded lower middle class people, same as the game in the United Kingdom.

and a trend which would continue for many, many years, obviously excluded. It was obviously a very white organization as well, unsurprisingly, this being America in the late 19th century. Indeed. I was going to say as well, for the tennis geeks out there, I think Newport is now the home of the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Oh, cool. That's cool. And there's a grass tournament still held at Newport, I believe. Every year. There is, yeah, which is one of the few in the

grass court season, isn't it? I think we talked about that very, I think we touched on it, flirted with it in the Wimbledon episode. I think it's a 250 tournament, although forgive me if it's a 500. That's how many ranking points you get for it. It's a 250 tournament, so obviously less prestigious. That's the word, yeah, than 500s, and then you get 1 ,000, which are the Masters tournaments, and then... The Grand Slam is all 2 ,000 point tournaments, just to give you an

indication of how it works. So a 250 tournament probably wouldn't attract the number ones in the world unless they were warming up for a tournament like Wimbledon and they wanted to get used to a grass court setting beforehand. I was going to say, I think you're about to start talking about this unless you want to talk a bit more about the societal context of America at the time. But one of the really peculiar aspects of the US Open is that it has not always been

held at the same location. And each tournament that is now played at the US Open wasn't necessarily held at the same venue. And by that, I mean the singles, the men's and women's singles were held at different locations. The doubles are sometimes held at locations. And that changed over time. And it was only unified fairly well in the open era, basically. But we can go through some of that because that's kind of interesting. Yeah, that is interesting. I knew it obviously changed

venues. I did not know that. individual competitions were held or individual years had different competitions held at different venues that is interesting anyway I haven't got much else to add for that other than the first men's winner was Richard Sears who won the first seven tournaments he was a Harvard educated player becoming essentially the first American tennis star as you can imagine winning seven years on the trot and then the first female tournament was 1887 the first winner

was 17 year old Ellen Hansel Yeah. Which is, again, very similar to in the United Kingdom, the first female winners being young women, who were the kind of people who weren't playing for social reasons. They were playing because they bloody loved the game. 10, 11, 12, 13, while their older sisters got flirted to, they were just, no, I just want to beat you. Yeah, yeah. Might be a similar story there. And one of the fun things is that she's no longer the youngest

ever winner, even in the open era. So we'll come to that later. I mean, you touched on it there. The first one was in 1887, but we were talking about how the men's singles event was at Newport Casino in 1881. Well, it stayed there until, I don't know, 1914. But the women's tournament was held at the Philadelphia Cricket Club, so a different location altogether. I'm just amazed Philadelphia had a cricket club. Well, it gets

even weirder, mate. So in 1887, the men's doubles tournament then moved and was played at the Orange Lawn Tennis Club in South Orange in New Jersey. And then in 1888, it moved again. Well, 88 and 89, in fact. And they were played at the Staten Island Cricket Club in Livingston, Staten Island,

New York. Nice. Big Staten Island. Yeah. It also went off to the St. George Cricket Club in Chicago at one point, and then it was from 1915 that the national championships were located to the Westside Tennis Club in Forest Hills, Queens, New York, for the first time, which would eventually become quite a long -standing host of at least the men's tournament for a while. But it didn't actually quite end there, which is why I find

all of this quite fascinating. Whilst from 1915, the men's singles tournament was held there, the women's tournament was still held at the Philadelphia Cricket Club until 1921 when it moved to Westside Tennis Club. And then 1917 to 1933, the men's doubles went to Longwood Cricket Club in Massachusetts. Fair enough. Yeah, it kept moving around a lot. And then I think... Both the men and the women's doubles events were held at Longwood Cricket Club between 35 and

41 and then 46 to 67. So yeah, it moved around an awful lot. The men's singles tournament also left the Westside Tennis Club temporarily between 1921 and 1923 whilst it was being rebuilt. And it went to Germantown Cricket Club in Philadelphia. Which is, you know, all pretty fascinating. And this is all pre -Open Era. Open Era doesn't come along for a while. And I think before we move on to the Open Era and how things progressed from there, you wanted to talk about a pretty

prominent lady or an iconic woman. Yeah, I'm only going to talk about her briefly. I was actually going to talk about, this is Althea Gibson. I was going to talk about her during the Wimbledon episode because Althea Gibson is a pioneer in every, almost every Grand Slam's first winner at Wimbledon. uh first winner of the what became the french open and as i will come to now the

first african american winner of the u .s open i should have mentioned that she was the first african american winner of these very fascinating live very fascinating figure but i may only talk about it really in brief today just because i think there's there's someone else i want to talk to about a bit more today and i couldn't possibly give them both the credit they deserve in this episode so i think in a future year One of those tournaments, be it Wimbledon again,

be it the US Open or France, will come back to her. But I'll give a quick overview of Althea Gibson's life now. She was born in August 1927 in Silver, South Carolina, but she was raised in Harlem, New York. She grew up in poverty, which would have a significant impact on her career, even beside the impact that her race caused on trying to break into lawn tennis. She took up paddle tennis originally before moving

over to lawn tennis. She was coached by one Dr. Robert Walter Johnson, who was a physician and coach known as the godfather of black tennis. He ran an all -expenses -paid tennis camp for African -American children, becoming instrumental in the careers of several black players, and it will not be the last time I mention him today. At the time, the US Tennis Association was segregated. Black players were only allowed to play in the American Tennis Association, the ATA, at the

time. Gibson won her first ATA championship in 1947. And she eventually won 10 consecutive ATA women's singles titles. She was the utterly dominant player in the ATA. And that led to many calls from many people associated with the USTA calling for her to be allowed to compete with white women, essentially. That seems reasonable. If you're smashing everyone. It seems extraordinarily reasonable,

yeah. So most notable amongst these was Alice Marble, who herself was a four -time US National Championship, the tournament that later becomes

the US Open. winner um she wrote if althea gibson represents the challenge to the present crop of women's players it's only fair that they should meet that challenge on the courts which is fantastic and she also mentioned that her not being allowed to compete would leave an ineradicable mark against the game she loved and it would leave her ashamed essentially i'll rate that for the era yeah no no brilliant that wouldn't there wouldn't have been an easy message in the united states during

that period of time no alice marble herself Her story is incredibly fascinating. And again, I could go into that in a future episode. I'm talking like potentially a spy during World War II as well. Fascinating. That is fascinating. We will come back to her. She is an amazing figure and obviously a huge impact here. This is the problem, isn't it? There's so many damn rabbit holes we could go down. It's incredible. I'm not giving

Gibson her due course. I'm certainly not giving Marble her due here, but there will be future episodes and we will come back to them. So yeah, basically age 23 as a result of Marbles intervention, mostly, but also others as well who were giving her a backing. She was allowed to compete at the 1950 US Championship. She became the first African American ever to compete at a Grand Slam. She won her first round match, but she lost the second round match, but much was to follow in

her career. She was the first person of African origin, first black player to play at Wimbledon as well in 1951. Nice. And in 1956, she became the first black player ever to win a Grand Slam title when she won the French Championships, the tournament that later became the French Open

in 1956. She won a doubles title at Wimbledon in 1956 alongside Angela Buxton, who is a Brit of Jewish origin, born in Liverpool, but brought up in part in South Africa, where she witnessed segregation and found herself warned off attempts to befriend local black children. to her complete confusion at the time, as you'd imagine a child would, who had never been exposed to racism in her life and therefore didn't understand why people were racist. Which tends to be the case.

It's not innate. You bring people up a certain way. It's learnt behaviour. So her and Alfea became lifelong friends. So Alfea achieved incredible success in 1957 and 1958 in the singles game. She won the Wimbledon title in 1957. the US national title in 1957 and repeated both these feats in 1958 as well, winning two on the bounce in both competitions and becoming the number one ranked

female player in the world. So not only was she a pioneer in terms of becoming the first black player to play in these tournaments, she was dominant. Absolutely dominant. Brilliant, yeah. So she was a hard hitter, very aggressive, quite fiery on the court, liked to do her talking with a racket, didn't do so much talking. off the pitch, certainly at a time where obviously racial tensions were high and it was dangerous in many

cases for her to speak her mind. This is something that she was taught by her coach, Dr. Johnson, who made sure that his players weren't only prepared for playing the actual game itself, but were prepared for the expectations of them as black players in this society as much as they wanted to be outspoken, as much as they wanted to... speak up against what was clear injustice everywhere they simply would not have been allowed to compete if they were doing it it would give the the media

and other you know the the powers that be around them just an excuse to label them as another black agitator another angry black woman or angry black man and kick them off the tour or restrict them or use that as an excuse to restrict others as well so they're as as harsh as it was as much as they weren't allowed to act like that if someone had come out A black player at that time had come out acting like John McEnroe. They wouldn't be a threat like John McEnroe. John McEnroe is

obviously, for good reason, very beloved. It wouldn't have flown at that point. It just wasn't an option. It wasn't a personality type or a persona that you could adopt. I can believe that very easily. You'd be stereotyped, castigated. Yeah. So, unfortunately, this was amateur tennis

at the time. It was. she coming from as was all tennis at that period to be fair yeah so she didn't come from riches far from it and it's an interesting thing actually that um even within the the ata when she was playing on the on the black tour essentially she was still discriminated against because a lot of the players playing for in the ata tour they were black but they were still affluent they were still middle class or even upper middle class people who'd achieved

to be fair in a society where it was difficult for an African American to achieve but they still looked down on her because she was working class and because she was working class she didn't have that base to support her as an amateur player she wasn't allowed sponsors she wasn't allowed benefactors she got expenses and had to muddle her way through the rest and she had to work around these tournaments which obviously was pretty much impossible so as a result of that

in 1958 despite being clearly the best female player on the planet She retired from tennis because she simply couldn't afford to keep playing it. She did exhibition matches, which were allowed. Sorry, didn't she win it in 58 as well? Yeah. That's mad that you can be the US Open champion and feel like you have to retire. So yeah, sorry, go on. Yeah, the only way she could afford to make a living from playing sport was to either play a different sport or to play exhibition

matches, essentially. And by playing exhibition matches, she therefore wasn't allowed to compete

in. amateur tournaments anymore as a result of that so she did actually play other sports as well she joined the lpga tour in 1964 and became the first black woman to compete in professional golf as well that's that is unreal that that is incredible that's almost worth uh yeah like you know these stories you can romanticize them in hindsight but that that's a lovely little twist to the tale like being forced to retire from one sport but it also makes you a pioneer

in a second. She was also an incredibly good singer as well. She dabbled in singing as well. I mean, it's incredible. She later served as Commissioner of Athletics for New Jersey, becoming the first African -American woman in such a role, as you can imagine. And she was inducted into

the Tennis Hall of Fame as well. But unfortunately, as you can possibly imagine, she struggled financially and with ill health as well later in life, finding herself... close to being destitute in the mid -1990s and contemplating suicide at that point. But her friends came to her aid, led by Angela Buxton. They raised money on her behalf and allowed her to finish her life with some dignity. She died in 2003 in East Orange, New Jersey, aged

76. And of course, she celebrated as a trailblazer who paved the way for black athletes like Venus and Serena Williams, and of course, Arthur Ashe. Yeah, who we'll come to very shortly. Indeed. No, that's a really cool story, mate. I didn't know anything about that lady, really. I don't think many people do, honestly. I think more so nowadays, but certainly for a long time. Consider myself educated, or at least partially. There's

always more learning one can do. Exactly. Yeah, no, that takes us up really quite neatly, actually, mate, to the end of the open era, because the end of the open era is only shortly after that. The start of the open era. Sorry, the start of the open era. The end of amateur tennis was only shortly after that. The start of the open era, which is effectively professional tennis, began in 1968. And at that point, the US Open, as we were discussing before, was at the Westside Tennis

Club. That's where it... And in 1978, it changed to its current location, which was originally called the United States Tennis Association National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, Corona Park, Queens, New York City. But in 2006, it was renamed in honor of Billie Jean King, our four -time US Ladies US Open singles champion and also one of women's tennis's early pioneers. Indeed, yeah. Now it's just known as the USTA Billie Jean King

National Tennis Center at Flushing Meadows. Just quickly on Billie Jean King, because it's probably worth throwing her a bone, although I don't intend to go on too long about her because there's lots of people we want to talk about. But she was a pretty big advocate for equality and social justice. She still is. She still is, yeah. She's

still going, aged 81. But yeah, she famously won in 1973, age 29, against Bobby Riggs, who was 55 in the Battle of the Sexes, which shows you people's attitudes towards women's sport in that period of time where they thought a former men's number one, age 55, would be better than a 29 -year -old women's professional player who was also incredibly successful. So he got it handed to him. which is kind of nice. Yeah, shame. No, I don't want to go on Bobby Riggs. I'm sure

it wasn't his. He was just competing in the event. He was the guy chosen to do it. But it's just nice that Billie Jean King won. And she also just is kind of like a symbol of the changing of the guard, if you like, because she won the last ever amateur US Open in 1967, beating... A Brit, actually. Anne Hayden Jones in the final. And she lost the first professional US Open in 1968 to another Brit, Virginia Wade. Of course.

But she would go on to win three US Open titles in the professional era, giving her a total of four. One in 1971, one in 1972, and one in 1974. But yeah, that's the venue that we're at. That's the venue that it's been hosted at ever since. I guess it's a good opportunity to talk about it and introduce people to the venue in a bit more detail. Before you do it, I think we can't leave Billie Jean King without mentioning she also won a career Grand Slam, winning all the...

Grand Slam tournaments, and she won six Wimbledon titles as well, which is just ridiculous. Sorry, I mean, I've done her a huge disservice because she was absolutely gun. I was focusing very much on her United States exploits in the majors. I wasn't trying to summarize her career because, yes, as you've just quite rightly pointed out, she won it all. So yes, Flushing Meadows. Shall we introduce people to it? I think that would

be wise. Yeah. Well, it has 22 outdoor courts, plus 12 practice courts, which are just outside the grounds near the East Gate, as I understand it. Four show courts, 13 field courts, five practice courts make up your 22 on site. Taking those in reverse order, because I think that's the appropriate thing to do in terms of show courts. Don't worry, I'm not doing all 22. Court 17. That's what I'd do. Yeah, well, I don't think they're actually that interesting, most of them.

Court 17 is interesting. It's in the southeast corner of the grounds. It's the fourth largest stadium on site. It was opened with temporary seating in 2011. It's now got permanent seating. I think it's got permanent seating since 2012. Capacity just under 3 ,000, all of which is general admission and not separately ticketed, which is really cool. I think you just have to queue to get in. And it's nicknamed The Pit, which is not dissimilar to, I think, it was Court 3

at Wimbledon. I was going to say, yeah, because it's slightly underground. Dug into the ground, exactly. Sung eight feet into the ground. The third largest is the originally named Grandstand. 8 ,125, all -seater capacity stadium. Southwest corner of the grounds, opened in 2016. Then you start to get into the business end of this venue. The next largest is the Louis Armstrong Stadium. just over 14 ,000, cost 200 million US dollars to build, opened in 2018. And this is kind of

fun, though. I like this about the Louis Armstrong Stadium. So you've got 6 ,400 seats in the lower tier of this stadium, which are ticketed and reserved. And then you've got 7 ,661 seats in the upper tier, which are general admission and not separately ticketed. Yeah. I quite like that. Yeah, it's fun, isn't it? Like, because it allows everybody an opportunity to get to the show courts, because to Court 17 and the Louis Armstrong Stadium, you can get into a general admission, which is,

I think is, you know, is decent. But that does bring us to the main stage, which is the Arthur Ashe Stadium, opened in 1997, had a 180 million pound retractable roof installed on it in 2016. It's 23 ,771 all -seater. It's the biggest tennis stadium in the world. It's iconic, you know, one of the great sporting venues. And it is named after Arthur Ashe, who is an extremely interesting dude. Incredibly, yeah. You're going to take the lead on this because you know more about

him than I do. Needless to say, he was a pioneer in his own right. Yeah, take it from there, Jack. He's a super interesting guy. And the reason I think this is important, sorry, before I do actually hand over, the reason I do think this is important is because everybody knows Arthur Ashton Stadium. Everybody knows that it's an iconic venue. Everybody associates it with Flushing Meadows. But how many people really know about Arthur Ashton guy? I'll be amazed if many people

know this detail outside of America. I would say outside of tennis fans and outside of America, yeah. Probably a bit lacking. I think, obviously, a lot of tennis fans will know about him. Of course. And, obviously, a lot of people in America will know about him, naturally. But, honestly, he's such... I think, in terms of, like, you want to pick a top ten most interesting sports people of all time, I think he is, I mean, maybe even the top five, maybe even threatening the

top spot. He is incredible, interesting, an icon, apartheid, AIDS, ATP founder. He... Did it more of his racket during his career, but then after his career, he got more vocal about it. Heart conditions. Incredible background. Yeah, heart conditions, yeah. Bypasses, brain surgery, and still kept protesting, still kept trying to make a difference all the way to literally the end of his life. He's an incredible man. He was born

in Richmond, Virginia in 1943. Funnily enough, he was a descendant of a West African woman named Amar. who was enslaved and brought to North Carolina in 1735 aboard a ship named the Doddington. So that's just a bit of a flavor for you. Yeah, the beginnings. Yeah, so Virginia in the 1940s and 1950s remained in the grip of what was known as the Jim Crow laws, which were a web of local and state laws most prevalent in the US South since after the Civil War and the Reconstruction

era of the mid to late 19th century. Essentially, these laws dictated where black people could live, learn, eat sit play sport designed not only to separate but to suppress keeping african -americans locked out of the opportunity of their right to vote their opportunity to pursue personal growth and happiness and essentially keeping them as second -class citizens long after slavery had ended or at least slavery had ended officially because slavery and other forms carried on on

the back of these laws for many years many years to come in terms of the prison system and how easy it was to pin crimes on black people and then get them to essentially work as slaves when all white juries were perfectly legal. So yeah, it was a dark time. It's a crazy context as well to be being brought up in, you know? It's within people's lifetimes who are alive today. It's crazy to think this persisted for so long. And completely alien to those of us that are lucky

enough to be born in the last. 30, 40, 50 years. Yeah, bizarre. Well, yeah. Bizarre. Other than South Africa, but yeah. Sure, yeah. Well, of course there's exceptions globally. I just, yeah, I'm talking more from a personal experience. But I agree. Mad. I didn't know that. Yeah. So his young life was marred by tragedy when aged only six, his mother died from preeclampsia.

She was only 27 years old. in many ways and this this particularly this fact particularly there's mother died young it reminds me so much of bill russell um obviously we talked about bill russell in episode 10 the nba episode so uh there's so many similarities between the two although russell was nine years asher senior both were highly intelligent both were very well read men both experienced segregation in their youth and then found new freedoms eventually when they moved

out west because um ash went to college at ucla los angeles both came to find success in a sport which was previously largely white -dominated and both used their position to speak out eloquently on civil rights in a manner which led them to be both hard to ignore and hard to counter in argument because they were so intelligent. Intelligence tends to not be a trait that racists possess quite often, you would say. In fact, you'd argue

the opposite is true. As well as all that. That's not to say that they're all racists, unintelligent, which is the most tragic thing about it. It's certainly not to say all unintelligent people are racists as well. I wouldn't want to say that. But there is an overlap there. And both men as well are incredibly quotable as well, to be fair. Both of them, their writings are fantastic and definitely well worth reading. The extract I've read on both. So, Ash and his younger brother,

who's named Johnny. They were raised after his mother's death by a single father, Arthur Sr., who was caring, but he was a strict disciplinarian of a man. He wanted his sons to play sport, but he discouraged Arthur Jr. from playing contact sports, such as American football, because of Arthur's slight build. Arthur's father worked as a caretaker for Richmond's recreational department, and the family lived in Richmond's recreational department. Richmond's... You haven't seen Coach

Carter? rich what rich moon okay i have but my brain was not switched on to that reference thank you for catching me out there sorry yeah carry on uh anyway his father worked as a don't do it again his father worked as a caretaker for richmond's recreational departments and the family lived in the caretaker's cottage at brookfields park which was richmond's largest segregated blacks only public park with facilities which included four tennis courts which, as you can

imagine, played quite a big role in this story. Weird that. Access to facilities. Indeed. So Ash began playing tennis on those courts aged seven. His natural talent was quickly spotted, most notably by a black student and part -time tennis coach, Ron Charity, who at the time was the best black tennis player in Richmond. Opportunities were restricted at that time. For example, in 1955, he attempted to enter the Richmond City Tournament at Bird Park, but he wasn't allowed

to play. Can you guess why he wasn't allowed to play, Ben? Because he's black. Indeed. Such was the day. From that point, though, he gained the attention of one, Dr. Robert Walter Johnson, previously mentioned, pioneering black tennis

coach and coach of Alfea Gibson. Johnson taught him not only the game of tennis, obviously, but how to best navigate the incredibly white world of professional tennis, how to remain calm in the face of racial taunting, and how to counter the prejudicial treatment that would and did.

come his way he was also told to he was he was always told to attempt to return any ball within two two inches of the line and not to assume calls like that would go in his favor to never raise his voice is mental yeah like i i don't know why that that jumped out at me i guess it's just because it's so trivial do you know what i mean like how could you be so brazen as to want to not apply the rules properly just because he's black that that's insane But yeah, sorry,

carry on. Obviously, most line judges, I'm sure, would put the rules of the game before anything else. Just don't make that assumption, essentially. That's what he was taught. But it's still insane that he felt that he even had to be taught it.

It is, honestly. He was also told to never raise his voice or to argue with umpires or line judges, to remain calm and dignified at all times, in short, to give them no excuse to discriminate further against him or his peers, or to label him, inverted commas, another angry black man that's basically it yeah that's correct it's more than just that i mean this is an age where parents install that instill that kind of passivity in their kids don't fight back because a lot

of the time it meant they stayed alive because this is the south in the mid 50s where there was a culture among everything certainly in certain parts of the south of lynchings yeah still being a thing i mean i mentioned this briefly during episode 10 on the NBA. Obviously the 1950s American South was far from a safe place to be for a young

black man. In 1955, the same year Ash was forbidden from playing in that Richmond Cities tournament, 14 -year -old black boy from Chicago named Emmett Till was visiting relatives in Mississippi when he wolf whistled at a 25 -year -old white woman named Carolyn Bryant outside a grocery store owned by Bryant and her husband. Witnesses say this was an attempt to get a laugh from his friend's presence and bearing in mind he was from Chicago

and probably didn't understand. how significant an action that was in Mississippi at the time and arguably for many, many years afterwards. How would you know? Do you know what I mean? Yeah. So there are disputes over what happened outside the store, but there's very little disputed about what happened next. On finding out about what happened, Brian's husband, Roy, grilled local young black man for information. On finding out Till's identity, him and his half -brother,

J .W. Millam, went to the cabin Till was staying at, took him under gunpoint, tied him up, beat him and shot him to death, disposing of his body in a local river. This is a 14 -year -old boy. His body was found three days later, despite the, obviously, the poor condition the body was in at that time. Till's mother, Mammy Till, insisted on an open casket funeral in Chicago so the world

could see what had happened to her boy. An all -white jury took 67 minutes to deliberate and acquit the two men responsible for his murder. who later admitted their guilt in a paid interview. His murder was a spark that helped kick the civil rights movement into another gear. Rosa Parks herself cited Till as an inspiration when she refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus

in December 1955 that same year. So, I thought it was worth telling that story in whole because I mentioned it previously in the NBA episode, but just to paint a picture of what America was like at this time. It's one of the, I mean, probably the singularly most shocking story. Among many, there are many stories like that, but for that to be in the mid -1950s, I mean, this is a kid who could very feasibly still be alive today. He'd be 84 years old today had that not happened.

Probably King's 81, so, you know, very possible. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, obviously schools were segregated, clubs were white only. Arthur Ashe said he wanted to be the Jackie Robinson of tennis. He followed Robinson to UCLA, as I mentioned. He was awarded a tennis scholarship. For those who don't know, Jackie Robinson was the first man to break the colour barrier in Major League Baseball in 1947, which we will come to in a later episode, but a massive pioneer in black

sport in the United States. So he graduated university. He was obviously a player during his time at university. He joined the army afterwards. He avoided Vietnam, as there was a rule that only one brother could serve there at one time, and his brother Johnny, very bravely volunteered to do an additional tour to stop Arthur from needing to go, which is an amazing gesture. Fortunately,

he survived. He had success winning regional tournaments, first on the East Coast and then in California while he was a college player. In 1963, he became the first black player ever to play on the US Davis Cup team, helping the US to their first title in five years. They won four of them, didn't they? Oh yeah, he was big. The Davis Cup, playing in the Davis Cup for the US was a huge part of his career. It's something he really aspired to do and affected a lot of

what he was doing. But yeah, they won that first year. He was non -playing reserve in the final, but later he became a key part of that team, including winning three successive Davis Cups from 1968 to 1970. He actually delayed turning professional because the Davis Cup was an amateur tournament until 1973. So he delayed turning professional until 1970 so he could continue playing in the Davis Cup longer. That's genuinely fascinating. He was an amateur while he was an

army lieutenant. Sorry, lieutenant, I should say, until 1970. So, yeah, as I said, it's a huge part of his life. He played his last Davis Cup as late as 1978, and he served as a team captain for the Davis Cup in 1981 and 1982 as well. So, as you mentioned, the open era of tennis came about in 1968, where the four Grand Slams opened their events up to include professional

players for the first time. yep as i mentioned though ash was still an amateur so he was he went into that first tournament the first us open 1968 as an amateur not professional yep so he did yeah he just won the first us amateur championship in 1968 so obviously they brought in a us amateur championship to allow amateur players to still have a tournament at that point he won the first one uh he set his sights at that point on the newly renamed tournament at

forest hill in queens us open He was seeded fifth with the four top seeds, all Australians. Australia was ridiculously dominant in men's tennis in the 1960s. We're talking Rod Laver, we're talking Roy Emerson, Fred Stoll, some big names. I'll keep naming them. Tony Roche. The four seeds above him were Rod Laver, Tony Roche, Ken Rosewall and John Newcomb. And there's a couple more you've mentioned there. It was crazy. Roy Emerson and

Rod Laver are huge. At this point, it had been, I want to say, I think 12 years since an American had won the US Open. I think the majority of the wins in between were Australians. I think 10 out of the 12 were Australians. including Rod Laver winning two or three of them. Mate, that's great knowledge. It was. It was Tony Traber in 1955 winning his second US Open, was the last American winner. And then it was Australia, with the exception of Rafael Osuna in 63 and Manuel

Santana in 65. Yeah, Mexican and a Spaniard were the only other two. Yeah. Just to point out just how dominant Australia were in men's tennis in

the 1960s. Yeah. See, Ash was actually... seeded to play against laver the number one seed in the quarterfinals the strange seeding system where first would play fifth in the quarterfinals at the time i don't know if that's still the case i'd have thought first would play eighth but no anyway so laver just won his third wimbledon title and he was about to go on to win a grand slam as in all four tournaments in 1969 such was his incredible ability but ash got a lucky

break because in round four cliff drysdale shocked laver in five sets to knock him out So Ash lined up against Drysdale in the quarterfinals and won. And then he played fellow American Klopp Gravener in the semifinals and won to set up a final against eighth seed Tom Ocker from the Netherlands. Yeah. The final was pretty ding -dong. No tiebreakers at the time. So the first set went 14 -12. I saw that. That's mad. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Basically two sets for the first

set. Yeah, yeah. It's crazy. So Ocker took the second in seven and then the two alternated six

threes to set up a decider. but in the decider ash never looked like he'd lose uh took it six free saving his best tennis for the most important part of the match and sealing the prize but not the prize money because he was an amateur yeah the 14 000 prize money which actually is sod all you know compared to modern money and we'll come to we will come to the modern money what arthur ash did about that as well um later but uh yeah so that prize money went to oka but uh

the all the public acclaim went to ash One of those who acclaimed his victory was Jackie Robinson, who said Asher's victory would bridge the gap between races and inspire black people all the world over and also affect the decency of all Americans. Which it did, to be fair. He became very popular very quickly. And he also became very in demand as a speaker and as a potential member of the civil rights movement as well. Because at this point, this is 1968, and if you

recall my... What was it? It was the Triple Crown episode, wasn't it? Episode 4 was that where I spoke about 1968 and just what America was like at that point. So obviously amongst the turmoil of Martin Luther King's assassination, 1968 Mexico Olympics, the Black Power protests at Mexico Olympics. That kind of era we're talking

about here. So black sociologist Harry Edwards and some others as well called for him to take a more active part in the civil rights movement to use his position in a quintessentially white sport. But Ash basically chose to do his talking with a racket at that point, for the time being at least. One famous story where he was in a meeting with other prominent figures and Jesse Jackson, no less, called out and said to him, Brother Ash, you need to take a bigger stand.

You need to hear your voice here. And he just said, sorry, Brother Jackson, that's your style. I do my talking with a racket. Which is fair enough, especially considering what he was taught and the line that he had to toe at this point. It is profound if you are the only guy that's black that's doing well in what is a quintessentially white sport. Do you really need to say anything else? I'm not horses for courses. No one's got their own styles. It's not for me to comment

on what the appropriate strategy was. I can see the merit in his position. I think history has proven him correct in many ways. I think you can make the argument as well, if he was as outspoken... The stadium's named after him, so I think you're right. If he was as outspoken as those people wished him to be prior to his 1968 US Open win, would he have ever won the US Open? Would he have been allowed to? Would he have got the opportunities

he's got? Would he have been... treated the same way that he was treated it's also more of a stretch to ask those people to retrospectively if you don't build up your credibility incrementally to retrospectively acknowledge your significance which leaves a legacy in the way that he has yeah so ash himself actually he took more significance from being an american winning the us open they took from being an african -american winning it because there hadn't been a men's singles

winner there as i said since 1955 so that 12 -year drought was the longest for americans until the current ongoing and likely to continue 21 -year drought since Andy Roddick's 2003 win. Yeah. The Americans dominate their home tournament, so generally speaking. So that is a significant drought. But yes, carry on. Sorry. I was supposed to mention this is in the men's game because there have been a couple of prominent winners in the women's game in terms of Americans. Don't

know if you've heard of them. Yeah, I've heard of a few of them. Yeah. You're talking about the Williams sisters, obviously. But more recently, they've only had Coco Gauff and Sloane Stephens since 2014. So it's not looking that strong for them in the women's tournament either, compared to historical terms. But anyway, sorry, you are discussing Monsieur Ash. So, obviously with the prestige gained from his winning the US Open,

he became a bit more of a prominent figure. First things he tried to do was in 1969, he tried to apply to compete at the South African Open. Now, this is super fascinating. I did read about this. Go on. It is very fascinating. So obviously South Africa at the time, under apartheid, had very strict rules on every aspect of life for black people and also restricted the control of visas

to non -white people. So they would allow... and this is a kind of hilarious way of putting it but they would allow an honorary white visa so you could be an honorary white person if you were given if you were in a position of such importance that they felt the regime felt you you deserved it this was most prominently used for japanese businessmen because japan obviously at the time was a massively growing economy technology we were trying to expand globally and one of

the places they were trying to do it was south africa so that's why these visas were brought in however That's so weird. They declined to give him one. It's so weird, isn't it? Yeah. But anyway, carry on. They declined to give him one in 1969. They declined to give him one in 1970 and 1971 as well. South Africa at this time was under a lot of pressure from many sporting bodies. Most notably FIFA, who'd kicked them

out in the early 1960s. And then the Davis Cup, under pressure from Arthur Ashe, no less, had kicked them out in 1970. So the government felt under pressure to present their country in a better light and... like many countries before and since, took to sports washing to get it done. So, the South African government decided that Arthur Ashe would be an excellent person to invite to their country to try and present themselves

in a different light. In 1973, they finally gave him a visa on the condition that he didn't talk about politics or apartheid. In return, they promised not to overtly use him for propaganda purposes. Ashe accepted. And he received a lot of criticism for doing so at a time when a lot of people were boycotting South Africa, for good reason, obviously. But he considered it essential that he go see what it was like himself before

he take a position on it. And he believed that would give him a stronger position to then talk about it afterwards. And indeed, the day he got back to America, the criticism began. He blasted apartheid, the political system, and became a very outspoken critic of the system. He did receive a lot of criticism for going, but it is notable. that he visited Nelson Mandela at Robben Island

when he was there. He spoke to him there. And when Mandela was released from prison in 1990, he visited the United States soon afterwards. And one of the people he said he wanted to go and see was Arthur Ashe. And they met in the United States after Mandela's release. Did he regret going? No. I don't think he did. I thought I read somewhere he sort of said, like, you know, maybe with hindsight he shouldn't have gone. But, you know, I don't... Yeah, maybe I'm wrong

about that. Sorry. I think, obviously, it was fair criticism he got for going, but equally, what he did after the fact, with the knowledge he gained from going there, probably justifies him going in the first place. He did later become a very outspoken critic of players going and playing there, and very big on ensuring that boycotts were made and held at the time. He knew full well the reaction he was going to get for visiting. Yeah, and I wasn't passing judgment,

mate. I was just genuinely interested because I thought I read that he reflected on the decision to go, but maybe I misread that. Yeah, I think he showed an understanding of the bigger picture and retrospectively is probably considered to have done more damage to the regime by visiting, playing ball, and then criticizing later with a deeper knowledge of the subject than just boycotting in the first place. Which makes sense, yeah. It gives you credibility. Yeah, exactly. And

as I said, he later supported boycotts. yeah uh he also got involved with uh the black tennis foundation which is a foundation in south africa which built tennis courts in predominantly black areas to allow young people to take up the sport so yeah didn't he get nicked outside the south african embassy in washington dc for protest he did later and i will come to that yeah got nicked a few times yeah i read about that something to do with haiti as well yeah so in In a sort

of separate note, by the early 1970s, Ash also recognized that tennis professionals were being underpaid and exploited, despite the sport's booming popularity and the new TV age, which was bringing a lot more viewers and a lot more popularity to the sport. So in 1972, he supported and helped establish the Association of Tennis Professionals, the ATP, designed to give players more collective bargaining power, more representation. and more power on the whole against promoters

and governing bodies. He was president of the ATP from 1974, which also coincided with tennis moving towards complete professionalism at that point, with Ash advocating not just for more money, but also more respect and fairness within the game. So yeah, and on the court as well, he obviously continued winning. He won the Australian Open in 1970, but his biggest dream was to win Wimbledon. And I was going to mention this during the Wimbledon episode, but again. I want to do

him justice. He's the man that is at the centre, for obvious reasons, of the US Open, given the name of its lead show court. This is the right place to do it. So in 1975, and I'm sorry I'm going to go off topic and talk about Wimbledon a bit here. In 1975, he got to the final of Wimbledon. He was taking on a young Jimmy Connors, who was the reigning champion at this point. At this point as well, he was in the middle of a libel lawsuit against Jimmy Connors, who had essentially

tried to sue him and the ATP. after Ash labelled him seemingly unpatriotic for Connors refusing to play in the US Davis Cup team something obviously Ash took great pride in and as I mentioned even delayed his becoming professional to continue playing in so in this 1975 final Ash famously took to the court wearing his US Davis Cup jacket the two men lined up one was calm poised respectful and experienced one was young brash in your face and arrogant at times Connors was the holder

and the favourite. Ash was the underdog on and off the court. Can you guess who the Wimbledon crowd was supporting, Ben? It's hard to guess. It's hard to guess. They were big fans of Arthur Ash. They really were. Oh, that sounds surprising. Or maybe they hated Jimmy Connors more than they liked Ash. Who knows? The great Jimmy Connors as well, it's worth mentioning. He was a brilliant player, but he had a very abrasive personality, especially in his younger days. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

but yeah sorry of course they're supporting our protagonist so tell us what happens yeah so ash uh went into it playing a a different tactics we normally does he broke connor's serve early connor's immediately showed signs of frustration he threw his towel he let out a chain of foul language further endearing him I'm sure to the Wimbledon crowd or not the very proper Wimbledon crowd yeah I know tennis fans listening to this will know but it's probably worth pointing out

that the US Open has a bit of a reputation for its crowd like getting a little bit rowdy there's like heckling that's sort of tolerated obviously you guys are passionate sports fans like you enjoy that element of aggressiveness arguably confrontation even in your in your sports personalities Wimbledon is a bit more proper You can get rowdy, but you get rowdy at the correct moment and then you go quiet at the correct moment. Yeah, yeah. And there's like this just, you know, we're British,

so we're politer than you. Generally speaking. Depends where you go. Yeah. Maybe less so at Old Trafford today than at Wimbledon. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Horses for courses. Depends on what sport we're talking about. But golf, tennis, that sort of crowd, like you can expect decorum. Etiquette.

Yeah. so yes anyway that that would that would put mr ash in a favorable position at wimbledon and he and he won that first set to get himself into a favorable position on court as well 19 minutes 6 -1 easy that's a slapping yeah so ash was playing with his brain instead of taking his normal big hitting approach ordinarily he was a hard hitter a lot of his hitting was he hit very flat not much top spin on it and a lot of it was considered sort of hit and hope almost

like not to diminish him but a lot of the time he went more aggressive than he probably would in the situation to try and shorten points to try and get early winners but he wasn't today he was playing with his brain and he had a lot of brain to play with he was taking a his big his big hitting approach as he normally would go into a game with would play to connor's counter punching strength so connor's he wasn't a big guy and you hit a ball hard at him he can hit

it hard back at you with his timing and technique you take some power off the ball he struggles to generate that power himself so he gets frustrated you can control him you can move him around court a bit more so that was the tactics that Ash went into that game playing so yeah as I say took the pace off the ball he varied his play he frustrated his young opponent he targeted his forehand which was more of a weakness in his backhand but then he lobbed him on the backhand side which as a

left -handed player was hard for him to go and get round and get the ball back from Connors was wound up so badly he famously lost his cool at one point Responding to a classic Wimbledon cry of, come on, Jimmy, from the crowd by shouting, I'm trying for Christ's sake. Which I think showed how much in his head Ash was. Ash took the second set 6 -1. To Conor's credit, and he was a very good player, he came back. He recovered from a breakdown in the third to win it 7 -5. But

Ash didn't panic. He stuck to his plan. He kept grinding away, holding off Conor's gritty fight back to seal the 4 -6 -4 and the match with it. To this day. He is still the only black man to win a Wimbledon singles title. And he remains only one of two black men to win a Grand Slam event. Yeah, that's unreal. I also love how understated you made his opponent in this particular battle. This is the eight -time Slam winner, Jimmy Connors.

Yeah, I should mention as well. Sorry, I should mention as well quickly, the only other black man to win a men's singles title in a Grand Slam was Yannick Noah, who won the 1983 French Open. Before I forget to mention that. I didn't know that. But yeah, so he didn't just win Wimbledon as the first black guy and only black guy to have won it. He beat one of the all -time greats to do so. Oh yeah, he certainly was one of the

all -time greats. So yeah, it was a late pinnacle to his career because there wasn't, unfortunately, too many years left to his career after that. The late 70s saw injuries and ill health begin to affect Arthur Ashe. Firstly, a heel injury in 1977, leaving him 257th in the world, but he staged a remarkable recovery to end up ranked 13th before the start of troubles, which would change his life and shorten his life, unfortunately. Which began in 1979 when he suffered a heart

attack, aged only 36 years old. Yeah, well, he was doing training as well, wasn't he? Yeah,

yeah. like a tennis center or something yeah he was training some uh i think university age people possibly even younger anyway yeah um but given his obviously incredible natural fitness this drew attention to something that we nowadays know is all too possible and that's that even athletes can suffer heart conditions yeah um he he had a quadruple bypass in december 1979 he officially retired having attempted to come back but um experiencing chest pains when jogging.

So he decided to retire and he retired officially on April the 16th, 1980 with a career record of 818 wins, 260 defeats, 51 titles, three of which were Grand Slams. He's also a four -time runner -up, wasn't he? Didn't he get to three Aussie Open finals and a second US Open final where Ilya Nastassi beat him at the US Open,

which I think is really cool. Ilya Nastassi is a really interesting, fun guy who now does a lot of... like sort of show event exhibition stuff it's just generally good laugh but um yeah legend nevertheless yeah yeah so yeah yeah he you know we're not talking you know there's just those three wins we're talking seven slam finals yeah so anyway with um with retirement finally that need for him to walk that tightrope was gone And his activism went up a notch. He joined

forces really randomly. He joined forces with singer and calypso legend Harry Belafonte. Yeah, I read about that. Harry Belafonte to form artists and athletes against apartheid, which is hard to say, but obviously very important, which called for a full cultural boycott of South Africa.

until apartheid was ended and as you mentioned he was arrested while protesting outside the south african embassy in 1985 yeah in an anti -apartheid rally isn't it sometimes you've got to be prepared to be arrested i think it's actually a really interesting thing like once you are retired once you're past the point where it matters anymore it's quite a noble thing to accept that you can get arrested when protesting it's something that's happened recently If you've seen the Palestine

Action protests, obviously a lot of people get themselves arrested and a lot of them tend to be people in their 70s. Which you don't care anymore. There's no repercussions for you. Exactly. It loses its deterrent effect. And you see it with other protests across the years for various different things. Yeah, it does. It's quite a noble thing to do because obviously there are still repercussions. You're not going to lose

your job because of it. You're not going to lose your home because of it, as long as you've got a good pension or whatever. Yeah, so it's... We're not advocating anarchy, but it is an interesting dynamic to activism. If it's something worth protesting for, peaceful protest, I would always advocate for it, as long as it's peaceful. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I'm not advocating anarchy. I'm not saying disregard the deterrence of arrest

in all circumstances, please. Indeed. So anyway, Ash, he later joined a delegation of prominent African -Americans, including legendary music producer Quincy Jones, no less, who acted as observers in 1991 as South Africa began to embrace racial integration, finally, after Mandela's release from prison. He was arrested once more, as you mentioned, in 1992 outside the White House, protesting the treatment of Haitian refugees. But unfortunately, by that point, he was dying.

So he'd undergone a second round of heart surgery in 1983. It's believed at that point that blood transfusions given to him during this surgery were infected with HIV. Blood screening wasn't done until much later on blood and unfortunately that appears to be how he contracted it. It was discovered that he had the disease during brain surgery after he suffered paralysis in his right arm in 1988. Him and his wife decide to keep his positive status private for the sake of their

then two -year -old daughter. But in 1992... That's worth mentioning because we spoke about that on the NBA episode as well. That's because of the stereotyping and things like that. The stigma, yeah. And the stigma associated with AIDS and HIV in the 80s and early 90s in particular. Yeah, we spoke about it in relation to Magic Johnson. Magic Johnson in particular and the commissioner of the NBA. Yes, of course, yes.

Who supported him. yeah yeah anyway yes so um unfortunately in 1992 usa today told him that they'd be publishing about his illness and he preempted them before they did and he announced the world that he was hiv positive uh usa today got a lot of criticism for that as they rightly should yeah i was gonna say like just like out in people's like medical conditions and things just for like a quick sell nice despicable stuff isn't it yeah I'm tempted to use that word that

you used about Ashley Cole again, but I'll keep it to myself. Well, you know, when appropriate. Indeed. Ashley Cole and people who publish people's medical statuses without their permission. Same category. That's the line, is it? It's the same crime. It's definitely not. Anyway, Arthur has spent the last 10 months of his life campaigning for AIDS awareness. as his condition deteriorated, and at 3 .13pm on February 6th, 1993, at New

York Hospital, Arthur Ashe died, aged 49. The governor of Virginia allowed his body to lie in state at the governor's mansion in Richmond, a really, truly rare honour, and indicative of what he meant to the state, to the country, and to the sport, and everything in between. 5 ,000 people lined up to walk past his casket and pay their respects, and over 6 ,000 attended his funeral. At his request, he was buried next to his mother. That's really good. Yeah. And as

you say, finally, the last... There's so many sort of honours made for him, statues and things named in his respect. You're going to talk about the posthumous one? One more time. You got a posthumous award for the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Bill Clinton. Did you know that? I did. Amazingly, I missed that part. That's incredible. Yeah, yeah. 1993, apparently. That's the only thing I like. That's a huge deal. Anyway, no, sorry. Thank you for mentioning that because

I was not going to. But all I was going to mention is amongst everything else, as you said, in 1997, the largest tennis stadium in the world was opened at Flushing Meadows in New York, which hosts the US Open every single year. It is named the Arthur Ashe Stadium, one of the countless honors and tributes made to him in the year since his death. Yeah. I mean, that is it. He's an incredible man. That is. So when you're watching it this year, now, if you've listened to this, you'll

know. why that stadium is named after him. And who he was, yeah. And how much he means to so many players. Both black and white players and everyone. The stadium is obviously named after him because he was more than just a very good tennis player. As good a tennis player as he was. And he was a very good tennis player. Especially considering he was an amateur for most of his professional career. The early parts of it. He

would have been nowadays. because he wouldn't have been nowadays and amateurism is still a thing in the US Open so like yeah it'd be college players I imagine yeah one of the things that's really fun about it is like I mean obviously you can be an amateur and enter any sport but technically speaking golf is a great example of it but the US Open is still open to professional and amateurs the only rule is is that you have to be older than 14 to enter it that's actually

that's I can try to imagine a world where a 13 year old would enter a Grand Slam tournament Yeah, yeah. Goodness, they'd have to be talented. So I don't really know why they've decided to, you know, state that explicitly in the rules. But apparently it is in the rules. Yeah, and it's, yeah, US Open. I mean, the Billy Basics, five primary championships, men and women's singles, men and women's doubles and the mixed doubles.

Yeah. But also you'll see at the tournament, senior and junior tournaments and wheelchair tournaments. And all finals will be played on... the aforementioned Arthur Ashe. So, yeah, it's synonymous with the venue, with the tournaments, the finals, and rightly so. I mean, actually, this is a nice transition onto something lighthearted and geeky. The Arthur Ashe is a hard court, like all the courts at the US Open, but it wasn't

always a hard court. No, it wasn't. Started off in 1881 on grass, stayed that way until 1975 when I think there were some complaints about the surface and its impact on the ball's bounce, probably by some barbarians that don't understand what the greatest surface in tennis is. But nonetheless, their whinging prevailed and the tournament... turned to a clay court tournament for a few years. I hate to see it. Yeah, three years, in fact,

which is the worst surface in tennis. Apologies, Ronan Garros and any French people out there. Speaking as British people entirely there. Yeah, yeah. And any Spaniards, because I appreciate you're going to feel very strongly about that. And probably Italians, too. So just offend everyone in Europe whilst I'm at it. Interestingly, though, 75, when they turned it to clay, is also when they introduced floodlights at the US Open. But then from 78, it turned to acrylic hard court.

And, because you know I'm a geek for this tangent stuff about makeup. You love it, yeah. From 1978 to 2019, it was played on a hard -court surface provided by Prodeco Turf. Usually, hard -courts are made from asphalt or concrete and then covered with an acrylic resin to seal the surface and mark the playing lines, whilst also providing a degree of cushioning to the player's feet. It's weirdly not that easy to maintain. You have to brush it regularly. You have to pressure wash

it with cleaning solution. And you have to treat it with chemicals to prevent the growth of certain mosses and algae. Fair enough. It also is painted with an anti -slip paint to give better playing qualities, which also enhance player safety and performance. Good for them. And the Pro Deco Turf was constructed of layers of acrylic resin

made from rubber and silica. multi -layered cushioned surface classified as medium fast but recently lakehold who are another hard court surface provider acrylic hard court surface provider have now got the contract for the us open and do so for the next five years made of the same stuff apparently the difference is is that lakehold have a thing called a lakehold cushion plus surface which i don't know does something to do with um force reduction and cushioning under the feet but it's

the same surface as used at indian wells for what it's worth fair enough we'll have to try and get a salesman on next time to explain it better yeah and the pro deco turf stuff still used around the world like Shanghai Masters and that sort of thing so they haven't gone out of business or anything like that so let's not let's not worry about the contract being lost at the US Open I'll sleep well tonight knowing that and just to round this off in you know explaining

the makeup of the court. It's been painted a shade of blue, trademarked as US Open Blue since 2005. Fair enough. Inside the lines only in order to make it easier to see the ball on television and for players and spectators as well, their visibility. The outside, and this is the reason why this was done, I think, is because the outside of the lines is still painted US Open Green. And obviously the balls are a luminous yellow. Is it yellow? I guess it's yellow. CC David Attenborough.

I was going to say, we could have gone into this debate last time. I'm not sure we did, but green, yellow. It's a matter of debate. I'd say it's yellow. Yeah, I would go yellow. They're bright. They're certainly bright. That's it. That's all I had on the surface. Money? Always. Yeah, I mean, actually. What's the point of sport without it? Yeah, I mean, it's probably worth mentioning that the International Law and Tennis Federation didn't actually officially designate the US Open

as a world major until 1924. So, you know, it was actually quite a while after its inception, 40 years before it became considered a major. That, however, has not held it back financially.

It is truly... truly american it is the most lucrative of the majors you are remunerated extraordinarily well if you win here do you want i heard oh i i heard the number a few days ago and it blew my mind so i won't give it away you just say it because it is ludicrous how much you get paid for winning this thing five million us dollars for the women singles and women singles yeah and The runner -up gets 2 .5 mil, which is... Good consolation prize. That is not bad. It gets

worse, mate. I say worse, better, depending on how you're looking at it. £1 .2 million for reaching a semi -final. Over half a million... £600, sorry, dollars. Over half a million for reaching the quarter -finals. $660 ,000. The last 16 gets you $400 ,000. The round of 32 gets you $237 ,000. It's crazy. To get to the second round, you get $154 ,000. The first round, just to qualify for this fucker, takes you home $110 ,000. And then this is the thing that really astonishes

me. If you get to the third round of qualifying and get knocked out, you'd still take home $57 ,000. That's crazy. Second round of qualifying, $41 ,000. And if you get to the first round of qualifying, you get $27 ,500. I mean, it goes a long way towards establishing. If you think about who gets to that qualifying one, if you want some young players who are just newly out of college, just turned professional, if you want to give them a sort of booster to get them

through that first year or two. Just get them in the qualifying tournament. 27 ,000 right off the bat. Obviously, it's not enough to pay you away for a year in terms of dollars. You need much more than that, but it'll set you on your way. It's a good start. Wow, especially because that would probably... Especially if you would win one qualifying round. Yeah, and that would get you... 41 probably could get you through

a year. Sponsorship will flow from being in the US Open, qualifiers, etc., etc. You'll be on... Presumably, if you're doing that as well, you'll be good enough to get on to... You know, the circuit, whether it's 250 or whatever. Yeah. I think one really notable thing as well that he's mentioning is even in the doubles and the mixed doubles tournament, winning it, you'll still get a cool mil. A mil. Doing it. A million dollars. For winning. Mixed doubles. Mixed doubles.

A million pounds. Jesus. Yeah. Crazy. Yeah. Anyway, I can see why players take this tournament very seriously, which takes us on to the players. where we can probably finish, to be honest. Yeah, yeah. Sorry I took it quite long with the older Arthur Ashe bio, but it needs to be done. No, no, no. The Arthur Ashe bio was the centerpiece of this episode with good reason. So the players, let's go. Just the basics like we do. Men's singles, most titles, Jimmy Connors, Pete Sampras, and

the great... This is in the open era, I should point out. Oh, I'm only focusing on the open era, mate. I don't care for people who won shitloads of stuff in the 1800s. I've already mentioned one of them anyway. Yeah, yeah. I think he actually has the most. Richard Sears. Yeah, with his seven. But these guys in the open era, Connors, Sampras and Roger Federer with five. For the women, it's Chris Everett and Serena Williams with six. Men's

doubles. Bob and Mike Bryan have five together, and Bob and Mike Bryan are brothers, and they are one of the all -time, if not the all -time great men's doubles pairing. So they have five together, but Mike actually has six, because he won one with Jack Sox, so he takes home the title for most men's doubles. Most female doubles is Martina Navratilova, who has nine, including two with the aforementioned Billie Jean King. Navratilova. She played for a long time. Oh,

God. Navratilova has won so much. It's mad. If you're doing pound for pound across men and women and longevity and every type of entry you can enter, she might be the greatest tennis player that's ever lived. Mixed doubles. Bob Bryan has the most of these. He has four, including one with Navratilova. Obviously, which is crazy because I imagine they were born many years apart. Yeah. I think the Bryans were probably born not long after. Navratilova would probably start playing.

Yeah, exactly. And then the women's mixed doubles with the most titles is stacked. Sorry, I should say, the year Navratilova won her first major was 1978, which is the year the Bryans were born. Just to point out how the longevity of Martina Navratilova is crazy. That is wild. And she comes up again in the mixed doubles titles. She's got three, along with Margaret Court and Billie Jean

King. and therefore the most championships at the US Open, and by that I mean across all the different tournaments you can win, is Bob Bryan. He has nine in men's, and Martina Navratilova, who has 16, including four singles titles, which is... Insane. Insane. So yeah, those are your, you know, those are your sort of leading victors, so to speak, but... I like the more nuanced things when we do this little segment of our episodes. Unseeded champions. There is one in the men's.

Do you know who it is? I don't, actually. He's quite famous. Went bold. Weared a headband. Andre Agassi. Andre Agassi. 1994. He's won it twice. He also won in 1999. I think his 99 win was quite romantic. How was he unseeded in 94? Was he coming back from injury? I think he might have been, yeah. I think he might have been. Fair enough. In the women, there's been three. So you've got Kim Cloisters in 2009, who also has three titles in total. Sloane Stephens in 2017. I can feel

you building up there. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Come on. 2017, Sloane Stephens, who's also the only protected rankings win. And Emma Raducanu, of course, in 2021, who is also the only ever qualifier to win it. Who didn't drop a set. It's the most ridiculous run. I've banged on about it across episodes, so I'm not going to resist the urge. And I'm going to focus on another female player now, in actual fact, which is the youngest champion. Do you know who the youngest men's champion is,

quickly? I do not. Very famous. One of the guys with the most wins. Pete Sampras? Pete Sampras, 19, in 1990. The youngest woman ever was Tracy Austin. She won as a 16 -year -old in 1979. And she beat Chris Everett in the final. That's incredible. That's mad. I really wanted to just mention Tracy Austin because I think she was just really interesting. She won it again in 1981, just 19. And she beat Navratilova. And they're her only two majors. So she won as a 16 -year -old and a 19 -year

-old. She beat Chris Everett, Martina Navratilova. She's the youngest female inductee into the Hall of Fame. when she was inducted in 1992, aged just 29. I guess she retired young then. She did retire very early. She had a lot of injuries, but the most severe of which came when she was

just 26 years old in 1989. She was in a serious car accident, near -fatal car accident, in Melbourne, New Jersey, where a van driving on the opposite side of the road at 60 miles an hour crashed into her on the vehicle side, shattered her knee, bruised her heart and her spleen. And left her needing to basically have surgery. And she was in a wheelchair for months afterwards. And she wasn't able to walk without crutches until something

like four months later. But she also made the Wimbledon semifinals and the quarterfinals of the other two majors. So she was a gun player. But what could have been really but for injury for Tracy Austin? No, that's amazing. Yeah, insane stuff, isn't it? But, I mean, there's been plenty, mate. There's other notable champs. You know the names. Novak, Nadal, McEnroe. McEnroe's got four. Those two have got four as well. Other Wimbledon champs. Sorry, other notable women's

champions. Steffi Graf has got five. Steffi Graf's ridiculous. We're going to have to find some way of talking about her. We will. On one of our other tennis episodes, yeah. Margaret Court's got three. Billie Jean King, who we mentioned before, has got three. And then you've got Monica Seles, Venus Williams, and Naomi Osaka have all got two each. I think Monica Salas has just come out explaining just on the eve of this tournament saying that she's got a muscular, degenerative

muscular disorder or something. Yeah, I heard that. Which is, you know, obviously not nice for her, but it's a nice thing that she is using that platform to promote awareness. Yeah, indeed. I don't know enough about it to comment really, but yeah, never good. That kind of thing, obviously, goes without saying. But yeah, hopefully something that's manageable. Yeah. And you've already mentioned that Americans dominate this tournament, but are on a bit of a drought. They really do dominate

it historically. 19 wins for the men in their own tournament, which is absolutely miles ahead of Australia in second with six, open era, because obviously you were explaining how the Aussies dicked everyone in the 60s, and you were right.

For women, it's even more stupid. 26 wins, miles ahead of second, which is Germany with six, of which... five or one by graph yeah as expected yeah yeah yeah which leads us to say and i do have one final little um tip bit which i was gonna i was gonna throw in on um player stats but the current men's champ is yannick sinner who defeated america's taylor fritz last year and the current women's champ is um sabalenka who defeated america's jessica pegulia in the

final so the americans still making finals just just can't get over that hoodoo yeah The thing I was going to sign off with, mate, because I thought you would enjoy this as a little stat to close us off, is Jimmy Connors is the only individual to have won the US singles title on all three surfaces. That is actually very impressive. For all the mild criticism, I don't know if it was Chris, Shade maybe, who was going his way

before. That is very impressive. Won it on Grass, Clay and Hardcore, whilst Chris Everett is the only woman to have won it. On two different surfaces, she won it on clay and hard court. So, you know, it's going to be good. The main people are going to be the main people that we were talking about in our Wimbledon episode. You know, all the usual suspects, the holder Sinner's going to be there. Alcaraz is going to be in the mix. Women's side is going to be Sabalenka. She's going to be gunned.

She's been gunned this year. Pretty much the end of the season. One to enjoy. Yeah, it's going to be good. Yeah, it does occasionally throw up a shock winner as well. US Open. It does. It definitely does. Juan Martin, Juan Martin Del Potro, for example. Yeah, Bianca Andreescu for the women in 2019. Flavia Panata for the women in 2015. I mean, Coco Goff, she's maybe not a surprise winner, but she's very young. Yeah, so, you know, it does happen on the men's

side. It's been pretty much dominated by the usual suspects, but... In and amongst them, you've had a Marin Cilic win. You've had a Dominic Thiem win, which is very niche. One of only two players to have won, born in the 1990s, on the men's side. The other one being, as you're about to mention, Daniel Medvedev. The only two players and the only two grandsons won by players born in the 90s. Such was the dominance of those four players previously mentioned, born in the 80s,

as well as Stamford Rinker and others. and such is now the dominance of Yannick Sinner and Alcaraz. It's crazy. Good doff of the cap there to Stan Rovinka. He often gets overlooked, but he did pick up. He won the same amount as Murray. He won three. Yeah, yeah. And he also won in 2016 at the US Open. So, yeah, that's a great little shout. The one thing I would say about the US Open, which is kind of fun, particularly on the men's side, I mean, women's tennis tends to do

this anyhow. You know, quite a wide range of people making finals on the women's side. And Leila Fernandez, who Emma Raducanu beat. Madison Keyes, you know, Roberta Vinci have all made finals. But on the men's side, you know, it's just as interesting. You get Taylor Fritz, Kasper Rudd, Alexander Zverev, Kevin Anderson, Kane Nishikori. We've all made finals in the last 10, 15 years. It's definitely one to watch because

it is one of the great tournaments. It does throw up in a bit of a shock every now and again, and it's great value and great fun. Indeed. So where can we watch it? Where can we watch it? You know I'm prepared. I know you are. At home, it's Sky. That's the UK. US, it's ESPN, who also broadcasts on ABC. Canada, it's TSN RDS. Europe, it's Eurosport. Australia is Channel 9 and Stan Sports. There are others. You can live stream it on the US

Open website. I could keep listing off different countries, but I think if you're a tennis fan and you're interested, you will know where to watch it. And I think if we've convinced you, then as you always tell me, Jack, Google is available if I haven't covered your nation. And other search engines are available. Other search engines are available. Where are we going next week? Next

week, we're... So... it's one of the biggest sports in the world it's it's something like fourth or fifth most played sport in the world pretty high on the most watched sport in the world but it's not a sport that we really do in the uk very much and it's not a sport that me and you i mean i speak for myself i'm going to assume you as well know a lot about the sport is volleyball and it is the volleyball world championships the women's first and then the

men's in september back to back uh so yeah we'll be we'll be learning about that sport and bringing to you a bit of volleyball That is outside my comfort zone. You're quite rightly predicted. We've got to step there. Every so often we've got to step outside. Can't be football every week. It can't be and we're looking forward to it. We're going to do our best. If you like volleyball or you want to learn about it, join us then.

Join us then. And until then, have a good week and enjoy the sport and hopefully VAR doesn't piss anyone off as much as pissed us off recently. Yeah, and Samuel, good luck to Leeds United on their first game. which we'll have finished by the time this recording comes out. Well, we could record bits now. Yay for Leeds. Well done for winning. Oh, bad luck Leeds. They lost. Oh, a draw. A fair result. VAR, let them down again. All right. I will see you soon, mate. See you

in a bit, pal. Bye -bye. Bye. Once again, thank you for listening to the Sporting Almanac podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, as ever, a like, a subscribe, a rate, or a comment would be fantastic, but please tell people about us with your mouths. Like, turn to a stranger now, whisper a podcast name into their ear. We thank you now, they'll thank you later. Our theme tune is Oh Yeah by Harmonia Productions. You can find us on Instagram and BlueSky at the Sporting Almanac, or drop

us an email at sportingalmanacpodcast .gmail .com. Next up, we're taking on a brand new sport in volleyball. Until then, even if you're a man born in the 1990s with no Grand Slam hopes worth mentioning, please stay curious. Sport is nothing without the history that makes it. Goodbye.