Arthur Ashe…. I can’t say enough even if I talked constantly for the rest of the month…. Here I am browsing a copy of the finest tennis magazine ever published…Drum roll… WORLD TENNIS!!! First published in 1953… It had a thirty-year run! Bravo Gladys!! The same brilliance and foresight lead Gladys M. Heldman to founding Women’s Pro Tennis… Ok. I got diverted. I’m looking at April 1979. Arthur Ashe is on the cover. On page 20. We see Arthur Ashe junior (senior was also an amazing man) being awarded a plaque—ATP founders award for his service and unselfishness to the sport. Page 44 has an in depth story written by the brilliant Mike Lupica… Sure loved when he wrote tennis … Title of the story is Ashe is back…. At 33 he had heal surgery to remove calcium. It’s Lupica’s opinion, “if you look at the whole picture, Arthur Ashe has been the most significant male tennis player of the open era—that is, if you look at everything. ” … Wow…. that’s what I’m saying. You can’t say enough about Arthur. Here’s a gem…Photo credit Fred Mullane…. I’m onto page 83. Another of Arthur and results. It says AA came back from 4-5 to defeat Vitas Gerulaitis. In the semis. Arthur had wins that week over Guillermo Bolas, Marty Reissen and Brian Gottfried. Connors was the eventual winner. Ashe beat vitas 1-6,4-6,7-6,6-4,6-4…. Arthur was 35 years old….
The comment about Jimmy Connors was “he doesn’t merely defeat opponents, he pounds them into the court….”
Topics: Arthur Ashe, milos raonic