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.