One of the first people Nelson Mandela asked to meet following his release from 27 years of incarceration was former Wimbledon Champion Arthur Ashe.
The pair struck up an unlikely friendship over their fight to end apartheid in South Africa and to break down racial barriers the world over. They were further united in their efforts to raise awareness of AIDS, the condition which would eventually claim the American tennis legend’s life in 1993.
Mandela was in prison when a near-32-year-old Ashe became the first black man to triumph at the All England Club in 1975.
Through all his achievements off-court, affected through his profile as an elite sportsman, Ashe’s victory at Wimbledon is considered arguably his greatest on-court.
This year marks the 40th anniversary of his breakthrough at SW19, an against-the-odds triumph where the ultimate underdog, a true gentleman of the game, upstaged the talented, yet brash defending men’s champion, Jimmy Connors.
Ashe would finish his career with three Grand Slam titles to his name, the first coming on home soil at the 1968 US Open, before triumphing at the 1970 Australian Open.
But seven years had passed since his last major and he was considered well past his prime.
There was a precursor of tension between the two coming into the decider.
Ashe had criticised what he perceived to be a lack of patriotism on the 22-year-old Connors’ behalf after he skipped Davis Cup to play a lucrative exhibition match in Las Vegas earlier in the year.
Connors was carrying a knee injury but refused to let it halt his run after a dominant performance against big-serving compatriot Roscoe Tanner in the semi-finals, while Ashe had taken down future champion Bjorn Borg in the quarter-finals and Australian great Tony Roche in a five-set semi-final.
His typically aggressive playing style, though, had proven ineffective against Connors in the past. He had never beaten him in three prior encounters. The No.1 seed was a heavy favourite to defend his crown.
Inspired by a match in which veteran Pancho Gonzalez upstaged a then-teenage Connors with variety over brute power, Ashe this time would employ that same tactic.
Based on a so-called low-and-slow approach, he gave Connors little pace to work with, using lobs and placement, while keeping the ball low to his opponent’s more susceptible forehand wing.
He would seal the upset 6-1, 6-1, 5-7, 6-4.
No words were exchanged when the two shook hands at net. It would mark Ashe’s last appearance in a Grand Slam final.
In 1979, he suffered two heart attacks, forcing him to call curtains prematurely on his career.
He was diagnosed as HIV positive in 1988, which he was believed to have contracted via a blood transfusion five years earlier during heart surgery. He would eventually die in 1993 of AIDS-related pneumonia, his legacy proof of the power of sport in implementing social change and an inspiration to a generation of future black Americans, such as Venus and Serena Williams and James Blake.
“Quite often, people who mean well enquire of me whether I ever ask myself, in the face of my diseases, ‘Why me?’ I never do. If I ask, ‘Why me?’ as I am assaulted by heart disease and AIDS I must ask, ‘Why me?’ about my blessings, and question my right to enjoy them. The morning after I won Wimbledon in 1975 I should have asked, ‘Why me’?”
An intellect of the game, it is the quote most often pulled from Ashe in his final book, Days of Grace, aptly summing up the positivity and humility, which never escaped him, even in his final days.