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Remembering Arthur Ashe - A Player of Exception! |
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Written by Sergio Cruz
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Today I was looking through the Tennis Groups at Yahoo, when I came upon a group which had the picture of Arthur Ashe holding the Wimbledon 1975 Cup. I stopped to remember the Barcelona Open 1974! Yes that far back!
Then I was a qualifier in the Barcelona Open and during the tournament, through a request from Wojtek Fibak, I gave him the possibility to switch our qualifying spots for the Tehran qualies which at the time were also played in Barcelona.
The reason being for Fibak to have a bye (which I had in the Tehran draw) was so he could play only against Arthur Ashe the next day, instead of a Tehran match in the morning and Arthur in the afternoon on the same day.
The ATP supervisor, Fibak’s opponent Javier Soler, my opponent, the referee and given that Fibak at the time was struggling as much as I was, we all agreed to it.
This lead to Wojtek beating Arthur the next day.
The story though is about Arthur. As I was about to enter the men’s locker room a young Spanish journalist approached me and asked if I would help him talk to Arthur (and translate the interview). I knew that Arthur had just lost to Fibak and certainly he would be upset, so I said to the journalist:
- Ok, I will try but, remember, Arthur just lost and might not be in the mood to talk to anyone right now.
So I walked into the locker room and indeed there was a dejected Arthur Ashe sitting down in one of the wooden benches next to his locker box and probably reflecting upon his match.
A bit concerned, I sat next to him and said:
- Arthur sorry to bother you at this moment but, there is a young Spanish journalist that has asked me to translate an interview with you, only if you would like to do it?
Arthur even though upset about his recent loss, looked at me, smiled and said:
- Please give me an half-hour and I will meet you both at the restaurant.
Arthur's word was golden and half-hour later there he was looking for us at the restaurant.
We all sat at a table and Arthur gave the interview.
What impressed me is that Arthur was then a major force in tennis, but his kindness, his lack of pretention or arrogance, the credit he gave to his almost unknown opponent and all of his humble demeanour, made me think, one day I would like to be the kind of a person Arthur is.
Arthur passed away in 1993, but many players, fans and people of all walks of life will always remember him as an exceptional individual, a gentleman, a great tennis ambassador and just a good man.
Sergio Cruz
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