Top 10 Arthur Ashe Quotes

Arthur Ashe
(Tennis player)

Arthur Robert Ashe, Jr.  was an American World No. 1 professional tennis player. He won three Grand Slam titles. Ashe was the first black player selected to the United States Davis Cup team and the only black man ever to win the singles title at Wimbledon, the US Open, and the Australian Open. He retired in 1980. He was ranked World No. 1 by Harry Hopman in 1968 and by Lance Tingay of The Daily Telegraph and World Tennis Magazine in 1975. In the ATP computer rankings, he peaked at No. 2 in May 1976.
In the early 1980s, Ashe is believed to have contracted HIV from a blood transfusion he received during heart bypass surgery. Ashe publicly announced his illness in April 1992 and began working to educate others about HIV and AIDS. He founded the Arthur Ashe Foundation for the Defeat of AIDS and the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health before his death from AIDS-related pneumonia on February 6, 1993. On June 20, 1993, Ashe was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by the United States President Bill Clinton.

Top 10 Arthur Ashe Quotes

You are never really playing an opponent. You are playing yourself, your own highest standards, and when you reach your limits, that is real joy.

Success is a journey not a destination. The doing is usually more important than the outcome. Not everyone can be Number One.

One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.

Trust has to be earned, and should come only after the passage of time.

I strongly believe the black culture spends too much time, energy and effort raising, praising, and teasing our black children about the dubious glories of professional sports.

True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.

Every time you win, it diminishes the fear a little bit. You never really cancel the fear of losing; you keep challenging it. 

You’ve got to get to the stage in life where going for it is more important than winning or losing. 

Regardless of how you feel inside, always try to look like a winner. Even if you’re behind, a sustained look of control and confidence can give you a mental edge that results in victory. 

What it is controlled cool, in a way. Always have the situation under control, even if losing. Never betray an inward sense of defeat.

In July 1979, Ashe suffered a heart attack while holding a tennis clinic in New York. In view of his high level of fitness as an athlete, his condition drew attention to the hereditary aspect of heart disease; Ashe's mother already had cardiovascular disease at the time of her death, aged 27, and his father had suffered a first heart attack, aged 55, and a second, aged 59, just a week before Ashe's own attack. Cardiac catheterization revealed one of Ashe's arteries was completely closed, another was 95 percent closed, and a third was closed 50 percent in two places. Ashe underwent a quadruple bypass operation, performed by Dr. John Hutchinson on December 13, 1979. A few months after the operation, Ashe was on the verge of making his return to professional tennis. However, during a family trip in Cairo, Egypt, he developed chest pains while running. Ashe stopped running and returned to see a physician accompanied by his close friend Douglas Stein. Stein urged Ashe to return to New York City so he could be close to his cardiologist, his surgeon and top-class medical facilities. In 1983, Ashe underwent a second round of heart surgery to correct the previous bypass surgery. After the surgery, Ashe became national campaign chairman for the American Heart Association.
On February 20, 1977, Ashe married Jeanne Moutoussamy, a photographer and graphic artist he met in October 1976 at a United Negro College Fund benefit. Andrew Young, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, performed the wedding ceremony in the United Nations chapel, New York City. During the ceremony Ashe wore a cast on his left foot having had an operation on an injured heel ten days earlier.
In December 1986, Ashe and Moutoussamy adopted a daughter. She was named Camera after her mother's profession.
On February 6, 1993, Ashe died from AIDS-related pneumonia at New York Hospital. His funeral was held at the Arthur Ashe Athletic Center in Richmond, Virginia, on February 10. Then-governor Douglas Wilder, who was a friend of Ashe, allowed his body to lie in state at the Governor's Mansion in Richmond. More than 5,000 people lined up to walk past the casket. Andrew Young, who had performed the service for Ashe's wedding in 1977, officiated at his funeral. Over 6,000 mourners attended. Ashe requested that he be buried alongside his mother, Mattie, who died in 1950, in Woodland Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.