128: Arthur Ashe


"Arthur Ashe" by Bogaerts, Rob / Anefo - Nationaal Archief Fotocollectie Anefo Item number 927-7839. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 nl via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arthur_Ashe.jpg#/media/File:Arthur_Ashe.jpg
Arthur Ashe at the 1975 World Tennis Tournament in RotterDame, Netherlands (Rob Bogaerts/ANEFO via Wikimedia) 

Today is the 72nd anniversary of the birth of tennis legend Arthur Ashe.

Here are a few things you may not have known about him.

First, he was the first, and to date, only black male to win singles championships at the U.S. Open, Australian Open and Wimbledon.

Second, Ashe won both the U.S. Amateur Championship and U.S. Open championship in 1968, becoming the only player to hold both titles in the same year. He won the Open championship as an amateur, earning a daily $20 stipend instead of the $14,000 first-place prize money.

Third, he contracted AIDS following a blood transfusion during heart surgery in 1979. He died of AIDS-related pneumonia in 1993 at the age of 49.

Our question: Arthur Ashe never won the French Open. What was his highest finish at Roland Garros?

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