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Arthur Ashe As a tennis player, Arthur Ashe was one of the most prominent players of his time; an all-out competitor who rarely beat himself. His legacy, however, will be the positive changes he helped bring about and the causes he championed, both within tennis and in society as a whole. Though at his best he was for many the very definition of tennis, tennis never defined Arthur Ashe. For Arthur Ashe, tennis was a means to an end. One spring, he fought for Robinson's No. 42 when he signed up for a Little League team. Early in life, Ashe picked up tennis on Richmond public courts and developed an uncanny backhand stroke and a tenaciousness that would help him become a barrier-breaker in a mostly white world. (http//:www.chron.com) Ashe won the U.S. Open in 1968. Seven years later, he defeated the seemingly unbeatable Jimmy Connors in a stirring Wimbledon final. He was a Davis Cup champion as a player and team captain. In between were many honors and awards, including three Grand Slam singles titles and over 800 career victories. But for Arthur, it was always more than personal glory and individual accolades. Rather, it was the knowledge that his status as an elite tennis player afforded him a unique and worldwide platform to speak out about inequities, both in the tennis world and society as a whole. That in and of itself was unique, but not outstanding.
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