"His impact was so much deeper than just being a tennis player" - Arthur Ashe's legacy goes beyond the confines of tennis, believes Jay Clarke
Arthur Ashe's legacy is more than just tennis, believes 24-year-old Jay Clarke, considered one of the rising stars in the world of British tennis at the moment. Clarke, who looks up to Ashe as one of his tennis idols, is of the opinion that the American's influence cannot be quantified simply by how many tennis matches he won over his career.
Arthur Ashe, a three-time Grand Slam champion, was the first Black player to get into the United States Davis Cup team. Till date, he remains the only Black player to have won a men's singles title at Wimbledon, the Australian Open and the US open. Ranked the No. 1 player in the world by various outlets at the time, he reached as high as World No. 2 in the ATP rankings once they were standardized.
For his contribution to the game, the main stadium at the USTA National Tennis Center at Flushing Meadows - the location for the prestigious US Open - was named after the American.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda during his time at the ATP Challenger event in Chennai, Clarke touched upon why he considers Ashe his idol. He remarked that what he is doing at the moment feels much, much easier compared to what the three-time Grand Slam champion had to go through during his career.
"What [Arthur Ashe] was able to do at the time, and I think his impact, you know, it was so much deeper than just being a tennis player," Clarke said. "The fact that all the adversity he had to overcome and you know, for me, you know, I'm just playing a tennis match and it's pretty easy in comparison."
Clarke also stated that Ashe was a pioneer because of what he represented, showing the world that people who looked like him could also make it big in the tennis world. The Brit went on to add that stars such as Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Gael Monfils also share a similar legacy. Watching them as a kid infused him with the self-belief that he too could do what they were doing at the top level of the sport.
"And, you know, it's also good about the representation, seeing someone that has done it before and also looks like me. And yeah, I think that's the big thing, you know, it makes you believe and it's the same as guys like [Jo-Wilfried] Tsonga and [Gael] Monfils," Clarke said.
"You know, growing up. I loved watching those guys. It's subconscious. I wasn't told to go watch these guys but I looked at them and I was like, I can do it too."
Arthur Ashe was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame
For all that he had done for the game, Arthur Ashe was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1985, eight years before he passed away at the age of 49. The American was stricken with HIV in 1988 as a result of a blood transfusion gone awry, following which he founded the Arthur Ashe Foundation for the Defeat of AIDS to promote awareness about the virus.
In 1993, Ashe was posthumously bestowed with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bill Clinton, and in 2005, a commemorative stamp was issued in his honor by the United States Postal Service.