It was 50 years ago on Sept. 4, 1959, that Arthur Ashe, the man whose name graces the center court at the USTA/Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, made his debut at the U.S. Championships. As excerpted from my book ON THIS DAY IN TENNIS HISTORY ($19.95, New Chapter Press, www.TennisHistoryBook.com), the sixteen-year-old Ashe lost to 21-year-old Rod Laver 6-2, 7-5, 6-2 in the first round at the West Side Tennis Club at Forest Hills. Allison Danzig of the New York Times said Ashe “served well and hit with a good pace and length off the ground, particularly on his forehand.” Danzig however noted that Ashe was “not so effective in his volleying.”
Ten years later in 1969, Laver and Ashe met again in the semifinals of the U.S. Championships when the tournament was “open” and both men were professionals. Laver, in his newly-re-released book THE EDUCATION OF A TENNIS PLAYER ($19.95, New Chapter Press, www.NewChapterMedia.com), recalled his first meeting with Ashe prior to playing him in the semifinals of the U.S. Open when Ashe was the defending champion and Laver was two match wins from clinching his historic second Grand Slam.
Wrote Laver in THE EDUCATION OF A TENNIS PLAYER, “Ashe remarked that the first match he ever played at Forest Hills was against me. I didn’t remember it, ten years before when he was sixteen and I was a Wimbledon finalist. He had been extremely nervous, vomited before we started, and recalled the feeling that Forest Hills seemed so huge to him then. I had similar recollections of my introduction to the big league, but it was different for Arthur in that he sensed he was in truly alien territory. That changed for him, but in 1959 he must have felt very alone when he edged through the crowd on his way from the clubhouse to the grandstand court to play me. Maybe he felt better when he saw that I wasn’t too impressive physically and he could look down on me. The score in 1959 was 6-2, 7-5, 6-2. I guess he got over his nerves after a while and played a good second set.”