Remembering the first US Open champion

NEW YORK, AUG 23: Twenty-nine years after the first US Open, the world's richest tennis tournament returns to its first champion: Arthur As...

NEW YORK, AUG 23: Twenty-nine years after the first US Open, the world8217;s richest tennis tournament returns to its first champion: Arthur Ashe.When the open begins its two-week run monday, it will be in Arthur Ashe stadium.

It was his second Grand Slam tournament title of 1968 both coming at the famed club in forest hills. Earlier in the year, Ashe won the last US Championships an all-amateur event as tennis8217; Open era was about to begin. He defeated fellow American Bob Lutz, better known for his doubles play, in the final, 4-6, 6-3, 8-10, 6-0, 6-4.

He was the first black man to win one of tennis8217; major tournaments, although Althea Gibson had broken the colour barrier two and a half years earlier when she won the women8217;s singles at the French Championships. The next year, Gibson captured the women8217;s singles at both Wimbledon and the US Championships, then repeated in 1958.

Ashe won the Australian Open in 1970, but his greatest achievement came in 1975 when he reached the Wimbledon final against a seemingly unbeatable Jimmy Connors.

8220;That match was the biggest of my life,8221; Ashe wrote in his book, Days of Grace.8217; 8220;It was also one that just everybody was sure I would lose because Connors was then the finest tennis player in the world, virtually invincible. In fact, the match was supposed to be a slaughter, and I was to be the sacrificial lamb.8221;

Ashe, instead, changed his game, took all the speed off the ball and watched Connors self-destruct. Executing his plan perfectly, Ashe won 6-1, 6-1, 5-7, 6-4.

The US Open switched from grass to clay in 1975, then moved to hardcourts at Flushing Meadows in New York City8217;s Borough of Queens in 1978.

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Ashe was seeded 16th that first year and battled to the fourth round, where he lost to eighth-seeded Raul Ramirez of Mexico.

It was his last US Open.

Three weeks after a first-round loss at Wimbledon in 1979, Ashe suffered a heart attack. After undergoing bypass heart surgery, he retired as a player, but not from the sport.

As captain, Ashe led the United States to the Davis Cup titles in 1981 and 1982. In 1985, he was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.Ashe co-founded the National Junior Tennis League in 1968, and lent his name and support to the Arthur Ashe Youth Tennis Center in Suburban Philadelphia in 1987.