So, having registered this blog name quite some time ago (and of COURSE a the name is reference to Rafael Nadal's specialty - no surprise at all if you know me), I decided to actually put it to good use for a Black History Month project idea that I had a couple of weeks ago. Since this IS my first post, I suppose some context about both myself and the project in question is necessary for those who may not know me, so let me take a bit of time to give you an introduction before we dive in. This means that this first post will probably be absurdly long, but stick with me.
My name is Phillip. I am currently a resident of Champaign, IL, and I am originally from Chicago's south side. I lived in Tallahassee, FL, for a couple of years, before moving to Champaign. I just turned 30 in December, and rather than setting off some sort of crisis, it's been rather invigorating; I feel happier and healthier than I can ever remember being at any previous point. This old life of mine so far hasn't been the easiest road, but perseverance has certainly has its own reward - simply by choosing to hang in there and not give up, I've found myself in a much, much better place over the years.
When pressed to describe my personality, I usually tell people that my essence can essentially be distilled into the love I have for three very distinct things: Prince (I'm a music nerd in general, but specifically Prince), guinea pigs, and Rafael Nadal (again, tennis in general, but specifically Rafa). The last item is specifically the reason why we are here, and the goal for this blog in general: I've been a massive tennis fan for the vast majority of my life, having become aware of the sport as a six-year-old in 1993 thanks to two tragic events that occurred the same year (we'll get to those later).
Though I haven't always felt confident sharing my writing on a wider scale, it is something I have a great passion for - I do it all the time. For kicks, I have done music and film critique for a while now, but I have never really taken the time to write about tennis in a longer format. The recent events in America, though, have inspired me to levels of outspokenness and creativity that were previously unseen, especially as a minority male in this country; I am biracial (half black, half white, but I grew up with my black family and identify as such), and I have what you might term an "ethnically ambiguous" look. As such, my life has been filled with racism, both casual and overt, that I've had to deal with on a regular basis for many reasons: strangers wanting to touch my hair and often doing so without asking permission, trying to "guess" my ethnic background, or asking me questions like "what ARE you?" or "where are you from?" as a thinly veiled attempt at sizing up my identity. I feel like I've handled most of these incidents with class, but the fact that this sort of thing is still going on in this country has only been exacerbated by His Orange Highness' recent election to the presidency.
How does my identity and today's political situation relate to my love of tennis? Well, as a black man, I have long claimed tennis as my first sporting love, which was a very unique thing among my peers while I was growing up. To put it extremely mildly, tennis is decidedly NOT the first sport of choice for most inner city youth. The stereotype of black men and women playing basketball is a strong one, yet there is obviously some truth to the typecasting - the kids in my age group were far, far more interested in basketball, football, and even baseball, where the number of black participants continues to decline with each passing year, yet the number of successful black American players in MLB almost certainly dwarfs the numbers that tennis has had recently.
I am not telling you this to say that I'm unique or that I am special for liking tennis the most; indeed, I grew up being a huge fan of American team sports when I was younger. I was a kid in Chicago when Michael Jordan was leading the Bulls to six championships - it was impossible NOT to be caught up in that at the time! The point that I'm impressing upon you is that I fell in love with a sport that, despite its many strides over the years, is still not traditionally associated with minority youths in America. I did and, to a certain extent, still have had to endure criticism of enjoying tennis as much as I do. I would hear all the time how the sport was "gay" and "for rich country club folks"; this, of course, in spite of the fact of the relatively inexpensive nature of the sport and how easily a set of tennis balls and a racket can be acquired.
This brings us to the point of my Black History Month project (and I know you've all been waiting with bated breath for this): as a black man who has loved this sport for almost my entire life, and as someone who finally feels comfortable contributing my own thoughts and ideas on a grander scale, I want to spend this year's Black History Month celebrating the brave people who also chose this sport as their first love, ESPECIALLY in this political and social climate that seems to be based on marginalizing those of us who don't "look American" or "represent the country's core values" (i.e., non-white).
So, without further ado, let us FINALLY officially begin the first post kick off Black Tennis Month! :)
Our first subject of Black Tennis Month is probably not a surprise - among black male tennis players, he is almost certainly the most important figure that has played the sport to date. He is the incomparable Arthur Ashe, born on July 10th, 1943, in Virginia, and the only player of black descent to date to win the U.S. Open, Australian Open, and Wimbledon championships. He learned the game from the teachings of Dr. Robert Walter Johnson, a Virginia physician who also loved the sport of tennis and fostered the careers of both Ashe and an earlier black champion, Althea Gibson.
Before the ATP World Tour began its computer rankings system in 1973, Ashe was ranked by some experts as the world's top player in 1968 after his U.S. Open title, and in the computer era, he reached a peak of #2 in 1976. He was noted for his strong serve and backhand; his weakness, as he candidly admits in his 1973-74 tour diary Portrait in Motion, was his forehand and his forehand volleys. In that book, he attributes his lack of success with forehand volleys to the teachings of Dr. Johnson, who taught him a baseline-based game, rather than the serve and volley game which was in vogue at the time.
In addition to his successful on-court career, Ashe was noted for his humanitarian efforts, as well. In 1969, during the height of South Africa's apartheid era, he lobbied for the South African government to allow him to play in the South African Open, then one of the world's premier tennis events; eventually, in 1973, he succeeded in his efforts to play in the country (the events of which are covered in Portrait in Motion). That same year, he was also one of the players who helped to spearhead a boycott of the Wimbledon championships, in protest of the Yugoslavian tennis player Niki Pilic's suspension by his national tennis federation. His playing career ended after having heart troubles in the late 70s, and it is believed that Ashe contracted HIV from a faulty blood transfusion during one of his heart surgeries. After his diagnosis was revealed to the public approximately a year before his death, Ashe became one of the leading crusaders for raising awareness for the disease, creating several foundations to combat the notion that only homosexuals or drug users were at risk (a common misconception at the time).
Ashe passed away in February of 1993, at the age of just 49, due to AIDS-related pneumonia. It was this event that was one of the catalysts for me becoming aware of what tennis was; I can't recall ever being aware of the sport prior to that point in my life. I can still remember the massive outpouring of love that he received upon his death; he had been named Sports Illustrated's 1992 Sportsperson of the Year for his humanitarian efforts in raising awareness about HIV, and by all accounts seemed to be a wonderful, very thoughtful human being that touched the lives of many people. (The other tragic event of 1993 that drew me to tennis was, of course, Monica Seles' horrendous on-court stabbing; 1993 seems like a rough year for tennis!)
Ashe both wrote and was the subject of several books, including his own memoirs, Days of Grace, which he completed just 10 days before his death in 1993. My personal favorite, however, is Portrait in Motion, a book that I've already referenced several times in this post. It's a tour diary that he kept from Wimbledon 1973 to Wimbledon 1974 (with an addendum in the most recent addition about his victory in the tournament in 1975), and it's a fascinating read, covering many of the events that I've already mentioned (his desire to play in South Africa and his motivations for doing so, the Wimbledon boycott), his remarkable candor in discussing his own abilities and limitations as a tennis player, and his status as, to use his own terms, THE black tennis player at the time. It's a remarkable snapshot of a very competitive era in men's tennis, and told with particularly acute clarity and insight. (It can be had for cheap at Amazon.) I honestly wish more books of the sort existed in tennis; aside from this book and John Feinstein's look at the 1990 ATP and WTA tours, Hard Courts, I'm having trouble thinking of another "tour diary" type of book that exists in tennis. It's a shame - it's a sport that would lend itself well to a travel diary, particularly given the fact that professional players routinely have to hop from country to country to play in the events that they do.
In 1997, the brand new main stadium at the U.S. Open was christened Arthur Ashe Stadium in his honor.
So there you have it - the first blog post. Yippee! Did I do okay? If you like this entry, stay tuned - I'll be profiling a different player for each day of February. Please feel free to leave any comments or thoughts you might have - I'm always down for a good chat!
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