On July 5, 1975, Arthur Ashe become the first black man ever to win the most coveted championship in tennis, Wimbledon. He was 31 years old at the time. He defeated Jimmy Conners, who was favored to win because he had beaten Ashe in 3 previous matches.  He retired from tennis in 1980,  Arthur Ashe won 51 tournaments.
In 1983, he was infected with HIV during a blood transfusion after double bypass surgery. He died of AIDS-related complications on February 6, 1993.

 

From Tennis past to the present, The Williams sisters, Venus & Serena are back in the Wimbledon semi-finals. It marks 16 years after they first made it this far together. Six-time Wimbledon champion Serena Williams beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia to reach the semifinals for the 10th time.  Five-time champion Venus Williams has reached the Wimbledon semi-finals for the first time since 2009 with victory over Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova.   Only time will tell if we will see an all Williams final at the 2016 Wimbledon.  Black Women Rocking Tennis: I believe Arthur Ashe is smiling down on them.

(source: historychannel.com, Google Images, Espn.com)