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Ep 105: Book Club: Days of Grace, by Arthur Ashe
The Tennis Abstract Podcast
English - April 15, 2021 16:00 - 1 hour - 1 Byte - ★★★★★ - 22 ratingsSports tennis analytics stats statistics tactics wimbledon us open australian open roland garros roger federer Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Previous Episode: Ep 104: The Present and Future of Jannik Sinner
Ashe's 1993 memoir gives us a chance to get inside the mind of one of the most important figures in tennis history. He was the first African American man to rise to the top of the tennis world, played a leading role in the professionalization of the sport, took on apartheid South Africa, captained the U.S. Davis Cup team through the turbulent Connors-McEnroe era, and ultimately used his battle with AIDS as an opportunity to educate the public and raise money to fight the disease. Carl Bialik and I talk about whether he is sufficiently remembered in tennis today, whether his game was as mercurial as he claimed, how he compares to Billie Jean King, and whether we should chill out about the latest round of changes to the Davis Cup.