Arthur Ashe

Arthur Ashe grew up in segregated Richmond, Virginia, where his father was caretaker of a park for Black residents that happened to have tennis courts. His mother died when he was six. He was not allowed to play on the city's main courts or in most local tournaments, and at 17 he moved to St Louis to find competition. His coach taught him to keep his face expressionless, since any show of temper from a Black player would be used against him.

He won the first US Open in 1968 while still an amateur and a lieutenant in the army, and the Australian Open in 1970. In 1975, at 31 and given almost no chance, he beat the young champion Jimmy Connors in the Wimbledon final by slowing the game down and taking the pace off the ball. He remains the only Black man to have won the title.

In 1979, aged 36, he had a heart attack and bypass surgery, which ended his playing career. A second operation in 1983 required a blood transfusion. In 1988, after numbness in his hand led to brain surgery, he learned that the transfusion had given him HIV.

He kept it private until 1992, when a newspaper was about to publish the story. He then spent the remaining ten months of his life raising money for AIDS research, speaking at the United Nations, and being arrested outside the White House protesting the treatment of Haitian refugees. He died of pneumonia in February 1993.