Tennis great Arthur Ashe, who went from makeshift neighborhood courts in a
Southern inner city to the top of professional tennis, died of pneumonia Saturday in New York. He was 49.Ashe died at 3:13 p.m. EST at Cornell Medical Center in New York, hospital officials said, less than a year after he reluctantly disclosed that he was suffering from the AIDS virus.
Ashe, the first black to win a Grand Slam title, won 33 tournaments during his career, including the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. He also was a three-time Davis Cup champion and a losing finalist in 32 other tournaments.
His career started in 1968 and ended in 1979.
Ashe revealed April 8 that he had AIDS in an emotional news conference prompted by his fear that a newspaper was about to publish the story. He insisted that he should have the right to keep his illness private.
Ashe, a native of Richmond, Va., was named Sports Illustrated's 1992 Sportsman of the Year, the first athlete to win the award after his playing days were over. He worked with a foundation to raise money to battle the disease.
He said in December, when he accepted the SI award, that he was not bitter about the disease, which he contracted during a blood transfusion during open-heart surgery in 1983. But he was upset about how slowly the country moved in battling the disease.
"The only thing I feel remiss about as an American is that experts tell me there was a matter of evidence in the early '80s that we were facing a major problem, but because 90 percent of those affected were gay or drug users, it was ignored," Ashe said.
In an interview last November, Ashe said that his days were busier than ever, although he had his good ones and bad ones.He also critized former President Reagan. "It was about 31/2 years before Ronald Reagan even said the word AIDS, " Ashe said.
In December, Ashe, weighing 145 pounds, eight pounds below his normal weight, said, "I'm doing as well as I can be expected to."
Ashe said last year that he was suffering from toxoplasmosis, an infection of the brain, which is one of the many diseases resulting from a weakened immune system.
As an amateur, Ashe beat Tom Okker to win the first U.S. Open championship in 1968. The tournament had been known as the U.S. National Championship when it was restricted only to amateurs. Ashe upset fellow American Jimmy Connors to win the 1975 Wimbledon championship and won the Australian Open in 1970. He was ranked as the No. 1 player in the world for two years.
Ashe was 22-4 in Davis Cup singles and 1-1 in doubles in 10 years of competition.
He retired from tennis in 1980, then wrote "Hard Road to Glory," a history of blacks in sports.
A major community athletic center in Ashe's hometown is named for him. In his later years, he infrequently visited Richmond but sometimes played tennis with his friend, Virginia Gov. Douglas Wilder.