Arthur Ashe was a legend on and off the tennis court

Ines Reichelt, Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Hamburg, Germany

When tennis legend Arthur Ashe died of AIDS-related pneumonia at the age of 49, he was the first American sportsman in living memory to earn the tribute of lying in state.

But the only black man to win the U.S. Open and the only one to win Wimbledon was bestowed with such an extraordinary honor not only because of his prodigious sporting talent.

Ashe is a legend because not only was he a worldwide humanitarian fighting for the rights of refugees, he also helped break down racial barriers and pave the way for future stars such as James Blake, the talented Afro-American tennis player who lead's this year's Davis Cup U.S. team.

Ashe died on February 6, 1993, just a little over a decade ago.

"I owe a great debt of gratitude to Arthur Ashe," Blake said.

"What I go through now is much easier, thanks to what he did. It took a great man and a great athlete like him to do that, and we are so fortunate to have had him as a role model."

And a role model is exactly what Ashe has become. American school kids who write the best thesis on the topic "Why is Arthur Ashe a legend?" will be invited to the Arthur Ashe Kid's Day at the U.S. Open next August.

The main stadium at the New York Grand Slam, the 23,000-seat Arthur Ashe stadium, is also named after him.

Ashe generated lots of interest during his 11-year playing career 1969-1980 and as much off the courts as an activist.

He wrote a book about the African-American athlete (A Hard Road to Glory for which he also received an Emmy Award for the TV adaptation) and was on the forefront of setting up a players union, now known as the ATP.

In 1969, he applied for a visa to play in South Africa although he knew that the white government would turn him down. What followed was a call for the expulsion of South Africa from tennis events due to the country's apartheid policy.

Four years later he was granted a South African visa to play at the tournament and in 1991 he met Nelson Mandela after the end of apartheid.

The fight also took place at home. Ashe was arrested at the White House in 1992 when protesting a tough U.S. stand against Haitian refugees.

He was chairman of the American Heart Foundation and spoke to the General Assembly of the United Nations on World Aids Day 1992.

After all, a heart attack in 1979 started his way into retirement and a double bypass operation followed in 1983.

Seemingly pressured by media investigations, he admitted to having AIDS in 1992, four years after being diagnosed with the deadly illness. It was most likely transmitted through a contaminated blood transfusion during the bypass operation.

"I was not ready to let everything go to become America's second most prominent heterosexual patient," said Ashe in reference to basketball star Magic Johnson, who made his AIDS announcement a few months earlier.

Ashe raised millions of dollars through his AIDS foundation and has New York's center for Urban Health named after him.

His prominence even led in 1996 to erection of a statue in his birth town of Richmond, Virginia, where he was in his younger years denied a chance to play tennis because of his black skin.

His talent was discovered by local doctor Wallace Johnson who also helped him enroll at UCLA where he graduated in 1966 with a business degree.

Two years later Ashe won his only U.S. Open title, the Australian Open crown followed in 1970 and the Wimbledon title in 1975. Ashe won a total 33 career titles and his highest ranking was number two in 1976.

"He was a great person," said former rival Jimmy Connors. Quite.