Wimbledon, England – Arthur Ashe’s famous victory over Jimmy Connors in the 1975 Wimbledon final will be down in history as the best tactical display in the Grand Slam Final.
Usually a big server and a huge hit, Ash slowly made the world’s No. 1 ball at the time. Ash won 6-1, 6-1, 5-7, 6-4, becoming the first and only black man to win the title.
But history could have been quite different if another American, Roscoe Tanner, hadn’t received Ash’s advice the night before his own semi-finals with the Connors.
“Arthur and I were playing doubles together that year,” Tanner told ESPN earlier this week. “I was playing Jimmy in the semi-finals and he was playing (Tony) Roche. I had a good record against the Connors throughout the junior, so I played him many times and knew how to play Jimmy.”
Tanner and Ash spent a lot of time on and off the court at the event that year, having dinner at the Playboy Club in Mayfair, London. “Arthur liked to go to the Playboy Club because he had a really good price for dinner,” Tanner said. “Their food was cheap but very good. So we had dinner and he went to play Blackjack, so Arthur and I were sitting for dinner.
Ash tells Tanner to give Connors “junk” and play the angle using slow balls to tell Connors to create their own pace. Unfortunately, it didn’t work for Tanner.
“So I went outside and tried to play Jimmy, but I was killed in the first two sets,” he said. “Then I started trying to play my way, and I think I lost the third in the third set (6-4). He wanted me to play softball, small angles, etc., so I didn’t play that way.
Were there any hidden agendas? Tanner beat Ash in the third round at Wimbledon the previous year, so Ash may not have liked to take him in the finals. However, Tanner, who reached the final in 1979, praised Ash for what he did against the Connors and opposed his natural game at all the biggest stages.
“Arthur was known as a big slash, a big server,” he said. “And here he’s playing this cat and mouse game. Jimmy liked to have fed your powers so it worked. But you’d better keep it away from him and attack it. That’s what Arthur was doing. My game was power and going close to his body.”
The following year, at Wimbledon, Tanner again opposed the Connors. This time he didn’t make the same mistake.
“The following year I played Jimmy in a quarter, played the game, beat him with three straight sets,” Tanner said.
