WIMBLEDON, England — Arthur Ashe’s famous victory over Jimmy Connors in the 1975 Wimbledon final will go down in history as perhaps the best tactical display in a Grand Slam final.
Usually a big server and big hitter, Ashe slow-balled the then world No. 1, using his slice cleverly to deny Connors the pace he loved. Ashe won 6-1, 6-1, 5-7, 6-4 to become the first and only Black man to win the title.
But history could have been quite different had another American player, Roscoe Tanner, not taken Ashe’s advice on the eve of his own semifinal with Connors.
“Arthur and I were playing doubles together that year,” Tanner told ESPN earlier this week. “I was playing Jimmy in the semis and he was playing [Tony] Roche. I had a good record against Connors all through the juniors, so I’d played him tons of times and I knew how I played Jimmy.”
Tanner and Ashe spent a lot of time together at that year’s event, on and off the court, even having dinner at the Playboy Club in London’s Mayfair. “Arthur used to like to go to the Playboy Club because they had really good prices on dinner,” Tanner said. “Their food was cheap but very good. So we’d go have dinner and then he’d go play blackjack. So Arthur and I are sitting at dinner, and he’s telling me how to play Connors, and I’m listening.”
Ashe told Tanner to give Connors some “junk,” use slow balls and play angles so that Connors would have to create his own pace, something he was uncomfortable doing. Unfortunately for Tanner, it didn’t work.
“So I went out and tried to play his way against Jimmy and in the first two sets, I got killed,” he said. “Then I started trying to play my way, and I think I lost the third, in a close set [6-4]. He wanted me to play softballs, little angles, all this, and I don’t play that way. I did that but I was down two sets so quickly.”
Could there have been a hidden agenda? Tanner had beaten Ashe in the third round at Wimbledon the year before, so maybe Ashe did not fancy taking him on in the final. But Tanner, who went on to reach the final in 1979, had nothing but praise for what Ashe did against Connors, going against his natural game on the biggest stage of all.
“Arthur was known as a big slasher, big server,” he said. “And here he’s playing this cat and mouse game, and it worked because Jimmy likes to feed off of your power. But you’d better be hitting it sort of down and away from him. That’s what Arthur was doing. My game was to go with power, to go in close to the body.”
The following year at Wimbledon, Tanner found himself against Connors again. This time, he did not make the same mistake.
“The next year, I played Jimmy in the quarters, playing my game, and I beat him in three straight sets,” Tanner said.
