On the second of two occasions when he had the privilege of a conversation with Arthur Ashe, MaliVai Washington, having just become the country’s No. 1 college player as a Michigan sophomore in 1989, happened to mention that he was thinking of turning pro.
Ashe did not exactly tell him what he wanted to hear.
“I don’t think he thought it was a very good idea,” Washington said.
Ashe won the first United States Open at the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills 50 years ago to the day of Sunday’s men’s final, to be played in a stadium named for him.