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I don't care who you are, you're going to choke in certain matches. You get to a point where your legs don't move and you can't take a deep breath. You start to hit the ball about a yard wide, instead of inches.

Arthur Ashe

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Arthur Ashe
Age: 49 †
Born: 1943
Born: July 10
Died: 1993
Died: February 6
Military Officer
Tennis Player
Richmond
Virginia
Arthur Robert Ashe
Jr.
Going
Move
Ball
Start
Breath
Point
Breaths
Matches
Moving
Balls
Yard
Art
Legs
Choke
Certain
Wide
Yards
Care
Deep
Inches
Take
Instead
Certainty

More quotes by Arthur Ashe

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You come to realize that life is short, and you have to step up. Don't feel sorry for me. Much is expected of those who are strong.
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A couple of times a day I sit quietly and visualize my body fighting the AIDS virus. It's the same as me sitting and seeing myself hit the perfect serve. I did that often when I was an athlete.
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You've got to make a lot of sacrifices and spend a lot of time if you really want to achieve with this sport, or in any sport, or in anything truly worthwhile.
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I guess I started too early because I just thought it was something fun to do.
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Regardless of how you feel inside, always try to look like a winner.
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This is my career highlight. Getting to the fourth round in the U.S. Open in my first year in the U.S. Open and first year on the tour.
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True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.
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I would like to flood South Africa with black personages of all sorts of persuasions: writers, educators, businessmen, you name it. If you are black and have any clout at all, I would like to see you go to South Africa and look for yourself and come back and try to use the tools that you have at your command to try and help the brothers down there.
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We must believe in the power of education. We must respect just laws. We must love ourselves, our old and or young, our women as well as our men.
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You've got to get to the stage in life where going for it is more important than winning or losing.
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Trust has to be earned, and should come only after the passage of time.
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Seven out of 10 black faces you see on television are athletes. The black athlete carries the image of the black community. He carries the cross, in a way, until blacks make inroads in other dimensions.
Arthur Ashe
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Later, I discovered there was a lot of work to being good in tennis.
Arthur Ashe
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I don't want to be remembered for my tennis accomplishments. That's no contribution to society. [Tennis] was purely selfish that was for me.
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I know I could never forgive myself if I elected to live without humane purpose, without trying to help the poor and unfortunate, without recognizing that perhaps the purest joy in life comes with trying to help others.
Arthur Ashe
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I strongly believe the black culture spends too much time, energy and effort raising, praising, and teasing our black children about the dubious glories of professional sports.
Arthur Ashe
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Always have the situation under control, even if losing. Never betray an inward sense of defeat.
Arthur Ashe
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Start where you are, use what you have.
Arthur Ashe
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In America you're conditioned to regard everything as a contest. You have to make the Ten Best Dressed List, win this, win that. It drives me nuts sometimes. Who cares, for Christ's sake?
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You really are never playing an opponent. You are playing yourself.
Arthur Ashe