Skip to content
Arthur Ashe wins Wimbledon episode artwork

Jul 5, 2025 10 min

Arthur Ashe wins Wimbledon

from Sporting Witness Hosted by BBC World Service

It's been fifty years since Arthur Ashe beat defending champion and fellow American Jimmy Connors to become the first African-American man to win Wimbledon. The final in July 1975 was called one of the most remarkable in the history of The Championships. At 49, Ashe died from Aids-related pneumonia. His former agent, Donald Dell, spoke to Louise Hidalgo in 2011 about what his friend might have gone on to achieve. Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive and testimony. Sporting Witness is for those fascinated by sporting history. We take you to the events that have shaped the sports world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes, you become a fan in the stands as we take you back in time to examine memorable victories and agonising defeats from all over the world. You’ll hear from people who have achieved sporting immortality, or those who were there as incredible sporting moments unfolded. Recent episodes explore the forgotten football Women’s World Cup, the plasterer who fought a boxing legend, international football’s biggest ever beating and the man who swam the Amazon river. We look at the lives of some of the most famous F1 drivers, tennis players and athletes as well as people who’ve had ground-breaking impact in their chosen sporting field, including: the most decorated Paralympian, the woman who was the number 1 squash player in the world for nine years, and the first figure skater to wear a hijab. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the tennis player who escaped the Nazis, how a man finally beat a horse in a race, and how the FIFA computer game was created. (Photo: Arthur Ashe with the Wimbledon trophy. Credit:Staff/Mirrorpix/Getty Images)

Episode details come from the podcast's RSS feed.

Embed this episode

Ready to play

Arthur Ashe wins Wimbledon

0:00 10:29

No transcript yet.

Requests help us decide what to transcribe next.

Frequently asked questions

How long is this episode of Sporting Witness?

This episode is 10 minutes long.

When was this Sporting Witness episode published?

This episode was published on July 5, 2025.

Can I download this Sporting Witness episode?

Yes. Use the download control on the episode player to save the publisher-provided media file.