Arthur Ashe memorial sculpture to be unveiled

(CNN) -- The United States Tennis Association plans to unveil a bronze sculpture in memory of tennis champion and humanitarian Arthur Ashe later this month.

The event is scheduled to take place at the Arthur Ashe Stadium at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing, New York, on August 28, the first day of the 2000 US Open.

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Artist Eric Fischl, an avid tennis player and admirer of Ashe, designed the monument, a 14-foot-high nude figure standing in the position of a tennis serve. It will stand near the stadium entrance at in the center of the Arthur Ashe Commemorative Garden.

A plaque accompanies the statue, featuring Ashe's own words: "From what we get, we make a living; what we give, however, makes a life."

Ashe was the first eminent black male tennis player. His list of accomplishments include five Grand Slam titles (three in singles, two in doubles); a win at the US Open in 1968; and victory at Wimbledon in 1975.

Off the court, he worked as an activist for human rights and AIDS, the disease that killed him in 1993. He contracted HIV from a blood transfusion during heart surgery in 1979.

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July 11, 1996

United States Tennis Association

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