Nude 'Ashe' raises racket at U.S. Open

The statue honoring Ashe, framed by the Unisphere monument, stands at the entrance to the USTA National Tennis Center in the Queens borough of New York

From Deborah Feyerick
CNN Correspondent

NEW YORK -- A 14-foot-high nude statue has caused as much consternation at this year's U.S. Open in New York as some of the line calls at center court.

The statue, called "Soul in Flight" and intended to represent the late Arthur Ashe's life and achievement, stands at the main entrance to Arthur Ashe Stadium, the centerpiece of the National Tennis Center. It depicts a man reminiscent of Ashe -- but in the nude -- in a pose reminiscent of tennis.

The sculpted figure may not be raising what is promptly recognizable as a tennis racket, but its nudity has not failed to raise a racket of another sort.

A number of people have started a petition to have the statue removed, calling it a sexual monstrosity.

So far they've collected more than 400 signatures.

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The United States Tennis Association, which approved the monument, calls it an appropriate and timeless way to remember the tennis legend.

According to the association, Ashe's widow selected the work from among 12 finalists.

"She didn't want it to look like her husband," said USTA President Judy Levering. "That was one of the things she said from the beginning. She did not want a likeness. She wanted it to portray what her husband did and what he was."

A few tennis fans were appreciative of the statue's symbolic power, with one comparing its "strength" to Michelangelo's "David." But many others were derisory, noting that Ashe was not as muscular, nor did he play naked.

"I think I would have thrown a little tennis outfit on, maybe, if I was the sculptor," one woman said.

And many could not make out that the figure is holding an object that the artist says he intended to be partly a tennis racket and partly a torch being passed to future generations.

"This kind of sweeping upward movement had this inspirational feeling to it," said artist Eric Fischl, "a kind of power and sense of ambition and clarity and focus that I thought were apropos in honoring him."

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