What famous tennis player died of AIDS on February 6, 1993?

One of the most famous tennis players of all times was Arthur Ashe. Ashe was born in 1943 and died in New York City in 1993 at the age of forty-nine years old. Even though Ashe was a well-known tennis player who must have been healthy due to being an athlete, he actually had many medical issues.

Heart disease ran rampant in his family with his mother dying at a very young age of a heart attack and his father experiencing two heart attacks in his fifties. Ashe would have several heart attacks, but he played it safe by always going to the doctor if he felt bad.

He also had a few surgeries due to his heart attacks. It was revealed that he had HIV/AIDS due to one of the blood transfusions from his surgeries.

Arthur ashe-in august of 1988, after feeling numbness in his hand, legendary tennis star arthur ashe learned that he had contracted the aids virus, presumably from a blood transfusion he had received five years earlier following a double-bypass surgery. he went public with his disease in 1992 and died the following year, on february 6, 1993, at the age of 49, from aids-related pneumonia. according to author ralph wiley, when asked if aids was the most difficult thing he had ever had to deal with, arthur ashe said, no, the hardest thing ive ever had to deal with is being a black man in this society. ashe did much to break down barriers and advance the cause of his race in tennis: he was the first black man to play for the u.s. davis cup team, the first black man to play in south africas national championship, the first black man to win a grand slam title, the first black man to win the u.s. open, and the first black man to win at wimbledon.