Autobiography. An autobiography is the story of a person’s life, written by that person. This selection is an excerpt from Arthur Ashe’s autobiography Off the Court, which was published in 1981. In his autobiography, Ashe shares intimate details about his life and examines his own thoughts, feelings, and reactions to key events in his life. How do these personal details help the reader better understand Ashe as a person?
Description. A description gives a picture in words of a character, object, or scene. Many descriptions use sensory details—language that shows how things look, sound, smell, taste, or feel. How does Arthur Ashe use sensory details in this selection? How does he use description to bring the reader into the story?
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• Tennis, which originated in England, began to gain worldwide popularity after the first Wimbledon tournament in 1877. From its earliest days, tennis was a sport played mostly by Britain’s wealthiest people. As tennis took hold in the United States, private country clubs cropped up and became the exclusive sites of play. Membership rules at these clubs automatically excluded blacks.
• History Connection. Segregation rules were especially strict in the South, where segregation was commonplace even in the 1940s and 1950s, when Arthur Ashe was a young boy eager to join the sport. African-American tennis players could only play on courts in black sections of town and were often kept out of tournaments in which white athletes played.
• Tennis involves a variety of shots, including the serve, and forehand, backhand, and overhead strokes. Tennis is also played on various surfaces, including grass, clay, and asphalt. Each surface requires different strategies. Competition includes both singles and doubles matches (a match is made up of three to five sets; each set consists of at least six games). Because of the many skills involved, tennis is a difficult sport to master.
In this selection and the related readings that follow, you will learn about many ways in which Arthur Ashe learns about tennis and about life, as well as the insights he shares with others and the ways in which he influences others. Jot down your thoughts in a graphic organizer after finishing your reading.
What do you remember as important events or turning points in your childhood? What makes those experiences important?
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