O ne summer afternoon at the Queen’s Club in London, where the final pre-Wimbledon, grass-court warm-up tournament took place, Arthur Ashe sat next to Australian great John Newcombe in the clubhouse for a meeting of all the top players. It was June of 1968, the beginning of the “open era” of tennis, in which professionals and amateurs could compete against each other.
https://timeline.com/arthur-ashe-south-africa-99c415a6aee2