Remembering the 1976 Lagos Tennis Classic

In 1976, World Championship Tennis introduced a new tournament in Lagos, Nigeria, the first pro tournament in Black Africa. Unfortunately, the timing coincided with a devastating political assassination and attempted coup d’état. Arthur Ashe, along with other players such as Jeff Borowiak, Bob Lutz, Tom Okker, Stan Smith, and Dick Stockton there to compete in the tournament, found themselves in the middle of much more than they had bargained for. Read Olaojo Aiyegbayo’s account of how events unfurled here.

Read Ashe’s contemporaneous comments about what happened in Jet Magazine here.