Actually, the former home run king actually met Ashe a few times during their storied careers.

“I met Arthur twice,” said Aaron, who was honored along with former USTA president Judy Lavering and AT&T CEO Ralph de la Vega. “Once when he was about to do a television show with my wife. She used to do a television show in Atlanta. And then I met him in Milwaukee, but I read so many things about him, I knew I admired him and what he stood for. He was an example of what I always wanted to be in my life.”

Aaron sees Ashe as a mirror to his own career. When he came up to the Milwaukee Braves back in 1954, he experienced the same racism as the former US Open Champion did in the 1960s. “I think he handled it some of the same,” he said.  “I would say Arthur Ashe, Althea Gibson almost had the same kind of reaction as Jackie [Robinson] and me or everyone with some color.”

Things on the racial front have gotten better according to Aaron, but he does feel that there is still room to improve.

“One of the things that bothers me is that after Jackie Robinson broke in 1947, we had so many American blacks playing baseball,” he said. “It’s not that case anymore. It seems like it has gone backwards and it’s gone the other way around. Had things had gotten better, yes. We can stay in the hotels we want to stay at and we can go wherever we want to go. But if you don’t have the money, then you don’t have the money to do those things.”

Of course there are reasons for it. Economics for one, according to Aaron, as young African Americans are choosing to go the quicker money in football and basketball, rather risk a longer career in baseball. So, he feels baseball needs to get the message out and get more and more athletes playing the sport.

The same holds true for tennis, but events like tonight’s, of course improve the sport’s standing in the community.

And maybe one day Aaron will see another African American champion on at the US Open. Although James Blake was the sport’s top player, he never won the big match.

For now, though, Aaron will enjoy the game as it is. A follower of the sport since John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg had their epic battles in the last 1970s and early 1980s; Aaron likes Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal to meet in the finals during this tournament, and is a real big fan of Kim Clijsters.

“She showed that she can weather some adversity when she went to have her family and now she’s back and on top,” he said. “I wish her all the luck in the world.”

Fitting words from a fitting honoree.

“You know, if I was a spectator today, I would have rather watched more tennis as well,” Murray said. “You kind of understand why they do it, but the atmosphere was still awesome. They know tennis here. When there was good points, they applauded for both. Obviously they wanted to see more tennis, which was fine by me. By the end of the match, I thought it was pretty even, you know, and obviously finished off well.”

Actually it went very well for the 21 year-old Brit. Up 2 sets to Love but down a break in the third, he was able to finish off Nadal with a 6–2, 7–6(5), 4–6, 6–4 win to advance him to his first Grand Slam Finals.

When the match resumed, Nadal and Murray were both able to stay on serve after Murray was broken yesterday in the third. It resulted in a Nadal win.

“The momentum was kind of with him a little bit in the third set,” Murray said. “He held serve easy the first couple of games, and I don’t think either of us dropped a point maybe the first couple of service games. So, you know, I just had to try and stay aggressive, you know, stay focused. I knew, because of the wind from the far side of the court from where we came out, it’s much easier to return from that end, and I knew I was going to have some chances, so I had to just try and stay focused on that.”

Things changed in the fourth. Up 1-0, Murray had a double break point and seven overall in the 8-deuce second game, but couldn’t close out the No. 1 seed, keeping the match on serve. But Murray was able to come back against Nadal as the Arthur Ashe crowd started cheering for the Scottish national as he shut down the Spaniard later in the match.

“It was quite windy out there as well,” said Murray, whose best finish before the Open was fourth round. Obviously yesterday the conditions were pretty heavy, very humid. Today it was very windy on the court. The ball was flying through the air a bit more. I just had to try and stay calm. I thought I was playing well enough to win the match, but I knew Nadal was going to come at me. There was a few sort of ups and downs even though it was a very short time we were out on the court, but I managed to come through in the end.”

Murray will now face Roger Federer later on today. Lifetime he is 3-1 against the Swiss master, but won’t go into the match too overconfident.

“I’ve played well against [Federer] in the past,” he said. “I think a Slam final is different to the match that I played against him before. You know, he’s obviously won, you know, over 30 matches in a row here, you know, so he’s obviously going to be feeling confident going in. He’s got loads of experience in these situations and it’s something new for me. I know I’m going to have to play great to have a chance of winning, but I’ve played well the last couple of weeks.”