September 8, 1957: Althea Gibson wins U.S. Nationals (U.S Open)
How much tennis history can you take today? The day Serena Williams and Venus Williams square off at the U.S. Open is the day in history that Althea Gibson won the first of her back-to-back U.S. National Championships (the precursor to U.S. Open). Gibson won the title on September 8, 1957.
Althea Gibson (1927-2003), a truant from the rough streets of Harlem and emerged as the unlikely queen of the highly segregated tennis world in the 1950s. She was the first African American to play and win at Wimbledon and the U.S. Nationals (precursor of the U.S. Open) — a decade before Arthur Ashe.
Watch online: Althea from American Masters.
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