He was hemophilic. Because of this he needed frequent blood transfusions. Arthur used to have a lot of heart attacks. A few months after his first bypass surgery, he was on the verge of returning to professional tennis. However, at a family trip, he developed chest pain while running. He had to get another heart surgery. A few years after his second heart surgery, he fell ill frequently. He was dying of AIDS which he got due to infected blood he received during the second heart surgery in 1983.
From world over, he received letters from his fans, one of which conveyed: "Why does God have to select you for such a bad disease? Why you?"
To this Arthur Ashe replied, "The world over, 5 crore children start playing tennis, 50 lakh learn to play tennis, 5 lakh learn professional tennis, 50,000 come to the circuit, 5000 reach the grand slam, 50 reach Wimbledon, 4 to semi-finals, and only 2 to the finals. When I was holding a cup I never asked GOD 'Why me?' And today in pain I should not be asking GOD 'Why me?' If I were to say, "God, why me?" about the bad things, then I should have said, "God, why me?" about the good things that happened in my life."
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