Top 10 African-American Tennis Players of All Time

#8 MaliVai Washington

MaliVai Washington at the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championship

MaliVai Washington was an American tennis player who was part of the ATP Tour in the 1990's. In a 10-year career, he won 11 ATP titles and achieved a career-high ranking of World Number 11.

He reached his first Grand Slam quarterfinal at the Australian Open 1994 notching up wins over top-ranked players Michael Stich and Mats Wilander. His only chance to win a Grand Slam came at the Wimbledon final of 1996 where he finished runner-up to Dutchman Richard Krajicek. In his run to the final, he spectacularly came back from 1-5 down in the 5th set of the semi-final against Todd Martin to take the match.

In 2009 Washington won the 'ATP Arthur Ashe Humanitarian of The Year' Award for his influential work through the MaliVai Washington Youth Foundation. Years after retirement, he is still contributing towards nurturing young tennis talent among the less privileged members of the society.