The gold paint on the winners' boards at the Ellis Park tennis stadium in Johannesburg sparkles with names of the greats: Rod Laver, Jimmy Connors, Margaret Court, Billie Jean King and many more.

Yet an air of neglect cloaks the clubhouse, where dust coats the counter and booths in "The Tennis Bar," with its big window overlooking the old center court.

Ellis Park, once the temple of South African tennis, hosted celebrity-studded stops on the international circuit despite intensifying global protests aimed at isolating the white minority rulers of the time. In 1974, Connors triumphed at the US Open and then beat Arthur Ashe in a South African final for the second consecutive year.