Dutch tennis player Jean-Julien Rojer wore a shirt showing the Statue of liberty while winning the US Open men's doubles championship on Friday to send what he called a message about peace and freedom in the aftermath of last month's violence at a rally of neo-Nazis and white nationalists in Charlottseville, Virginia.
"I just wanted to have the conversation going (by) promoting ... freedom and justice, liberty, for everybody on gender issues, on racial issues, which we deal a lot with in this country," said Rojer, who was born in Curacao, Netherlands Antilles, and moved to Florida when he was 12 to work with a private coach. I feel in tennis we don't say much about it, but this is just tennis," Rojer said. "We deal with real life issues out there."
Rojer and his doubles partner, Horia Tecau of Romania, won their first title at Flushing Meadows by beating the 11th-seeded Spaniards Feliciano lopez and Marc lopez 6-4, 6-3 in the Final.
During the on-court trophy ceremony in Arthur Ashe Stadium, Rojer spoke about his yellow T-shirt with a black-and-white image of the Statue of liberty and red, white and blue stripes across the chest. He said it's part of a clothing line made by a friend of his.
"The idea came after the tragic incident in Charlottesville, and we came up with this line, promoting peace and freedom and liberty," Rojer said. "Hopefully we're moving in that direction. I've been here since I'm 12 years old and I'm happy they let me in and I got to do my job here. So hopefully we will create those opportunities for everybody."