Fred Perry
Frederick Towersey Perry was a British tennis and table tennis player and former world No. 1. He won 10 Majors, including eight Grand Slam tournaments and two Pro Slams single titles, as well as six Major doubles titles. Perry was the first player to win a "Career Grand Slam", lifting all four singles titles, which he completed at the age of 26 at the 1935 French Championships. He remains the only British player to achieve this feat.
He won three consecutive Wimbledon Championships from 1934 to 1936 and was world amateur No. 1 player during those three years. Prior to Andy Murray in 2013, Perry was the last British player to win the men's Wimbledon championship and the last British player to win a men's singles Grand Slam title until Andy Murray won the 2012 US Open.
Perry's first love was table tennis and he was World Champion in 1929. He began playing tennis aged 14 and his tennis career at 21, when in 1930 an LTA committee chose him to join a four-man team to tour the United States. In 1933, Perry helped lead the Great Britain team to victory over France in the Davis Cup; the team's first success since 1912, followed by wins over the United States in 1934, 1935, and a fourth consecutive title with victory over Australia in 1936. However, due to his disillusionment with the class-conscious nature of the Lawn Tennis Club of Great Britain, the working-class Perry turned professional at the end of the 1936 season and moved to the United States where he became a naturalised U.S. citizen in 1939. In 1942, he was drafted into the US Army Air Force during the Second World War. After retirement, he founded the clothing label Fred Perry in London in 1952. He also had a career in broadcasting, working as a tennis summariser and reporter for BBC Radio from 1959 to 1994.
Despite his unprecedented contribution to British tennis, Perry was not accorded full recognition by tennis authorities until later in life, because between 1927 and 1967 the International Lawn Tennis Federation ignored amateur champions who later turned professional. In 1984, a statue of Perry was unveiled at Wimbledon, and in the same year he became the only tennis player listed in a survey of 2,000 Britons to find the "Best of the Best" British sportsmen of the 20th century.
Early life
Perry was born in 1909 in Stockport, where his father, Samuel Perry, was a cotton spinner. For the first decade of his life, he also lived in Bolton, Lancashire, and Wallasey, Cheshire, because his father was involved in local politics. When living in Wallasey he attended Liscard Primary School and, briefly, Wallasey Grammar School. Perry moved to Brentham Garden Suburb in Ealing, west London aged eleven years when his father became the national secretary of the Co-operative Party after World War I. His father became the Labour and Co-operative Party Member of Parliament for Kettering in 1929.Perry first began to play tennis on the public courts near his family's housing estate. He was educated at Ealing Grammar School for Boys.
Table tennis career
"Perry took advantage of his athletic build and extraordinary physical capacity: he was highly mobile and fast, had a sound defence and placed his balls very well. Thanks to his very strong wrist he could hit a very hard forehand drive". Perry reached the quarter-finals of the men's singles in the 1928 Stockholm World championships, where he lost to Laszlo Bellak. He was runner-up in the men's doubles with Charlie Bull. In 1929 Perry lost to Bull in the Czechoslovak Open and lost to Anton Malacek in the English Open. At the Budapest World championships men's singles event, Perry beat Miklós Szabados 3 games to 1 to win the title. He beat Szabados again in an exhibition in Paris. His final table tennis appearance was in 1932, in a team match in London against Hungary.Amateur tennis career
During his amateur playing career Perry trained with Arsenal football club to focus on his fitness.1927–30
Perry was an eighteen year old table tennis prodigy when he began his tennis career. He reached several quarter finals of tennis events in the London area at Herga club in Harrow, Blackheath, Fulham and Ealing. He also reached the semi-finals at New Malden. Perry reached the semi-finals at the Herga club tournament in Harrow in July. He also reached the semi-finals of the Sidmouth tournament in September.In 1929, a year when Perry won the World Table tennis championships, he continued his tennis career. He won the New Malden championships in August beating Wilfred Freeman in the final. He also won Queen's Evening Tournament in December in Queen's Club, London, beating Horace Lester in the final. Perry won the Middlesex championships in May beating Madan Mohan in the final and the same month won the Harrogate championships beating John Olliff in the final. In November, Perry beat Eric Peters in the final of the Argentine championships in Buenos Aires.
1931
In April, Perry beat Ryuki Miki in the final of the Paddington championships in London. In August, Perry won the Eastern grasscourt championships in Rye, New York beating Cliff Sutter in the semis and J. Gilbert Hall in the final. In November, Perry beat Olliff in the final of the Cromer covered court autumn championships.1932
In January, Perry won the Coupe de Noel in Paris beating Marcel Bernard and Jean Borotra. The following week, Perry beat Bernard in the final of the Flanders club event in Roubaix. In February, Perry beat Pat Hughes in the final of the Kingston championships in Jamaica. Then Perry beat Harry Lee in the final of the Bermuda championships. Soon after returning to the UK in March, Perry beat Lee in the final of the Tally-Ho! Open Tennis Championships in Birmingham. In April, Perry came from two sets down to beat George Lyttleton Rogers in the final of the British Hard Court Championships in Bournemouth. In May, Perry beat William Powell in the final of Harrogate championships. In July, Perry won the Herga Club tournament beating Takeo Kuwabara in the final. In September at the Pacific Southwest championships, Perry was 5–2 down in the final set and saved three match points before winning an epic quarter final 12–10 in the final set against Keith Gledhill. He went on to beat Satoh to take the title. Perry won the Pacific coast championships in October beating Bunny Austin in the final.1933
In May, Perry won the British hard court championships in Bournemouth over Adrian Quist, Lee and Austin in the final three rounds. Perry denied Crawford the calendar Grand Slam and won his first Grand Slam title at the U.S. Championships. Crawford had a bad knee and "the Australian had to play a limping game at times on any quick starts or hard gets. In spite of this the tennis Fred Perry played deserved the title. He had the heart and used his head. His forcing strokes kept Crawford worried all afternoon. At any rate, leading two sets to one, Crawford had nothing left for the last two sets" according to The Hartford Courant. In September, Perry won the Pacific Southwest championships beating Satoh in four sets in the final. In November, whilst touring Australia, Perry played in the Victorian championships in Melbourne and beat Harry Hopman and Jack Crawford to take the title.1934
Perry beat Crawford in the final of the Australian championships in January and the British Hard Court Championships in Bournemouth in May. Perry won his first Wimbledon title beating defending champion Crawford in the final. Perry's success attracted the adoration of the crowds at Wimbledon particularly as he contrasted sharply with the privileged background of most patrons and players associated with the All England Club at the time. The upper echelons of the British tennis establishment greeted his success more coolly, regarding him as an "upstart". After winning his maiden Wimbledon title, Perry recalled overhearing a Wimbledon committee member remark that "the best man didn't win." His All-England Club member's tie, awarded to all winners of the Championships, was left for him on a chair in his dressing room. Perry faced Wilmer Allison in the final of the U.S. Championships and when Perry led 5–2 in the fifth set "the crowd sighed in unison and looked toward the exits, but the Texan still wasn't through. He ripped to the net after his service balls to win one at love, and then he broke through Perry in the ninth. Allison held his own service in the 10th game and the count was five-all". However, Perry took the set and match 8–6. Perry beat Stoefen in the final of the Pacific Southwest championships in September. Perry beat Don Budge in five sets in the final of the Pacific Coast championships in October. Perry won "without going to the net more than a half dozen times in 50 games and when it was all over Budge had scored more points than his adversary, made fewer errors and many more placements". Perry was ranked World No. 1 amateur by A. Wallis Myers, Pierre Gillou, Bernard Brown, John R. Tunis, Bill Tilden, Ned Potter, G.H. McElhone, Harry Hopman, R.O. Cummings, and J. Brookes Fenno, Jr.1935
Perry beat Abel Kay in the final of the New Zealand championships in January. Perry beat Austin in five sets in the final of the British Hard Court Championships in May. Perry won the French championships in June to become the first man to win all four Grand Slam singles titles. In the final he beat Gottfried von Cramm in four sets. "The two hours final was conducted in perfect composure. It was essentially a sporting match, exhibiting beautiful tennis but lacking drama, because, after the second set. it was obvious that von Cramm could not pierce Perry's armour" according to a newspaper article. Perry beat Hermann Artens in the final of the Belgian championships in Brussels in June. Perry retained his Wimbledon title beating von Cramm in the final. "The German didn't like Perry's speed today. Nor did he care for the Englishman's eternal hustle which forced him to hurry his shots. Perry stayed close to the baseline save in the second set, for he saw that he could triumph without going to the net, thus exposing his wings to the German's favorite shot a razor-like drive down the sidelines." Perry was ranked World No. 1 amateur by A. Wallis Myers,S. Wallis Merrihew,
Pierre Gillou,
Harry Hopman,
Ned Potter,
G. H. McElhone,
The Times and
"Forehand".