BHm -Sport/sportspeople No 41 Fred Perry (1805 1909-0202 1995) Lawn tennis player A championship-winning English tennis and table tennis player who won 10 Majors including eight Grand Slams and two Pro Slams. Perry won three consecutive Wimbledon Championships from 1934 to 1936 and was World Amateur number one tennis player during those three years. Prior to Andy Murray in 2013, Perry was the last British player to win the mens Wimbledon championship, in 1936 and was the last British player to win a mens singles Grand Slam title until Andy Murray won the 2012 US Open. Perry was the first player to win all 4 Grand Slam singles titles (though not all in the same year) and completed this Career Grand Slam at the age of 26, remaining the only British player ever to achieve this Although Perry began his tennis career aged 18, he was also a Table Tennis World Champion in 1929. In 1933, Perry helped lead the Great Britain team to victory over France in the Davis Cup; the teams 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. From 1927 to 1967, the International Lawn Tennis Federation, treated all amateur champions as though they no longer existed, from the moment they turned professional. Perry, who turned pro at the end of the 1936 season, suffered the same fate. Only in 1968, with the introduction of Open Tennis did this state of affairs come to an end. After becoming disillusioned with the class-conscious nature of the Lawn Tennis Club of Great Britain, the working-class Perry moved to the United States before becoming a naturalised US citizen in 1938. In 1942, he was drafted into the US Air Force during the Second World War. Despite his unprecedented contribution to British tennis, Perry was not accorded full recognition by tennis authorities until his twilight years. In 1984, a statue of Perry was unveiled at Wimbledon, and in the same year Perry 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. . Perry was born in Stockport, Greater Manchester in 1909 where his father, Samuel Perry (1877–1954), was a cotton spinner. For the first decade of his life, he also lived in Bolton, Lancashire, and Wallasey, Merseyside, because his father was involved in local politics. When living in Wallasey he attended Liscard Primary School. Perry moved to Brentham Garden Suburb in Ealing, west London aged nine when his father became the national secretary of the Co-operative Party after World War I. His father became the Co-operative Party Member of Parliament for Kettering in 1929. Perry first began to play tennis on the public courts near his familys housing estate. He was educated at Ealing Grammar School for Boys. Amateur status Fred Perry Grand Slam record In 1928–29, Perry won several medals in the single, double and team events in the World Table Tennis Championships. He had exceptional speed and played with the Shakehand style, attacking the ball low and on the rise. Along with the US, French and Australian Amateur championships, Perry won the Wimbledon mens title three times in succession between 1934 and 1936. His final triumph was a 6–1, 6–1, 6–0 victory over the German Baron Gottfried von Cramm which lasted less than 45 minutes. It became the quickest final in the 20th century and the second shortest of all time. Perry had been able to pick up the information from the Wimbledon masseur that von Cramm had been treated for a groin strain and was as a result having difficulty moving wide on the forehand. Perrys 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 didnt win. His All England Club members tie, awarded to all winners of the Championships, was left for him on a chair in his dressing room.[10] In the Davis Cup, Perry led the Great Britain team to four consecutive victories from 1933 to 1936, with wins over France in 1933, the United States in 1934 and 1935, and Australia in 1936. Perry competed in a total of 20 Davis Cup matches, winning 34 of his 38 rubbers in singles, and 11 out of 14 in doubles.[4] Professional career After three years as the world No. 1 tennis amateur player, Perry turned professional in late 1936. This led to his being virtually ostracised by the British tennis establishment.For the next two years he played lengthy tours against the best professional player, Ellsworth Vines. In 1937, they played 61 matches in the United States on their big tour, with Vines winning 32 and Perry 29. They then sailed to Britain, where they played a brief tour. Perry won six matches out of nine, so they finished the year tied at 35 victories each. The following year, 1938, the big tour was even longer, and this time Vines beat Perry 49 matches to 35, while the short British tour ended at four victories a piece. Don Budge won the Grand Slam in 1938 as an amateur and then turned professional and played a series of matches against both Vines and Perry in 1939, beating Vines 22 times to 17, and beating Perry by 28 victories to 8. Perry also won the US Pro title in 1938 and 1941, held in Chicago in both those years. Personal life[edit] Perry was one of the leading bachelors of the 1930s and his off-court romances were sensationalised in the world press. Perry had a romantic relationship with the actress Marlene Dietrich and in 1934 he announced his engagement to the British actress Mary Lawson, but the relationship fell apart after Perry moved to America. In 1935 he married an American film star Helen Vinson, but their marriage ended in divorce in 1940. In 1941 he was briefly married to a model, Sandra Breaux. Then, in 1945, he married Lorraine Walsh, but that marriage also ended quickly. Perrys final marriage to Barbara Riese in 1952 lasted over forty years, until his death. They had two children Penny and David. The sister of Barbara (Bobby) Riese was the actress Patricia Roc. Perry had an older sister Edith, they were both born in Stockport, Cheshire. Edith greatly supported her younger brother throughout his sporting achievements and passed her sporting enthusiasm on to both her sons Walter and Colin; and to Colin’s son Stefan Kerr who now lives in Denmark. Perry had a half sister, Sylvia, and has a great-nephew and great-niece, Daniel and Laura Nightingale Perry died in a hospital in Melbourne, Australia after breaking his ribs following a fall in a hotel bathroom. A statue of Fred Perry at the All England Lawn Tennis Club in Wimbledon Perry is considered by some to have been one of the greatest male players ever to have played the game. In his 1979 autobiography Jack Kramer, the long-time tennis promoter and great player himself, called Perry one of the six greatest players of all time
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 11:02:55 +0000
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