Doing it with style: Fred Perry swings for a backhand at Wimbledon in 1934
Until Andy Murray's gutsy win over Novak Djokovic in New York today,
no British tennis player had won a Grand Slam title since Fred Perry in
1936.
All-time great Perry, from Stockport, Cheshire, dominated the game in
his day. In his career he took 10 major titles including eight Grand
Slams and two Pro Slams - winning Wimbledon three years in a row.
Perry was the first player to win all four Grand Slam titles -
although not in the same year - and completed his Career Grand Slam by
the age of 26.
He remains the only British player to have ever achieved this
accolade, and is also the only player in history to have won Major
tournaments in both tennis and table tennis.
But despite acclaim across the world, Perry was ostracised by British
tennis establishment when he turned professional after completing his
Wimbledon hat-trick.
The working class sports hero ended up leaving the UK for the U.S.
after becoming disillusioned with the class-conscious nature of the Lawn
Tennis Club of Great Britain.
The son of a cotton-spinner turned Co-operative Party politician,
Perry first began to play tennis on public courts near the housing
estate his family moved to in Ealing, West London.
His first sporting successes came in the World Table Tennis
Championships of 1928-29, where he won several medals in the single,
double and team events. In 1929 he was crowned world table tennis champion.
Along with the US, French and Australian championships, Perry won the
Wimbledon men's title three times in succession between 1934 and 1936.
His final triumph was a 6-1, 6-1, 6-0 victory over the aristocratic
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.
In
the Davis Cup, Perry led the Great Britain team to four consecutive
victories between 1933-1936, with wins over France in 1933, the U.S. 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.
Because
of his legendary status, Perry's shadow has long hung over British
tennis. Jack Kramer, Perry's biographer and a great player himself,
calls the British legend one of the six greatest players of all time.
However,
Mr Kramer nonetheless accuses Perry of unwittingly screwing up men's
tennis in the UK. 'The way he could hit a forehand—snap it off like a
ping-pong shot—Perry was a physical freak,' Kramer said.
'Nobody
else could be taught to hit a shot that way. But the kids over there
copied Perry's style, and it ruined them. Even after Perry faded out of
the picture, the coaches there must have kept using him as a model.'
Perry's success attracted the adoration of the crowds at Wimbledon,
with his background in sharp contrast to the privilege enjoyed by most
patrons and players associated with the All England Club at that time.
One of the Thirties' leading bachelors, Perry's romances were sensationalised in the world's media.
He had a dalliances with the actresses Marlene Dietrich and Mary
Lawson, and in 1935 had his first of four marriages to U.S. movie star
Helen Vinson. Perry's final marriage to Barbara Riese in 1952 last 40 years, until his death in 1995.
