Frederick John Perry was a British tennis and table tennis player and former world No 1 from England who won 10 Majors including eight Grand Slam tournaments and two Pro Slams single titles, as well as six Major doubles titles.
65 Facts About Fred Perry
2.
Fred Perry remains the last English player to win a men's singles Grand Slam title.
3.
Fred Perry was the first player to win a "Career Grand Slam", winning all four singles titles, which he completed at the age of 26 at the 1935 French Championships.
4.
Fred Perry remains the only British player ever to achieve this.
5.
Fred Perry 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.
6.
In 1933, Fred 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.
7.
In 1984, a statue of Fred 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.
8.
Fred Perry was born in 1909 in Stockport, where his father, Samuel Fred Perry, was a cotton spinner.
9.
Fred Perry first began to play tennis on the public courts near his family's housing estate.
10.
Fred Perry was an eighteen year old table tennis protege when he began his tennis career.
11.
Fred Perry reached several quarter finals of tennis events in the London area at Herga club in Harrow, Blackheath, Fulham and Ealing.
12.
In 1929, a year when Fred Perry won the World Table tennis championships, he continued his tennis career.
13.
Fred Perry went on to beat Satoh to take the title.
14.
Fred Perry denied Crawford the calendar Grand Slam and won his first Grand Slam title at the US Championships.
15.
In spite of this the tennis Fred Perry played deserved the title.
16.
Fred 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.
17.
Fred Perry ripped to the net after his service balls to win one at love, and then he broke through Perry in the ninth.
18.
Fred 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".
19.
Fred Perry retained his Wimbledon title beating von Cramm in the final.
20.
Fred 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.
21.
Fred Perry beat Max Ellmer in the final of two Cannes championship titles.
22.
Fred 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.
23.
Fred Perry faced Budge in the final of the US Championships.
24.
Fred 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.
25.
Fred Perry made his professional debut on 6 January 1937 at the Madison Square Garden against the best professional player, Ellsworth Vines, winning in four sets.
26.
Fred Perry won the King George VI Coronation Cup over Vines.
27.
Fred Perry won six matches out of nine in UK and Ireland, so Vines and Fred Perry finished the year tied at 35 victories each.
28.
Fred Perry won the US Pro at Chicago beating Bruce Barnes in the final.
29.
Fred Perry lost in the final of the US Pro in Chicago to Budge.
30.
In 1946, Fred Perry won events at Tucson in January, Omaha in February, Palm Springs in April and El Paso in May.
31.
Fred Perry assessed Petra's game while losing the first set of the final and won the next three for the loss of seven games.
32.
Fred Perry won the Slazenger Pro at Scarborough in August 1950, beating Salem Khaled in the final.
33.
Fred Perry won a tournament at Hagen in September 1953 beating fellow veteran Hans Nusslein in the final.
34.
Fred Perry continued playing until he was 50 in 1959, when he lost in the first round of the US Pro at Cleveland.
35.
Fred Perry reached the quarter-finals of the men's singles in the 1928 Stockholm World championships, where he lost to Laszlo Bellak.
36.
Fred Perry was runner-up in the men's doubles with Charlie Bull.
37.
In 1929 Fred Perry lost to Bull in the Czechoslovak Open and lost to Anton Malacek in the English Open.
38.
At the Budapest World championships men's singles event, Fred Perry beat Miklos Szabados 3 games to 1 to win the title.
39.
Fred Perry beat Szabados again in an exhibition in Paris.
40.
Fred Perry had a long career as a tennis broadcaster.
41.
Fred Perry worked as a summariser and reporter for BBC Radio from 1959 to 1994 and for many years was a familiar voice during BBC radio's coverage of Wimbledon.
42.
Fred Perry commentated on TV on the BBC from 1951 to 1952 and ITV's coverage of Wimbledon from 1956 to 1968, after which ITV stopped broadcasting the championships.
43.
In later years, Fred Perry was sometimes interviewed by BBC Television during their Wimbledon coverage.
44.
In 1979 Fred Perry spoke to Des Lynam at Wimbledon about his life in an episode of the TV series "Maestro".
45.
Fred Perry was one of the leading bachelors of the 1930s and his off-court romances were reported in the world press.
46.
Fred Perry had a romantic relationship with actress Marlene Dietrich and in 1934 he announced his engagement to British actress Mary Lawson, but the relationship fell apart after Fred Perry moved to the US.
47.
Fred Perry had an older sister, Edith; they were both born in Stockport, Cheshire.
48.
Fred Perry died at Epworth Hospital in Melbourne, Australia, after breaking his ribs following a fall in a hotel bathroom.
49.
Fred Perry is considered by some to have been one of the greatest players ever to have played the game.
50.
In 100 Greatest of All Time, a 2012 television series broadcast by the Tennis Channel, Fred Perry was ranked the 15th-greatest male player, just behind Boris Becker at 14th, and just ahead of Stefan Edberg at 16th.
51.
Fred Perry says that Bill Tilden once called Perry "the world's worst good player".
52.
Whenever an opponent would make an especially good shot, Fred Perry would cry out 'Very clevah.
53.
Fred Perry recalled his days on the professional tour differently.
54.
Fred Perry made a few changes to create the first sweatband.
55.
The logo, which appears on the left breast of Fred Perry garments, is stitched into the fabric of the shirt.
56.
However, the Fred Perry family continued to work closely with the brand.
57.
From September 2019, Fred Perry stopped selling its black and yellow polo shirts across North America after they became the "unofficial uniform" of the far-right organisation Proud Boys, and called on Proud Boys members to stop wearing their clothing.
58.
In September 2002, a designated walking route called the Fred Perry Way was opened through the Metropolitan Borough of Stockport.
59.
The route passes through Woodbank Park, where Fred Perry played some exhibition tennis matches.
60.
In 2009, Fred Perry was selected by the Royal Mail for their "Eminent Britons" commemorative postage stamp issue.
61.
In November 2010, Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex and John Perry, Fred Perry's grandson, opened Fred Perry House in Stockport.
62.
In June 2012, an English Heritage blue plaque was unveiled on the house at 223 Pitshanger Lane, Ealing, London, where Fred Perry lived between 1919 and 1935.
63.
Fred Perry was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1975.
64.
Fred Perry received a Doctor of Laws degree, honoris causa, from Washington and Lee University on 4 June 1987.
65.
Fred Perry joined professional tennis in 1937 and was unable to compete in the Grand Slams tournaments.