Frederick John Perry

Frederick John Perry (May 18, 1909 - February 2,
1995) was an English tennis player
and three-time Wimbledon Championships. Born in Stockport, Cheshire, England,
his father was elected to the British House of
Commons as a Labour Party
member.


==Early successes==
Perry was a table tennis world champion before
taking up tennis at the relatively late age of 18.
He had exceptional speed from his table tennis
days and played with the Continental grip,
attacking the ball low and on the rise. He was the
first player to win all four Grand Slam singles titles, though not all
in the same year, and the first player to win
those four titles consecutively (although once
again not in the same year). He has acheived the Career Grand
Slam, doing so at the age of 26. Perry is the last
British player to win the Wimbledon men's singles
title, winning it three times in a row and
becoming an English icon.


In 1933 Perry helped lead his team to victory over
France in the Davis Cup, which earned Great
Britain the Davis Cup for the first time in 21
years.


==Sporting legacy==
Perry is considered by some to have been one of
the greatest male players to have ever played the
game. Kings of the Court, a video-tape documentary
made in 1997 in conjunction with the International
Tennis Hall of Fame, named Perry one of the ten
greatest players of all time. But this documentary
only considered those players who played before
the Open era of tennis that began in 1968, with
the exception of Rod Laver, who spanned both eras,
so that all of the more recent great players are
missing.

Inside the Church Road gate at the All England
Lawn Tennis Club in Wimbledon, London, a statue of
Fred Perry was erected in 1984 to mark the 50th
anniversary of his first singles championship. In
his birthplace, a special 14 mile (23 km) walking
route, Fred Perry Way, was built by the city of
Stockport and officially opened in September 2002.

Perry was inducted into the International Tennis
Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island in 1975. He
died in Melbourne, Australia.


==Fred Perry clothing brand==
The Fred Perry brand of clothing has been popular
for many years. It is best known for the laurel
logo on the left breast of its polo-style shirts.
In the mid-1950s and through the early 1960s many
considered the Fred Perry brand of male tennis
shirts to be the best available.


==Grand Slam Titles==
===Singles===
*Australian Open (1934)
*French Open (1935)
*Wimbledon Championships|Wimbledon (1934, 1935,
1936)
*US Open (tennis)|US Open (1933, 1934, 1936)

===Doubles===
*Australian Open (1934)
*French Open (1936)

===Mixed Doubles===
*French Open (1932)
*Wimbledon (1935, 1936)
*US Open (1932)