Voting Station

Fred Perry

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Tennis Player

The Resume

    (May 18, 1909-February 2, 1995)
    Born in Stockport, England, United Kingdom
    Won three Wimbledons (1934-36), three US Opens (1933-34,1936), one French Open (1935) and one Australian Open (1934)
    Twice won the US Pro Tennis Championship (1938,1941)
    Marketed the Fred Perry tennis shirt (1952)
    Inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame (1975)

Why he might be annoying:

    He appeared in ads for White Owl cigars.
    His first three marriages ended quickly in divorce.
    While in a Boston hotel on the pro tour, he and an American player tied their bedsheets into a rope to climb down to a lower floor where two female players were staying.
    He rarely, if ever, congratulated an opponent on a good shot or corrected a bad call that had been in his favor: 'I didn't aspire to be a good sport. Champion was good enough for me.'
    His shirts were popular with skinheads in the 70s.
    Jack Kramer claimed that he inadvertently screwed up men's tennis in Britain for decades: 'The way he could hit a forehand—snap it off like a ping-pong shot—Perry was a physical freak. Nobody else could be taught to hit a shot that way. But the kids over there copied Perry's style, and it ruined them.'
    Thanks to Andy Murray's 2013 victory, he no longer gets mentioned at every single Wimbledon as the last male British champ.

Why he might not be annoying:

    Before taking up tennis, he won the World Championship in table tennis (1929).
    He was disdained by the upper-crust British tennis establishment over his working class roots. (Most notably, after his first Wimbledon title, when he overheard an All England Club member telling runner-up Jack Crawford, 'The best man didn't win today.')
    He was the first tennis player to win a career Grand Slam.
    He became a naturalized US citizen (1938) and was drafted into the US Air Force during World War II.
    His fourth marriage, to Barbara Riese, lasted over 40 years until his death.
    Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe praised his insights as a Wimbledon commentator.
    He was the only tennis player included in a survey to determine the best British sportsman of the 20th century.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2022, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 8 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 3 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 3 Votes: 33.33% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 56 Votes: 50.0% Annoying