LAWN TENNIS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 1 May 1937, Page 9

LAWN TENNIS

VISIT OF FRED PERRY [By Air Mail—From Our Own Correspondent] LONDON, Bth April. Arrangements have now been completed for Fred Perry to return home in June, and take part in a professional tournament on Ui3 eve of the Wimbledon championships. He will bo accompanied [)■, Ellsworth Vines, W. T. lildeii, and other players, and they will compete for substantial prizes as well as a share in the receipts. Indoor lawn tennis of an e.\liibilioti type, has not hitherto made much appeal, but Perry lias nol lost his pnolle, and 1 believe the event, which is to take place at the Wembly Swimming Pool, where there is accommodation for 12,000 people, will bo an outstanding success. No one blames Perry for commercialising Ins skill on the courts. He is repotted to have inado about £15,000 al ready by his matches with Vines and Tilden in America, and by the end ol ths year it is expected that his earnings will amount to £5.000. Perry has always had a business instinct, and in becoming a professional lie believed that he could earn £50,000. Ho realised, too, that he would have to earn the money quickly, and he has mapped out a pro gramme to amass this sum in two years Then it is his intention to retire from the game, and enter on a business career Indeed, he has already been promised an important post with a, leading sports outfitting firm.

Perry’s plan is much the same as that followed by Bobby Jones, who saddleen his amateur status, at a time when lie was the leading golfer in the world, n order to make a fortune by producing instructional films. As soon ns Ins Holly wod contract was completed, he plung'd into ;i business career with an Anicri tail golf-ball manufacturin'.; linn. In fact lie lias not played competitive golf since lie retired as an amateur.