LAWN TENNIS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 23 June 1937, Page 5

LAWN TENNIS

FRED PERRY HOME AGAIN [By Air Mail—From Our Own • Correspondent] LONDON, 27th May. Fred Perry returned home to receive a warm welcome. No one blames him for having become a professional and commercialised his remarkable talents on the court. Report says that he has already earned £30,000. Ferry neither denies nor confirms this. But he addß significantly: “1 have done well, and I do not regret having entered oil a career which I think will prove successful.’’ His stay is to be short. He cannot remain for the Wimbledon championships and the Davis Cup ties. He has to return to make a series of films in Hollywood. These are to be instructional. “I have no thought of trying t) become a Clark Gable,” he says. ‘‘The pictures I am to make are to help lawn tenuis players in all parts of the world, and I hope I shall succeed. The chief reason for the visit of Perry was to see his father. At the same time lie was accompanied by Ellsworth Vines and other professionals, and together they are taking part in a series of exhibition matches at the Wembley Swimming Pool which has been converted into a court, and which gives accommodation for about twelve thousand Spectators. It was disappointing that the seats were only half filled on the first night, and I am afraid it lias once more been proved that the English public are not attracted by exhibition tennis, even when a player withi Ferry’s dramatic appeal is one of the chief figures.

His match was against Vines, and I do not think there is any doubt that they are the two finest players in the world. They may even be the finest the game has ever produced, though W. iT. Tilden at the age of 44 remains unsurpassed in the versatility of his strokes and ball control. But the match lacked competitive appeal. There was no slackness on the part of either man, but they made mistakes without seeming to care, and ,t was obvious that they regarded the result as of no importance. Some of the play was brilliant. It would have brought the house down at Wimbledon. Other phases of it were poor. The match went the lull five sets, and lasted two hours, the tall American taking the deciding one at 6-3, the full score in his favour being 7-5, 6-8, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3. The serving of Vines was terrific. The hall crashed over the net at a pace which was difficult to follow. Yet Perry stood on the base line to take the service, proving the quickness of liis eye and the subtlery of his wrist. I thought Perry had speeded up his own service and that he was slightly different in other ways which cannot be described. He was, in fact, scarcely the old Perry, perhaps because he has assumed a nonchalant air, and did not feel the urge to fight.