Absolutely
Dedicated

From his early years at the Brentham Club to his heyday spent dominating Centre Court, Fred Perry put his success down to one thing: hard work. Recorded 25 years on from his landmark achievement of three consecutive Wimbledon championship wins, excerpts from this 1961 radio interview with the BBC offer an unparalleled insight into the mindset and methodology behind the man himself.

“I was always mixed up in sports. I used to be a table tennis player at one time. I won it in 1929 in Budapest, but before that I was always interested in sports (…) I used to push the kitchen table up against the wall at night and practice by the hour because I felt that you could learn a lot about it that way. I mean, the racquet became part of my hand. You knew all the spins, the counter-spins… One thing was quite certain – that every time the ball hit the wall it was coming back. If anybody was going to miss, you were. Of course, I drove everybody crazy.

One day, we went down for a holiday to Eastbourne, Devonshire Park and I looked through the fence and saw all these cars – these huge cars outside. I looked through the fence and I saw all these people dressed in white chasing a silly little ball around on the grass and I went back and asked my father: ‘What is this particular game?’ and he said ‘Well it’s lawn tennis. I have a racquet.’ I said I’d like to play this game if I can. I’m interested in this game. So, he said ‘I’ll give you the racquet.’ Of course, it was too heavy for me, but that was the first racquet I ever had and I think from that day on I practically lived on a tennis court (…)

At the house in Ealing, I used to play up against the garage door. I couldn’t hit the ball too high because if I did, I’d break the glass in the top of the door, and I didn’t have the money to replace it. Then to volley, I learnt hitting up against the south wall of the house because we had a greenhouse at the lower half of it and so all my volleys had to be pretty high because if I hit a low one it was even more expensive than the garage door. Every day without fail I would spend at least an hour a day practicing. The big argument being of course that my father wanted me to do it after the homework, and I wanted to do it before.

I was always a little difficult to say the least. You see, I was a strange fellow. I was actually born in Cheshire in Stockport but having lived in Bolton and Liverpool and then down to London, I was north country practically born and bred, and most north country people, I think you'll find, that if they can't get in one door then they'll go around the other one. I didn't like to take no for an answer, and I was probably a little stubborn, a little pig headed, and I made up my mind that I was going to do it or else. I didn't spend an hour a day for a year playing up against a wall and I didn't spend three years of my life training with the Arsenal every morning just to become second. I'm quite frank about it, I don't like to lose (…)

The way I like to do things is that if I’m going to do it, I want to do it well. I was lucky in as much that I happened to be born a pretty good athlete. I had a determination that my father always told me was second to none. I wouldn't take no for an answer and then once I made up my mind that that's where I was gonna go, I was gonna go no matter how much hard work I had to put in. I don't like to hurt people on my way, though. I think in this particular game, you've got enough outside influences to worry about that you've got to be absolutely dedicated at the thing. I really do. I mean, people say ‘Well how can you get good players in England with the weather the way it is?’ And I say, well then you have to work out some way to go get it, that's all.”