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What Ended Matthew Perry’s Tennis Career
No comments · Posted by Scoop Malinowski in Articles, Scoop
It’s common knowledge in the tennis world that Friends TV star Matthew Perry was a standout junior tennis player in Canada before moving to the United States as a teenager. The rest of the story is murky – until now.
At the library next to my gym here in my Bradenton community I found Perry’s Memoir “Friends, Lovers And The Big Terrible Thing” published shortly before his death about a year ago.
There are several mentions by Perry of his love for tennis. Perry’s parents divorced and he eventually moved to Los Angeles to live with his father in 1985 at age fifteen. Perry wrote, “The initial plan for me had involved sports. My tennis had advanced to the point where we seriously considered enrolling me in Nick Bollettieri’s Tennis Academy in Florida. Bollettieri was the premier tennis coach – he helped Monica Seles, Andre Agassi, Maria Sharapova, and Venus and Serena Williams, among many others. But once in LA, it quickly became apparent that I was going to be a perfectly solid club player, nothing more.”
The man who would later evolve into a hugely successful actor on America’s top rated TV show Friends and earn over $80,000,000 for his thespian talents, learned the hard way how difficult it is to try to become a professional tennis player.
“I can remember enrolling in a Satellite tournament, with my dad and new family watching, and in my first match I didn’t win a single point!”
The California tennis scene chewed up Perry and spit him out. “The standard in Southern California is off the charts. When it’s 72 degrees every day and there are tennis courts seemingly in every backyard and on every corner, some kid from Canada, where it’s sub zero from December through March if you’re lucky, is going to struggle to make an impact. And so it turned out my dreams of being the next Jimmy Connors quickly faded when faced with 100 miles per hour serves coming from bronzed California gods who happened to be eleven years old…”
Perry did not give up tennis altogether though. He later played in Chris Evert Celebrity Pro-Ams – once hitting doubles opponent Chevy Chase with a serve in the most vulnerable region, sending the cinematic icon to the hospital. Perry also became friends with Jennifer Capriati and her family and supported her at some pro tournaments.
Perry passed away in October 2023.
Canada · Chrissie Evert · Matthew Perry · Monica Seles · NBTA · Nick Bollettieri · US Open
