British Tennis Champion Perry Is Dead at 85

British tennis champion Fred Perry, remembered as one of the game’s greatest players, died at 85 Thursday in Melbourne, Australia.

The first player to win all four Grand Slam tournaments, he was on the last of thousands of tennis trips when he died in a Melbourne hospital of undisclosed causes.

A hospital spokesperson said Perry fell on successive days at his hotel, breaking four ribs, while attending last week’s Australian Open matches.

Sixty years ago, in one of tennis’ golden eras, Perry more than held his own in duels with Big Bill Tilden, Ellsworth Vines, Don Budge and others.

Perry and his peers commanded more public attention than the game’s best players do today--but considerably less money.

And in his prime, tennis experts say, he could have beaten most of those who have played since.

His most famous weapon was a running forehand drive. As he once told the Associated Press:

“I had sort of an all-court game, not serve and volley like Vines. Everything I did was built on the fact that, sooner or later, (my opponents) had to hit the ball short on the forehand side. That was the end of the point as far as I was concerned.”

With that approach, Perry was a dominant Grand Slam player in the 1930s, winning Wimbledon three consecutive years between 1934 and ’36. No English man has since held a Wimbledon singles title.

Perry also won in Australia in 1934, in France in 1935, and in the United States in 1933, ’34 and ’36 when the tournament was at Forest Hills.

Perry, who was the world table tennis champion in 1929, won the world pro tennis championship in 1937 and again in 1941.

A U.S. citizen since 1940, Perry was born into an English working class family in 1909.

“In those days, tennis was a rich man’s game,” he told the Washington Post 10 years ago. “And I was not the old school tie boy by any means.”

Perry’s father, a cotton spinner in the north of England, was elected to Parliament on the Labour Party ticket during the tennis player’s boyhood.

“We moved from the north to Ealing in west London, which was like a move to paradise for me,” Perry said. “There was a very posh tennis club just near us, and I could see the people all going in to play bridge and tennis and croquet and go to dances.

“I asked my father who owned those magnificent cars outside the courts. He said it must be the tennis players and their friends. Well, then, I knew tennis was the game for me.”

At 33, Perry broke an elbow playing tennis, and, in time, left the game. He moved first into the BBC radio booth and later developed a popular sportswear line.

Several years ago, his friends report, he sold out at a profit. He has since traveled widely.

He is survived by wife Bobby, daughter Penny and an adopted son.