Something Special on the Court

The first couple of years of the historic Pacific Southwest tennis tournament, in 1927 and 1928, merited only the bare bones of information in the tiny Spalding Tennis Annual, the winners and scores.

By the start of the next decade, it became clear the event was something special. Bill Tilden won the first year, followed by Henri Cochet, John Doeg and Ellsworth Vines.

The Spalding book addressed the event’s prominence in its 1930 annual:

“The Pacific Southwest Open championship tournament, with its galaxy of internationally famous entrants, surpassed its previous attendance records, and one Los Angeles Tennis Club, where the meet is held each year, had no apologies to make for the brand of tennis that was demonstrated during the 10-day tournament, which concluded Oct. 7. The court surface of cement, such are in evidence everywhere in Southern California, produce a mighty fast game of tennis.”

In those days, the final was best-of-five sets. The first five-set final was in 1931 between Vines and Fred Perry. Vines had won the year before and was promptly called the “19-year-old sensation from Pasadena.”

Perry, of course, comes into the news every year during Wimbledon when a British male falls short on the grass of the All England Club. Perry won Wimbledon three consecutive years, from 1934-1936, and a British male has not won since. He is one of five men to win all four of the Grand Slam tournaments, though not in the same year.

Vines gave him trouble in 1931. Perry lost to him four times that year, including the semifinals at the U.S. National Championships, despite taking the first two sets. Perry noted it was fortunate for the Brits that Vines was not on the Davis Cup team that summer.

Their rivalry moved to Los Angeles. In the final, Vines erased another Perry lead, winning, 8-10, 6-3, 4-6, 7-5, 6-2. Perry would go on to win the next three Pacific Southwest titles, from 1932 to 1934.

He didn’t seem too distressed at losing to Vines when he recounted the 1931 event in his autobiography. Perry and an associate played a practical joke when they were asked what it would take to get them to play Los Angeles.

“I told him straight: ‘I’m not interested unless my first date is with Jean Harlow,’ ” Perry wrote in his book.

Perry arrived in Los Angeles weeks later and a driver took him to Harlow’s house the first night he was in town, according to the book.

“It would be fair to say I was dumbfounded, but I wasn’t the type to stay senseless for long,” Perry said.