THE Wimbledon men’s singles final may have seen a new champion being crowned, but there’s one man whose name will always be synonymous with the sport - Fred Perry.

And here’s the man himself, pictured in Southend in July 1952 when he came to the town to give young players at Southend Tennis Club some useful coaching tips.

Born in 1909 in Stockport, Perry went on to become a British World Number One, winning eight grand slams, two pro slams single titles, as well as six major doubles titles. Perry won three consecutive Wimbledon Championships from 1934 to 1936 - a feat no other Brit man would match until Andy Murray in 2013.

But Perry’s first love was actually table tennis and he excelled at the sport, even becoming world champion in 1929.

In the late 1940s, Perry was approached by Tibby Wegner, an Austrian footballer who had invented an anti-perspirant device worn around the wrist. Perry made a few changes to create the first sweatband. Wegner’s next idea was to produce a sports shirt, which was to be made from white knitted cotton pique with short sleeves and a buttoned placket like René Lacoste’s shirts. Launched at Wimbledon in 1952, the Fred Perry tennis shirt was an immediate success and has remained so ever since.

Married four times, Perry also famously had a relationship with film star Marlene Dietrich in the 1930s. The photograph here shows Perry at the Southend Lawn Tennis Club with Dan Maskell, who was a professional player himself during the Twenties and Thirties and went on to become a radio and television commentator on the game. Maskell was recognised as the BBC’s “voice of Wimbledon” for many years.

Fred Perry died in Melbourne, Australia, in 1995, aged 85.