Who was the first tennis player to wear shorts? trends now
QUESTION Who was the first tennis player to wear shorts?
This landmark in fashion was achieved in the Wimbledon Championships of 1930, when Brame Hillyard became the first man not to play in white flannel trousers.
Hillyard, then 54, a stalwart of the game, was playing an up-and-coming player by the name of Fred Perry. Perry dismissed the older man in straight sets (6-3, 6-4, 6-2).
Hillyard was the elder brother of George Hillyard, chairman of the All England Club. After his loss, he joined the committee.
In 1934, Perry won his first Wimbledon and Hillyard and the British public were not happy.
Knees-up: Tennis royalty Bunny Austin sips tea during a match at Wimbledon in 1937
Perry was a new breed of sportsman, with a dedicated training programme and a playing style that, perhaps, gave primacy to fitness above style. His fierce will to win just wasn't British.
Perry later recalled the deep-rooted snobbery on display at the All England Club after he had thrashed Australian Jack Crawford in the final: 'Out in the dressing room, I overheard the distinctive voice of Brame Hillyard, Club committee man, talking to Crawford.
"Congratulations," said Hillyard. "This was one day when the best man didn't win." I couldn't believe my ears.'
The man who popularised the wearing of shorts was Henry Wilfred 'Bunny' Austin.
Austin was British tennis royalty. An early pin-up, he was handsome and debonair, lived a celebrity lifestyle, played the game with style and, unlike Perry, was a glorious failure despite his prodigious talent.
In 1932, Austin sported a pair of white flannel shorts 'cropped well above the knees' in a competition at the Men's National Tennis Championship in Forest Hills, Long Island.
Pictures of Austin wearing 'ventilated pants' were in all the major newspapers. He wore them on Centre Court at Wimbledon later that year,
