Perry T. Jones:
Dictator, Sadist, Genius

Perry T. Jones and a literal depiction of his pawns.

Could it be that one man, and one man alone, could thoroughly and completely dominate and control an international sport for nearly four decades? The answer is yes. The sport is tennis. The man was Perry T. Jones.

In his youth, Jones was an avid and respectable tennis player. However, his devotion to the game evolved into a burning obsession to achieve complete control of the sport. A formidable and unlikely goal, but one he succeeded in reaching.

Jones believed that by developing a stable of great male and female players over whom he had complete control, he could hold every tournament in the world hostage by threatening not to send his players to any tournament that displeased him in any way. He thought of the players as pawns, which they were exactly in his hands

He chose an ideal location for the birth of his plan: The Los Angeles Tennis Club, which as Tom LeCompte's beautiful articles demonstrate, became the mecca for the greatest players in the game. (Click Here for Part 1. Click Here for Part 2.)