Greg Hansen: 'Lark' led Tucson's John Perry to claim a pair of Guinness world records

When the Olympic Torch passed through Tucson on its way to the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics, torch-bearers included Burt Strug, father of 1996 Olympic gold medalist Kerri Strug; Ara Parseghian, grandson of Notre Dame’s two-time national championship football coach Ara Parseghian; and Noel Elliott, who donated a kidney to help save the life of his brother, Arizona basketball legend Sean Elliott.

Let’s just say that carrying the torch required an inspirational connection.

The Olympic Committee chose the torch-bearers based on the precept of “light the fire within.”

That’s how tennis instructor John Perry joined Tucsonans Strug, Elliott and Parseghian in the prestigious ceremony.

“My tennis students nominated me with an essay about how I inspired them,” remembers Perry, who remains a staple of the Smith-Perry Tennis Academy at Tucson’s downtown Reffkin Tennis Center. “I still have the torch; it was one of the most exciting moments of my life, especially as my students were watching and cheering.”

A one-time budding basketball prospect who turned to tennis when he entered Sandia High School in Albuquerque, Perry went on to win the state singles championship in 1989, earn a tennis scholarship to New Mexico State and later an advanced degree in sports psychology at the University of Arizona.

Perry’s “light the fire within” philosophy didn’t dim after 2002.

A year ago, he went through the lengthy process of applying to the Guinness Book of World Records. Perry believed he could establish two tennis world records. About six months later, Guinness approved his attempts.

Not that it was a sloppy and carefree endeavor.

When a UTSA official arrived at the Reffkin Tennis Center last December, she was accompanied by timekeepers and videographers. If Perry was going to break the world record of 38 successful serves in 1 minute — held by former ATP top-five standout Greg Rusedski, a Wimbledon veteran — it was going to be fully documented and examined by the people at Guinness.

“It’s very strict,” says Perry.

Can you imagine the skill it takes for a tennis player to hit 38 (or more) serves in the legal playing surface in 60 seconds? If the ball hits the net, it doesn’t count. The slow-motion video camera made certain Perry did not hit a serve until the previous ball touched the ground.

The margin for error was minuscule.

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Perry broke the record by hitting 42 successful serves. “I missed two,” he says.

Once the video evidence was sent to Guinness headquarters, it took them six months to evaluate Perry’s performance and approve it. Finally, a few weeks ago, Perry received official Guinness Book of World Record plaques in the mail.

“It started with a lark,” he says. “I was teaching a lower-level student, a young man, and I wanted him to get in three or four serves before I got in 12. I got good at serving quickly. It was really a whim. I asked myself, ‘is there a record for this?’ It turned out there was.

“Some of my friends joked that they were going to try to track down Rusedski and tell him his record has been broken.”

Perry’s hand-eye coordination is so superior that he found another Guinness tennis record that he felt he could break. He could tap a tennis ball on one side of his racket, quickly flop the racket to the opposite side and do it again — very rapidly — almost 100 times in 30 seconds.

With the officials recording his movements, he did so 97 times. Bingo. Another Guinness world record.

“My goal was 100,” he says with a laugh. “Remember that famous picture of Wilt Chamberlain holding the basketball the night he scored 100 points? Someone had written ‘100’ on the ball. I wanted to write ‘100’ on a tennis ball. I did this for fun, for posterity.”

In recent months, fun has not been what it usually is for Perry at the Smith-Perry Tennis Academy. By city mandate, the Reffkin Tennis Center closed four months ago. It remains one of the few tennis facilities in Tucson that has not reopened.

Summer camps and clinics have been canceled. The annual Tucson City Championship, normally held this week, has been moved to October.

“We’re the last holdout,” says Perry. “We usually have 70 to 75 players, maybe 25 of them serious young tennis athletes. It has been hard for them and hard for us. We hope to be back next week.”

While he waits to be reunited with his tennis players, Perry has greater things to worry about than world records. His oldest son, Brendan, part of the 109-match winning streak at six-time state champion Catalina Foothills High School, hoped to win the state doubles championship with his brother, Jared. That goal vanished when the prep tennis season was canceled in March. Brendan now hopes to enroll at the UA and study astronomy. Jared is preparing for his sophomore season at Foothills, in whatever form that may be.

There are more important things than tennis.

“I’m totally fine if someone breaks those records,” John Perry says “But, you know, there’s another record I looked at — most blindfolded serves in one minute. I’ve messed around with it. I think it’s doable.”