Born in western Massachusetts to a Canadian mother and American father, Matthew Perry was mostly raised in Ottawa after his parents divorced and his mother took Perry, then an infant, to Canada, per IMDb. And although today, Perry may be best known for his acting, many fans may be surprised to hear that it was in Ottawa where the “Friends” alum was a top-ranked junior tennis player.
According to IMDb, Perry was 17th nationwide in Canada for junior (under 16) singles, and third in doubles. How did he ascend so high? Well, Perry revealed in a 2002 New York Times profile that he was practicing the sport for upward of 10 hours a day as a young teenager. “I needed to succeed at whatever I was doing so I could feel better about myself,” Perry told the outlet at the time, adding that he had an “incredible drive” when it came to tennis.
However, it was when he was 15 and moved to Los Angeles with his father that things changed for him. “I was a very good tennis player in Ottawa, Canada — nationally ranked when I was, like, 13,” he told Men’s Health in 2012. “Then I moved to Los Angeles when I was 15, and everyone in L.A. just killed me. I was pretty great in Canada. Not so much in Los Angeles.”
Nicki
