Former British No 1 and World No 7, Roger Taylor won the men’s doubles title at the US Open in 1971 and 1972, and was a singles semi-finalist at Wimbledon in 1967, 1970 and 1973, and at the Australian Open in 1970.
He was Great Britain’s Davis Cup captain from 2000 to 2004.
Now 83, Sheffield-born Roger, is a father-of-four and has two grandchildren. He lives in London with his second wife Alison. Here, he talks to Peter Robertson.
What did your parents teach you about money?
We never talked about money because we didn’t need anything – we were a very happy working-class family in Sheffield.
My Dad, Mark, worked in the steelworks and my mum, Lilian, was a housewife and seamstress who started playing tennis at 33.
We’d play in Weston Park. She was my first and only coach. I started out entering tournaments in Hull, Ilkley, Buxton, Scarborough and Leeds, and always managed to win.
Smashed it: Roger Taylor stretching for a return while playing at Wimbledon in 1973
What was your first pay packet?
At 17 I left Sheffield to move to London at the suggestion of the Lawn Tennis Association.
My pal on and off court, Dick Dillon, came with me – we lived in the Wimbledon YMCA for three years – and they got us jobs at Fred Perry Sportswear in Soho. We each got £5 a week, and we thought we’d won the lottery.
It was exciting for us to meet Fred, who’d won the Wimbledon singles title three times in the 1930s, and we got to know him quite well. No male British player won Wimbledon again until Andy Murray in 2013.
Have you ever struggled to make ends meet?
I struggled back then because there was no prize money. But we got paid a little ‘under the table’.
My income improved as I got better at tennis. First time I got to the semi-final at Wimbledon, in 1967, I got a £30 voucher. Prize money was first awarded in 1968. In 1970, I got £800. In 1973, I got £2,000. So it crept up very slowly.
Have you ever been paid silly money?
In 1967 I turned professional. I was No 1 in Britain but I lost my ranking because professionals were banned.
I went into an international tour with seven others, including John Newcombe and Tony Roche, playing every night. We were known as the Handsome Eight. I got a contract for about $50,000 and prize money.
Are you a spender or saver?
I’m a saver and my wife is a spender! One thing I got from my parents was to have enough to look after yourself when you’re older. I have always thought, is there enough in my pension?
I never felt I needed money. When I got paid I put it in the bank, but it never seemed to grow much!
What’s the most expensive thing you’ve bought for fun?
In my mid 20s I was signed to Slazenger, which gave me a company car. But when I left England for Portugal, where I had a tennis centre in the Algarve from the late 1970s to the late 80s, I bought a nice red BMW 320i. That was a great machine.
What has been your biggest money mistake?
I’m a member of Queen’s Club, and a pro I knew there was coaching [the Hungarian billionaire] George Soros. The pro kept saying, ‘You’ve got to buy this share.’
I assumed he knew something so I took the plunge and invested £25,000 in a pharmaceutical company. But it died. There’s probably a Yorkshire expression for ‘if you’re that daft, you deserve it!’
The best money decision you’ve made?
For ten years I’ve invested with my friend Stephen Ellis-Smith, who is a small-scale property developer.
He buys pieces of land with planning permission, which is the key. That’s gone very well all around London. The interest rate he gives is much more than you’d get in a bank or anything like that.
Mixed doubles: Roger Taylor pictured with his second wife Alison
Do you own any property?
I own a three-storey, five-bedroom town house a few hundred yards from the All England Club, Wimbledon, where I’m a member.
It’s all paid off and supposedly worth over a million, but as Wimbledon is set to grow as the tennis complex is expanded I don’t know where we’ll end up.
I have a piece of agricultural land in Portugal. I keep thinking that I might need to build on that, but haven’t yet.
Do you donate money to charity?
I’ve always done charity work, and recently Wimbledon members have brought young people representing charities to do the coin toss before the finals.
I was the first to do so. It helped get Cardiac Risk In The Young going – the wife of my fellow player Mark Cox started it because of their son’s heart problem.
What would you have done if your tennis career hadn’t worked out?
I might have followed both my father and grandfather, working for the Sheffield steelworks.
But in 1967, when a replacement for Sean Connery as 007 was sought, I was asked to meet some of the team behind the Bond films bang in the middle of Wimbledon.
Looking menacingly into mirrors saying, ‘The name’s Bond, James Bond,’ I was painfully aware my South Yorkshire accent was not what Ian Fleming or Cubby Broccoli envisaged.
I was shepherded into a room full of men who were staring at me in silence. I never even got to say ‘The name’s Bond…’ before the meeting ended.
If you were Chancellor of the Exchequer, what would you do?
I paid a lot of tax in the 60s and 70s, so I would lower taxes for individuals and companies.
Taxes are how councils finance their areas, yet you’ve still got potholes and so on.
I’ve not met many politicians, but I once played an exhibition match at Queen’s Club with Tony Blair. He was surprisingly good, so I had to step up a bit!
What is your No.1 financial priority?
To win the EuroMillions – to keep my wife in the manner she’s accustomed to!
- The Man Who Saved Wimbledon, Roger Taylor’s Official Autobiography (Pitch Publishing) is available tomorrow.
