08/02/24
Centre Atert
Bertrange
19h00
Ouverture des portes à 17h00
Mansour Bahrami is regarded as one of the most naturally gifted players to ever pick up a tennis racquet and one of the sport's greatest entertainers. Rod Laver, Ilie Nastase, Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe can all attest to the skill of an Iranian hill tribesman, who battled poverty and all manner of obstacles to fulfil his dream of becoming a professional tennis player.
Bahrami taught himself to play tennis using an old medal frying pan and other kitchen utensils, before he owned his first racquet aged 13. Forced to stop competing during the Iranian Revolution of 1978-79, he played backgammon every day for three years in Tehran, until his luck changed and he won a local tournament with the prize of flights to Athens. He paid $200 to change the tickets to Nice and left his girlfriend and family.
France offered Bahrami the opportunity to play small tournaments, but you had to win to collect prize money. Realising the cost of living was higher than in Iran, he gambled his savings in a casino and lost the lot on his first night in Nice. When his French visa ran out and without a carte de sejour, he became a political refugee, an illegal immigrant, constantly in fear of the police, regularly sleeping rough and making food last for days. He relied on the financial support of friends.
Bahrami had turned 30 by the time he was allowed to compete as a full-time professional player, compiling a 2-10 record in doubles finals. Promoters were known to pay him guarantees to enter qualifying tournaments, such was his allure. In 1989, the year he first held dual French and Iranian nationality, he reached the Roland Garros doubles final with Eric Winogradsky.
When the ATP Champions Tour was established in 1993, Bahrami found his niche and he was able to showcase his remarkable trick shots to audiences worldwide. In 2006, he published his autobiography,
Le court des miracles, and released a DVD, The Man Behind the Moustache, which chronicled his life story. Bahrami is married to Frederique and they have two children, Antoine and Sam.
No sooner had Swedes grieved the retirement of Bjorn Borg, and wistfully wished for his sixth French title in 1981, than an unheralded young countryman conquered Paris the following year. Unseeded 17-year-old Mats Arne Olof Wilander, a rugged 6-footer who beat powerful one-time champ Guillermo Vilas at his own baseline game, became the youngest of French champs. It was the first of seven singles majors for Wilander over a seven-year stretch when he competed at the top of the game, reaching No. 1 in 1988.
Although Michael Chang, a younger 17 in 1989, usurped his male precocity record for the majors, Wilander won the French again in 1985 (dethroning Ivan Lendl, 6-2 in the fourth) and 1988, and the Australian, on grass, in 1983 and 1984. But it was 1988, an all-time season, that stands as his masterpiece. He won three majors, starting with a magnificent five-set Australian final-round victory over hometown hero Patrick Cash in Melbourne's newly opened Flinders Park. It was the Aussie Open's first year on hard courts, and victory meant that Mats was only the second man (emulating Jimmy Connors) to win majors on grass, clay and hard. While he won the French without much trouble, his dreams of a Grand Slam were pierced by Miloslav Mecir in the Wimbledon quarters. An arduous U.S. backcourt duel with Lendl, who'd beaten him for the title in 1987, lasted over four hours before at last Wilander showed more offensive initiative to win.
As the first winner of three majors in a year since Connors in 1974, he completed 1988 with six victories in 15 tournaments, with a 53-11 record, and personal prize money of $1,726,731. But after that, having attained the No. 1 ranking, his motivation seemed to disappear. He was through as a factor, and by 1991 he was retired. His last of 33 career titles was at Itaparica (Brazil) in 1990, yet in some ways Wilander outdid Borg. Bjorn never won three majors in a year, and he led Sweden to but one Davis Cup. Mats won three. Stunning Connors in straight sets on opening day in Goteborg in 1984, Wilander launched Sweden to a 4-1 upset of the U.S., he backboned a 3-2 win over Germany in 1985 in Munich, and a 5-0 win over India in 1987 in Goteborg.
In 1991, he had dropped to No. 157. However, he felt the urge to play again in 1993, and came back to do moderately well, climbing to No. 45 in 1995 and earning about $500,000. He was even selected as a starter for the Davis Cup semi-final against the U.S. in 1995, losing to Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras. Speedy afoot and an unrelenting competitor through 1988, he was at first a pure top-spinning, grind-it-out baseliner, a right-hander with a two-fisted backhand. But Mats developed attacking skills and a good volley, winning the Wimbledon doubles in 1986 with Joakim Nystrom. Two memorable matches were Davis Cup losses, the longest and third-longest played: Six hours and 32 minutes against John McEnroe in 1982; six hours and four minutes against Horst Skoff of Austria in 1989. His career figures: 33 wins in 220 tournaments; a 524-164 match record, and earnings of $7,976,256.
He was born Aug. 22, 1964, in Vaxjo, Sweden, and grew up there. Today, he lives with his wife, Sonya, in Greenwich, Conn.
MAJOR TITLES (8) - Australian singles, 1983, 1984, 1988; French singles, 1982, 1985, 1988; US. singles, 1988; Wimbledon doubles, 1986.
DAVIS CUP - 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990; record 36-14 in singles, 7-2 in doubles.
SINGLES RECORD IN THE MAJORS - Australian (36-7), French (47-9), Wimbledon (25-10), US. (36-11).
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