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Yannick Noah Pays :France |
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| Yannick
NOAH
Yannick Noah, the flamboyant tennis star famous for his flying dreadlocks and his deadly forehand, is the only French sportsman to have successfully reinvented himself as a pop star. While many were expecting Noah to fall flat on his face when he launched a music career in the early 90s, the singer has found his own original niche on the French scene, fusing his double passion for music and sport and his love for two homelands, France and Cameroon. Born in the French town of Sedan on 18 May 1960, Yannick Noah grew up with a rich mixed African and European culture at home, living with his Cameroonian father, Simon, and French mother, Marie-Claire. The family returned to Cameroon in Yannick's early childhood after his father, a professional football player, was seriously injured in an accident. The Noahs took up residence in the Cameroonian capital, Yaoundé, in 1963, but retained close links to France throughout their stay. Listening to the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Bob Marley in his teenage years, Yannick soon developed a real passion for music. But the young teenager also appeared to have inherited his father's sporting talent. Yannick proved to be an absolute wizard on the tennis court and, encouraged by a couple of teachers, he spent hours on the courts training his front and backhand. His long hours of training were soon rewarded, too. Yannick's talent was spotted by legendary American tennis star Arthur Ashe and he won a return ticket to France, where he got the benefit of a professional coaching-and-education programme at the French Tennis Federation in Nice. Spending long months away from his family and friends back in Cameroon weighed heavily on the 11-year-old's shoulders, but his passion for music helped him overcome these early years of exile and solitude. And the intensive training proved worth it in the end. For Yannick went on to enjoy a brilliant sporting career on the tennis courts, winging his way into the record books and tennis fans' hearts when he won the French Open at Rolland Garros in 1983. |
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| RECORD DURING: Early years. French
Open glory in 1983 QUARTERFINALS SEMIFINALS FINAL |
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| RECORD DURING:
1985 onwards. Australian Semi-Finalist in 1990 (AB) LAST 16. AUSTRALIAN OPEN 1990 IVAN LENDL beat SIMON YOUL 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 ANDREI CHERKASOV beat ANDRES GOMEZ 2-6, 6-3, 7-6, 7-6 MIKAEL PERNFORS beat JOHN McENROE 1-6, 6-4, 5-7, 4-2 (default) YANNICK NOAH beat PETE SAMPRAS 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 DAVID WHEATON beat AARON KRICKSTEIN 7-6, 6-4, 6-3 STEFAN EDBERG beat JONAS SVENSSON 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 MATS WILANDER beat VELI PALOHEIMO 7-5, 6-4, 6-0 BORIS BECKER beat MILOSLAV MECIR 4-6, 6-7, 6-4, 6-1, 6-1 QUARTERFINALS SEMIFINALS FINAL |
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| 1)
1978-11-20 Manila 2) 1978-12-04 Calcutta 3) 1979-03-19 Nancy 4) 1979-09-24 Madrid 5) 1979-10-01 Bordeaux 6) 1981-02-02 Richmond, Virginia 7) 1981-04-06 Nice 8) 1982-02-15 La Quinta, California 9) 1982-07-26 South Orange, New Jersey 10) 1982-10-11 Basel 11) 1982-11-06 Toulouse |
12) 1983-04-25
Madrid 13) 1983-05-09 Hamburg 14) 1983-05-23 Roland Garros at Paris 15) 1985-05-13 Rome 16) 1985-07-15 Washington, DC 17) 1985-10-07 Toulouse 18) 1986-05-05 Forest Hills, New York 19) 1986-11-10 Wembley 20) 1987-02-02 Lyon 21) 1987-10-05 Basel 22) 1988-02-15 Milan 23) 1990-01-08 Sydney |
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