Bahrami, Mansour

From the age of five, Mansur Bahrami served balls on tennis courts ^[2] and, in the absence of money for his own racket, trained with pans and broomsticks. In his own words, he owes these his pursuits to his unusual manner of playing in the future. By the age of 16, he had become one of the leading tennis players in Iran, but his career seemed to have come to an end when professional sports were banned in the country after the 1979 Islamic Revolution . In his own words, for three years he made a living playing backgammon ^[3] . However, in 1981 he won the Revolution Cup in Tehran , the main prize of which was a trip to France, and after arriving in Europe he remained there ^[4] .

In a short time after the move, Bahrami lowered his savings in the casino, being left without a livelihood. The financial support of his friends helped him to last until the moment when, having returned to his good shape, he began to successfully perform in tennis tournaments in France. When Bahrami's French visa expired, he found himself in the position of an illegal immigrant, not wanting to obtain refugee status. In 1981 , making his way to the third round of the French Open , he attracted the attention of the newspapers L'Équipe and Le Figaro , through which his visa was renewed. To full participation in tennis Grand Prix tournaments , he was again admitted only at 30 years old ^[3] . He continued to perform on a professional tour until the early 1990s, and then joined the newly created ATP Champions Tour , designed for tennis players over the age of 35. In addition to performing in veteran tournaments, Bahrami, considered the father of "acrobatic tennis" and nicknamed "maestro" and "prince of clowns", spends considerable time on tour trips, taking part in exhibition tournaments and sports shows. Among the tricks he demonstrates - serving from under the arm or with six balls at the same time, a “candle” between the legs, taking the ball into his pocket, punches behind his back, a racket handle or in “slow motion”, as well as balls twisted so hard that touching the court on the side of the enemy, bounce back through the net back to its half court ^{[4] [5] [2]} .

Since 1989, Mansour Bahrami is a French citizen ^[6] . His wife, Frederic, is French. Mansour and Frederick have two children - Sam and Antoine. In 2006, Bahrami published the autobiographical book “Courtyard of Miracles” ( French: Le Court des Miracles ); in 2009, the English edition of this book was published ^[4] .

In 1974, Bahrami first appeared in the Iranian national team in the Davis Cup , losing both his meetings with rivals from the UK team . In 1976, he brought the Iranian national team two points in a match with the Irish, but his team lost with a total score of 2: 3. The following year, Bahrami almost single-handedly prevailed over the Algerian team, winning both singles and doubles, and then brought the Iranian team the only point in the lost match against the Poles. In 1978, he brought the national team points in matches with teams from Poland, Turkey and Switzerland.

The Islamic revolution and emigration to France caused a long break in Bahrami's tennis career. He was able to return to professional tennis only in the mid-80s. Since 1986, he began to show good results again in professional tournaments. So, in 1986, he reached the semifinals of the Grand Prix tournament in Metz in singles, and in pairs he went to the finals of three Grand Prix tournaments in France and the FRG at once and won the Challenger in Neu-Ulm , earning 19 thousand in a year dollars. 1987 was marked by the finals of the prestigious dirt tournament in Monte Carlo paired with Dane Michael Mortensen . In the quarter finals, they outplayed one of the strongest couples in the world - the French Yannick Noah and Guy Forge . In September 1988, after a relatively unsuccessful season, Bahrami, who ranked 236th in the ranking, joining forces with strong Czech doubles player Tomasz Schmid , won his first Grand Prix tournament in Geneva .

1989 was the year of the biggest success in Bahrami's career. At the French Open, he paired with another representative of France, Eric Vinogradsky, unexpectedly reached the finals. It should be noted, however, that the lot was favorable to them and on the way to the final they did not meet a single seeded pair. After the French championship, before the end of the season Bahrami reached the final of the Grand Prix tournaments in doubles twice more and one of them - in Toulouse - won. His prize for this year amounted to more than 47 thousand dollars. In the next two seasons, approaching 35 years and already minimizing singles, he once again reached the finals in the tournaments of the new ATP Tour, which replaced the Grand Prix. In the fall of 1990, in Paris, together with Vinogradsky, he defeated the highest-seeded rivals in his career, beating the second pair of the world - Americans Rick Leach and Jim Pugh .

In fact, having completed his professional career by the end of 1992 , Bahrami, who, in addition to French and Iranian citizenship, returned to the Iranian national team in the Davis Cup in 1993, which he played until 1997 , during which time he won several key meetings with rivals from Thailand, Pakistan and Taiwan. Since 1993, he also began performing on the ATP Champions Tour, designed for tennis players aged 35 and over. In 1999, he achieved his highest success on this tour, winning the tournament in Doha (Qatar) after defeating Henri Leconte , Pat Cash and Yannick Noah. Bahrami continues to perform in veteran and exhibition tournaments and matches, in particular, appearing annually in the popular exhibition tournament in Albert Hall (London).

Victories (2)

Lost (10)

• Mansour Bahrami. The Court Jester: My Story . - AuthorHouseTM, 2009. - ISBN 978-1-4389-8794-1 .

• mansourbahrami.co.uk - the official website of Mansour Bahrami
• Profile on ATP website

• Profile on the Davis Cup website

• Mansour Bahrami on the ATP Champions Tour website