Mansour Bahrami (; born 26 April 1956) is an Iranian-French former professional

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

player. He is

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

ian with French nationality since 1989. While not highly successful on the

ATP Tour The ATP Tour (known as ATP World Tour between January 2009 and December 2018) is the sole worldwide top-tier tennis tour for men organized by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) founded in 1990 that replaced the earlier dual Grand Prix ...

, his showmanship has made him a long-standing and popular figure in invitational tournaments.

Early life

As a child in Iran, Mansour Bahrami taught himself to play tennis using an old metal frying pan and other kitchen utensils and did not own his first tennis racquet until he was aged 13. In his early 20s, following Iran's

Islamic Revolution The Iranian Revolution (, ), also known as the 1979 Revolution, or the Islamic Revolution of 1979 (, ) was a series of events that culminated in the overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979. The revolution led to the replacement of the Im ...

in the late 1970s, tennis was viewed as a

capitalist Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...

and elitist sport and therefore banned. Because all tennis courts in Iran were closed down, he spent the next three years playing

backgammon Backgammon is a two-player board game played with counters and dice on tables boards. It is the most widespread Western member of the large family of tables games, whose ancestors date back at least 1,600 years. The earliest record of backgammo ...

daily in Tehran, until he won a local tournament with the prize of airplane flights to Athens. He paid to have the tickets changed to

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

’s '' Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel'' describing his early life.HBO’s Real Sports Profiles Mansour Bahrami Tomorrow at 10
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Tennis career

Mansour Bahrami reached the Davis Cup team at the age of 16. Due to the forced break in his tennis play from the Islamic revolution fallout, his potential in singles was never fully realized. He became a successful doubles player, winning two tournaments and reaching the 1989 French Open doubles final with

Éric Winogradsky Éric Winogradsky (born 22 April 1966) is a French tennis coach and a former professional player. Career He never reached a final in singles on the ATP Tour, but was much more successful in doubles, winning two titles and finishing runner-up ...

Senior tournaments

Bahrami has been a mainstay of the seniors invitational tennis circuit for more than 25 years. Bahrami is considered to have "found his niche" on the

ATP Champions Tour The ATP Champions Tour was a men's tennis tour intended for former tennis professionals, who have since retired from mainstream professional tennis touring (The ATP). The Tour brings together many of the greatest tennis players in history for ...

,ATP profile
/ref> where his flamboyant, humorous style and propensity for trick shots make him a crowd favorite in the tour's more entertainment-oriented sphere. In reference to his showmanship, his 2009 English-language autobiography was titled ''The Court Jester''. His comic turns on the court often include faking serves; slow-motion miming; hitting balls backwards between his legs, over his shoulder, or from the back; and playing while lying down, seated, or kneeling.

ATP career finals

Doubles: 12 (2–10)

Challenger finals

Doubles: 5 (3–2)

Bibliography and filmography

* * * ''The Man behind the Moustache'', DVD (2009).

Notes

References

External links

* * * *
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bahrami, Mansour French male tennis players Iranian emigrants to France Iranian male tennis players Naturalized citizens of France Sportspeople from Arak, Iran Sportspeople of Iranian descent 1956 births Living people 20th-century French sportsmen