Yannick Noah is a French former professional tennis player and singer.
28 Facts About Yannick Noah
2.
Yannick Noah is the father of former NBA player Joakim Yannick Noah.
3.
Yannick Noah was living in Cameroon when he made his debut in tennis and was discovered at age 11 by Arthur Ashe and Charlie Pasarell.
4.
Yannick Noah soon showed an amazing talent that eventually brought him to the French Tennis Federation's training center in Nice in 1971.
5.
Yannick Noah turned professional in 1977 and won his first top-level singles title in 1978 in Manila.
6.
Yannick Noah became France's most prominent tennis hero in 1983, becoming the first Frenchman in 37 years to win the French Open, one of the four Grand Slam singles events.
7.
Yannick Noah remains the last and most recent Frenchman to have won the French Open men's singles title.
8.
Yannick Noah won the French Open men's doubles title in 1984.
9.
Yannick Noah was the men's doubles runner-up at the 1985 US Open, and the 1987 French Open.
10.
Yannick Noah reached the quarter-final stage or better on 10 occasions at Grand Slam level.
11.
Yannick Noah notably admitted using marijuana prior to matches in 1981, saying that amphetamines were the real problem in tennis as they were performance-enhancing drugs.
12.
Yannick Noah was awarded the Philippe Chatrier Award in 2005 and was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame that same year.
13.
Yannick Noah remains France's highest male ranked player since the introduction of rankings in 1973.
14.
In 2017, Yannick Noah added a third Davis Cup win for France under his guidance as captain, defeating Belgium in the final in Lille.
15.
In 2005, Yannick Noah performed at Bob Geldof's Live 8 concert, a fundraiser aimed at alleviating poverty in Africa.
16.
On 21 July 2009, Yannick Noah made his US live debut, headlining a concert in front of a packed house at the popular free outdoor performing arts festival in New York City, Central Park SummerStage.
17.
In 2010, Yannick Noah made a comeback with the release of Frontieres, his eighth album, containing the single "Angela", a tribute to Angela Davis.
18.
Yannick Noah founded Fete le Mur in 1996, a tennis charity and adaptation for underprivileged children, especially in the poor areas and the banlieues.
19.
Yannick Noah is a spokesman for Appel des Enfants pour l'Environnement that was started by the World Wide Fund for Nature.
20.
Yannick Noah took part in telethons and sponsored the Telethon 2005.
21.
Partly because of his involvement in a number of charities, Yannick Noah topped the list of the most favourite French personalities according to a joint survey of Ifop and Le Journal du Dimanche in 2007.
22.
Yannick Noah first attended school in Yaounde, where his parents had settled after meeting and marrying in France.
23.
Yannick Noah then left Cameroon to attend a sports-and-study program in France under the sponsorship of the French Tennis Federation.
24.
Yannick Noah dropped out of the program at age 17 to move to full time tennis schedule.
25.
Yannick Noah's father, Zacharie Yannick Noah, was a former professional Cameroonian football star who won the French Cup with Sedan in 1961.
26.
Yannick Noah's mother, Marie-Claire, is a former captain of France's basketball team and teacher.
27.
Yannick Noah is the owner of a restaurant in Saint Barthelemy in the French West Indies called Do Brazil.
28.
The Paris administrative tribunal court confirmed the decision alleging that Yannick Noah kept three non-declared bank accounts in Switzerland, the Netherlands and the United States.