![]() So I leaned across and asked her if she spoke English. Bahrami also talks about his friendships with some of the great tennis players - Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Ilie Nastase, Henri Leconte - and many. ‘I didn’t know what to do,’ he recalled. ‘But I noticed this nice looking girl stuck in her car right next to me. Turning onto the Champs Elysees, he got stuck in the inevitable New Year’s Eve traffic jam. A year later, at 11.51 on 31 December 1981 to be precise, fate took hold of his life. So in 1980, leaving his family behind, Bahrami fled to Paris, speaking only English and Farsi. ‘But I had a friend called Reza who knew someone high up in the Iranian Government, and I got a visa to travel to France and Switzerland.’ ‘I didn’t know what I was going to do,’ Bahrami told me when we recalled those dramatic days in Iran’s history in a recent phone conversation. ‘Yes, please,’ I said quickly, and within a few minutes a remarkably unruffled Mansour appeared, picked up his tennis bag and went straight off to the Ghezira Club to practise. He needed to stretch his legs.īahrami was still playing under the Iranian flag at that time, but all that changed three years later when, in 1979, the Shah was ousted and tennis was banned by the new Islamic regime in Tehran which considered it an American capitalist sport. His talent was obvious and he reached the Davis Cup team (and helped the team to victory at the age of just sixteen) but in the late 1970s the Islamic Revolution within Iran led to tennis being viewed as a capitalist and elitist sport.I think I used the art of friendly persuasion rather than an outright bribe on a friendly Sudanese doctor to get the certificate before flying up to Cairo, so I was well equipped when the Egyptian immigration official looked down his list of detainees and said, ‘Ah yes, Bahrami. In reference to his showmanship, his 2009 English-language autobiography was titled The Court Jester. Bahrami is considered to have "found his niche" on the Association of Tennis Professionals Champions Tour, where his flamboyant style and propensity for trick shots chimed with the tour"s more entertainment-oriented remit. ![]() Senior tournaments Bahrami has been a mainstay of the seniors invitational tennis circuit for about 20 years. While his best days were already behind him, and never having maximized his potential in singles, he became a successful doubles player who even reached the French Open doubles final in 1989 with Eric Winogradsky. In desperation he fled to France with his life savings, which he gambled in a casino and lost. He spent the next three years playing backgammon as all tennis courts were closed down. The time came when the Iranian team was short of players and Bahrami was finally permitted to play the game on a tennis court. While only moderately successful on the main Association of Tennis Professionals tour, his showmanship has made him a long-standing and popular figure in invitational tournaments. He is Iranian with dual France nationality since 1989. #The court jester mansour bahrami professional#Mansour Bahrami is a professional tennis player. ![]() While only moderately successful on the main Association of Tennis Professionals tour, his showmanship has made him a long-standing and popular figure in invitational tournaments. Nicknamed the Court Jester, thanks to tricks including holding six tennis balls in his hand while playing a set, Mansour Bahrami and his Bahrami Army of. ![]()
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