Tennis Prose




Jul/10

23

Biofile with Mansour Bahrami

Status: “Tennis’ greatest entertainer.” 1989 French Open doubles finalist.

DOB: April 26, 1956 In: Arak, Iran

Tennis Inspirations: “I had one hero, a tennis player from Iran, his name was Shirazad Akhari. I just liked his style. I was his ballboy. He was a member on Davis Cup team. Later on it was Ilie Nastase.”

Hobbies/Interests: “I like to play backgammon. Unfortunately, I don’t find enough people to play with. But I can play for 20 hours. (Straight?) Yep.”

Favorite Movies: “I always have One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest coming to mind. That is one of the best movies I’ve ever seen and I love Jack Nicholson as an actor.”

Musical Tastes: “I listen to every kind of music. I don’t really like hard metal and techno but the rest is fine.”

Favorite Meal: “It’s a meal called Chelo kebab. It’s a Persian dish and I love that.”

Favorite Ice Cream Flavor: “Haagen Dasz. I like – give me some flavors – I don’t know what you call it in English. I like Haagen Dasz ice creams.”

First Tennis Memory: “I first started I was five, six years old. I was on tennis courts, I was playing – I played the early years with a piece of wood or a dustpan because I couldn’t afford to buy a racquet. From the age of 5 to 13 I didn’t have racquets so I played with anything that resembled to the racquet. And so that’s how it started. Then when I was 12, this guy Shirazad Akhari, my hero, gave me a racquet and I went to the court to play for one minute and the guards, they got me and they beat me up till I almost dying. They broke my racquet and that was my memory of my first racquet.”

First Job: “I was always playing tennis all my life. My first job I was six years old. I was ballboy and getting ten cents an hour ballboying for people.”

First Car: “It was an Iranian made car, yellow. Hillman, English, but they set it up in Iran.”

Greatest Career Moment: “I think it was when I was in the French Open final (1989), when I was almost 34. French Open doubles final.”

Most Painful Moment: “French Open final. Because (it was) a very bad day. We started very late and people had left. It was very bad, rainy weather. And Graf was beating everyone 0 and 0 usually but this time in the final she lost I think to Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario something like 8-6 in the third. The match was very long. And when we went to the courts a half an hour later – the same time they had the final of the Five Nations Cup of rugby near Roland Garros. So everybody had left and I hated it. And I played in front of empty stadium and it was worst moment of my tennis career (lost with Eric Winogradsky to P.McEnroe/Grabb).”

Funny Tennis Memory: “Every time I play I see people laugh and makes me laugh too.”

Closest Tennis Friends: “Nastase, Yannick Noah, Leconte, Eric Winogradsky – those are my very good friends.”

Funniest Players Encountered: “Today, I don’t see very much. Yannick Noah, Nastase – he’s a very good friend of mine, I just love the guy. Jose Luis Clerc.”

Toughest Competitors Encountered: “McEnroe. But, I mean, when I played him, he wasn’t at his best. In the seniors tour. Very, very tough.”

Childhood Dream: “I’ve always wanted to play tennis. My dream is I want peace everywhere, that’s my dream. My always dream.”

Favorite Players To Watch: “Agassi, Federer, Nadal, Roddick, Coria.”

Early Tennis Memory: “When I left Iran for the first time 1973, I went to England. The guy who was taking me there from Iran – I couldn’t speak one word in English. We were housed in a place called King George House. It was a terrible place to be. They gave me a very small room. And I got there and they left me there for three days. I was very afraid to go out of this place. I think if I go out of city I might get lost. I can’t speak language, what will I say? After three days, the guy come to me and said, Come on Mansour, let’s go, you have to go play. For the first time in my life I saw the tennis courts on grass. And I had not eaten for three days and they said, You have to go play. And I was waiting there – I had two racquets – one was almost broken – the other one was not in great shape. And after ten minutes waiting I saw somebody come in – Billy Martin. And at that time everybody thought he was going to be the greatest player all time. But actually he played his best tennis when he was a junior. And he came in and beat me 6-0 in the first set. Second set was 5-0. We were changing sides. And the guy who brought me was like, Mansour, that’s good. Just carry on like that. I just tell him, What are you talking about? It’s gonna be 6-0 6-0 in 30 seconds. He was just happy seeing me frustrated and lose 6-0 6-0. That was my first memory going out of Iran.”

People Qualities Most Admired: “Honesty. And then I don’t like lies. People who get very cocky, I don’t like them at all.”

More Biofiles at www.thebiofile.com

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1 comment

  • Dan Markowitz · July 24, 2010 at 3:53 pm

    Brahami is, possibly, the greatest tennis entertainer ever. But I never see him play anymore since the Connors senior tour dropped off the map, at least ten years now. But Brahmi used to mimic McEnroe beautifully and he would hit a ball straight up into the sky and have it land in his tennis shorts pocket.

    He played with a zeal and a passion and humor. I saw him smoking cigarettes off the court, but he seems to be one of those ageless guys who will play and live forever. He’s right, there are no jokesters in the game anymore, the way he was and Leconte, Nastase, even Connors later in his career. Some of the players have sense of humors now, like Roddick or Djokovic, but their competitiveness is questioned when they show it. The countless hours in training now at the junior level creates tennis players with minds like accountants rather than showmen.

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