The Iranian (he also has a French passport) Mansour Bahrami is one of the most exciting tennis players to watch. He fled to France in the 1980s in order to play tennis, which was disallowed in his home country because of the Islamic Revolution.Whilst his best days were behind him and he never maximised his potential in singles, he became a successful doubles player who even reached the French Open doubles final in 1989 in partnership with Eric Winogradsky. His weakness and indeed his strength was an inescapable thirst for providing a crowd with a show. He often lost in the early rounds of singles tournaments due to his tendency to play trick shots from the off or when he was bored with winning too easily. He was able to play more seriously in doubles where he felt that he could not be seen to be letting his partner down.
After his professional career, Bahrami became one of the main attractions on the senior tour. His sense of humour shines through all of his matches and the crowd are never sure of his latest move, be it serving whilst holding six balls (although he is known to hold 21), an under arm serve, catching the ball in his pocket, deliberately missing a smash or playing an imaginary, slow-motion point. Fame came to Bahrami over time to the extent that he has now played within all of the major tennis venues throughout the world including the show courts at Wimbledon and the French Open.
Please note, Mansour Bahrami is not playing on Sunday.