Photo : Georges Biard, CC BY-SA 3.0
Yannick Noah
The boy from Yaoundé who won the French Open
Born in 1960
Cameroonian roots : Born in Sedan to a Cameroonian father, the footballer Zacharie Noah, and a French mother; he spent his childhood in Yaoundé.
Who are they?
A tennis player turned singer, born in Sedan in 1960. He took up tennis in Yaoundé, where Arthur Ashe spotted him at 11, then left to train in France, at the national federation’s centre in Nice.
What made them famous
In 1983 he won the French Open, beating defending champion Mats Wilander in the final, and remains the last Frenchman to win the men’s singles title. As captain, he later led France to Davis Cup victory in 1991, 1996 and 2017.
Key facts
- World number three in singles in July 1986, he also reached number one in doubles that year.
- Inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2005.
- He began a singing career in 1991, with ‘Saga Africa’ as his first hit.
- His father, Zacharie Noah, died in Yaoundé in January 2017; Yannick then moved back to Cameroon and became chief of Etoudi, a former village that is now a district of Yaoundé, fulfilling his father’s wish.