Mansour Bahrami

Mansour Bahrami (Persian: منصور بهرامی; born 26 April 1956) is an Iranian-French former professional tennis player. A successful doubles player, he won two titles, reaching the 1989 French Open final. Hailed as "the Trick Shot King", his showmanship has made him a long-standing and popular figure in invitational tournaments.

Bahrami became familiar with the tennis ball at the age of 2, since his father worked at the Amjadieh Sport Complex as a gardener.^[1] From the age 5 to 12 he worked as a ball boy in Amjadieh tennis courts.^[2] As a child in Iran, Mansour taught himself to play tennis using an old metal frying pan and other kitchen utensils since his father couldn't afford a racket for him. He didn't own his first tennis racket until the age of 12 when Shirzad Akbari, a member of the Iranian national tennis team whom Mansour was a ball boy for at the time, gave him one as a gift.^[2] At the age 15 he became the junior champion of Iran and, together with Moharram Khodaei, won the Asian junior doubles championship and later with Kambiz Derafshijavan won Asian Double championship.^[2][3] At the age of 16, he joined the national adult team in the Davis Cup. In his early 20s, following Iran's Islamic Revolution in the late 1970s, tennis was viewed as a capitalist and elitist sport and therefore banned.^[4] A few months after the revolution, the Islamic Regime permitted some tennis activities at the national level. Subsequently, licenses for several tournaments were issued. Mansour won one of this local tournament with the prize of airplane flights to Athens. He paid to have the tickets changed to Nice and left his girlfriend and family behind.^[5]

France offered Bahrami the opportunity to play small tournaments, but he saw that the cost of living was quite high and needed a way to maintain his finances until he could begin winning prize money. He gambled his savings in a casino in Nice and lost the lot on his first night. When his French visa ran out and without a carte de séjour (residence permit), he became a political refugee, an illegal immigrant, was constantly in fear of the police, regularly slept rough, and was forced to make food last for days. He relied on the financial support of friends until he was able to support himself.

In May 2023, he was featured on HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel describing his early life.^[6]

Mansour Bahrami reached the Davis Cup team at the age of 16.

Due to the forced break in his tennis play from the Islamic revolution fallout, his potential in singles was never fully realized. He became a successful doubles player, winning two tournaments and reaching the 1989 French Open doubles final with Éric Winogradsky. ^[7][8]

Bahrami has been a mainstay of the seniors invitational tennis circuit for more than 25 years.^[4] Bahrami is considered to have "found his niche" on the ATP Champions Tour,^[8] where his flamboyant, humorous style and propensity for trick shots make him a crowd favourite in the tour's more entertainment-oriented sphere. In reference to his showmanship, his 2009 English-language autobiography was titled The Court Jester.^[9] His comic turns on the court often include faking serves; slow-motion miming; hitting balls backwards between his legs, over his shoulder, or from the back; and playing while lying down, seated, or kneeling.

• Bahrami, Mansour (2006). Le court des miracles (in French). Paris: Le Cherche Midi. ISBN 2749107652.
• Bahrami, Mansour; Issartel, Jean (2009). The court jester : my story. Central Milton Keynes: TennisMania Trust, in association with AuthorHouse. ISBN 978-1438987941.
• The Man behind the Moustache, DVD (2009).

• Mansour Bahrami at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Mansour Bahrami at the International Tennis Federation
• Mansour Bahrami at the Davis Cup (archived)
• Mansour Bahrami at IMDb 
• Official website