Yannick Noah and as the co-founder, with his mother, of a charity organization for underprivileged children. Noah is also the father of Joakim Noah of the NBA Memphis Grizzlies Born in the north of France in 1960, Yannick Noah is the son of a Cameroonian footballer, Zacharie Noah, and his French wife Marie-Claire. After a sports injury in 1963, Noah's father returned to Africa with his family. He was living in Cameroon when he made his debut in tennis and was discovered at age 11 by Arthur Ashe and Charlie Pasarell. He soon showed an amazing talent that eventually brought him to
Tweener (tennis) version was called the "Gran Willy"), Yannick Noah, Ilie Nastase, Gabriela Sabatini (whose version became known as "the Sabatweenie"), Roger Federer, Juan Martín del Potro, Nick Kyrgios, Daria Kasatkina, Agnieszka Radwańska and Simona Halep. The origin of the backward shot is unclear; both Argentine Guillermo Vilas and French player Yannick Noah claim to have invented it. Both players used it somewhat regularly in the 1970s. Vilas was inspired by an advertisement where a polo player hit a backwards shot between his horse's hind legs. He debuted his version in a 1974 exhibition match at the courts of Obras Sanitarias Club