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
Tennis shots was pioneered in the 1970s by Guillermo Vilas and Yannick Noah, both of whom claimed to have invented it; later players to use it include Ilie Năstase, Boris Becker, Gabriela Sabatini (whose version was called the "Sabatwini"), Andre Agassi, and Roger Federer, who helped popularize the shot. Forward-facing between-the-legs shots are also occasionally employed; they are sometimes called "front tweeners". The "Bucharest Backfire" is an over-the-shoulder backward shot, generally used to recover lobs. Tennis writer Bud Collins named it in honor of Romanian player Ilie Năstase, who popularized it. Another seldom used shot is a behind-the-back shot, which, as its