Yannick Noah Noah's father, Zacharie Noah, was a former professional Cameroonian football star who won the French Cup with Sedan in 1961. His mother, Marie-Claire, is a former captain of France's basketball team and teacher. Noah has five children, of whom two were from his first marriage to Cécilia Rodhe (Miss Sweden 1978 and now a sculptor): Joakim (born in 1985) and Yelena (born in 1986). Joakim plays basketball for the NBA Memphis Grizzlies and for the French team. Yelena is a model, mildly famous in the world of fashion. They don't live in France but in the U.S. With his second
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