After guiding France to success in the Davis Cup and Fed Cup, Yannick Noah was offered a major new challenge on Thursday, being named captain of the men’s wheelchair tennis team for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. “Our French Paralympic team will be under the leadership of a captain called Yannick Noah. He will be captain of the French men’s team for the JOPs. He will come and coach our teams. Yannick will take on this challenge, because it is is a man of challenge, he has demonstrated it, he is a leader of men”, announced Gilles Moretton, president of the FFT, during a press conference at Roland-Garros.
“A man of challenge”, now aged 63, who managed to meet them one by one during his brilliant career in tennis. Firstly when he was a player, with his unforgettable coronation at Roland-Garros in 1983, which remains the last victory of a French player in a Grand Slam.
Mental trainer… at PSG
Then when he took on the role of captain of the French men’s and women’s teams, transmitting a rage to win which has worked miracles several times, to the point of inheriting the image of a wizard of winning. You only had to see the rebirth of Henri Leconte and the trance of Guy Forget in 1991 against the Americans Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi, to have proof of this unique know-how which led to the coronation in the Davis Cup, trophy which had not been raised by the Blues for 59 years.
Noah did it again in 1996, with another generation, that of Cédric Pioline, Guillaume Raoux, Arnaud Boetsch, but again with Guy Forget, to win the event once again in Sweden. Between two hits, including “Saga Africa” which also made him famous on the French music scene, he conveys an unusurped image of a winner, which fascinates even in football. PSG used his services as a mental trainer that same year and… won the European Cup Winners’ Cup.
The coronation of 2017
The following year, Noah took the reins of the French women’s team which he led to triumph in the Fed Cup (now Billie Jean King Cup), the first won by France, with Mary Pierce and Sandrine Testud in its ranks. and Nathalie Tauziat among others. After a hiatus of several years, he returns to service in this role of captain which sticks to him, at the helm of the men’s and women’s teams, with a third Davis Cup gleaned in 2017, beating Belgium in the final. The new challenge he is about to take on could add a few gold letters (Paralympic) to his prestigious record during the Games, which will take place from August 28 to September 8.