Yannick Noah and Arthur Ashe met in 1972, when the American tennis player was in Yaoundé during a tour of Africa. All it took was a few exchanges of balls for Arthur Ashe, tennis legend, the only African-American winner of a Grand Slam, to detect the potential of the young Franco-Cameroonian. That day, Arthur Ashe had donated his racket to Yannick Noah, and had told him that he hoped to find him one day at Wimbledon…
Years later, in 1978, Yannick Noah, who had since become a professional tennis player, received an invitation for a doubles at Wimbledon… An invitation from Arthur Ashe. “Are you sure there’s not a mistake? That I’m going to play Wimbledon in doubles with Arthur Ashe?”, he says to imitate his reaction at the time, in the podcast “Yannick Noah, between you and me”. Since their meeting in reality, Arthur Ashe has followed the progress of the young tennis prodigy from afar… and he intends to honor his promises. “And then I panicked. It’s a little too much.“ At 18, Yannick Noah still worships his role model. “You should know that at the time, I played with the same necklace as Arthur Ashe, I tried to walk like Arthur Ashe”, says the French star at the microphone of Jacques Vendroux. In 1975 again, he had refused to play the doubles final at the Tennis Club of Angoulême to be able to watch Arthur Ashe’s match against Jimmy Connors in the Wimbledon final. And now he’s getting ready to play with his hero
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“The day before, the story is in all the newspapers: Arthur Ashe found a little guy in Africa, and they will play together six years later on Central”
The match that awaits Yannick Noah that day is legendary: Arthur Ashe and him face Andrew Pattinson and Bernie Mitton. “Two blacks against two apartheidians, that was something!” exclaims Yannick Noah again. But as the big moment approaches, the excitement gives way to fear. “My knees were shaking. A bit like when I have malaria [NDLR : le paludisme], there is something uncontrollable.” Just before entering Central, it scrolls. He asks Arthur Ashe not to play. The American manages to reassure him and the two men enter the court. Yannick Noah remembers: “I had seen this thing so much, I had dreamed of it so much. I had read everything on Central. I knew where the clock was. I knew the court even before I walked on it.”
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“I was on autopilot”
The pair Arthur Ashe and Yannick Noah finally wins. “When we win the match, I jump into his arms,” recalls Yannick Noah. “He says to me: ‘Yannick, it’s only the first round.’” But for Yannick Noah, it’s a daydream. He has not forgotten where he comes from. In “Yannick Noah, between you and me”, he confides: “Can you imagine, a little guy from Cameroon. There were 200 of us all over the country playing to the maximum, tennis didn’t exist, and I find myself, a little guy, winning with Arthur who had won me his racket six years before…”
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To listen in full to Yannick Noah’s intimate and rare account of the strongest moments of his life, find the podcast “Yannick Noah, between you and me” produced by Europe 1 Studio on your favorite listening platform.