Yannick Noah
*Yannick Noah was born on this date in 1960. He is a Black French (Cameroon) professional tennis player (now retired) and singer.
Born in Sedan, in the north of France, Noah is the son of Cameroonian soccer or footballer Zacharie Noah and his French wife Marie-Claire, a former captain of France's basketball team and teacher. 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. He soon showed an amazing talent that brought him to the French Tennis Federation's training center in Nice in 1971. He won the French Open in 1983 and is currently the captain of France's Davis Cup and Fed Cup teams. During his career, which spanned almost two decades, Noah captured 23 singles titles and 16 doubles titles, reaching a career-high singles ranking of world No. 3 in July 1986 and attaining the World No. 1 doubles ranking the following month.
Noah has five children, of whom two were from his first marriage to Cécilia Rodhe (Miss Sweden 1978 and now a sculptor): Joakim is a basketball player, and Yelena is a model. With his second wife, the British model Heather Stewart-Whyte, Noah has two daughters: Elijah and Jénayé. Now he is married to French TV producer Isabelle Camus, with whom he has a son named Joalukas. He began his music career in 1991 with the album Black or What, featuring the popular track "Saga Africa", which he made the stadium sing with his players after the famous Davis Cup final win. In 1993, he released the album Urban Tribu with the single "Get on Back", followed by the album Zam Zam in 1998.
Since his tennis court retirement, Noah has been very active in charity work. He supports Enfants de la Terre, a charity created and run by his mother, Marie-Claire, in 1988, a charity organization for underprivileged children.
