Thursday, May. 21, 2009

Noah/Wilander — 1983

The only Frenchman to win the French Open since 1946 was actually discovered in Cameroon as an 11-year-old by the great African-American champion Arthur Ashe, who recommended him to the French Tennis Federation. Yannick Noah used his supreme athletic ability, a wildly partisan crowd and his own personal charisma to overcome his technically superior opponent, defending champ Mats Wilander 6-2, 7-5, 7-6. "He is an artist of life," Wilander would say later of Noah. "Wherever he goes, there is sunshine. We love him for that."

See pictures of Wimbledon from an alternative perspective.