“I used to tell people I was a singer when I was losing a tennis match,” he said.
He has traveled back and forth between Europe and America, showing up in the stands at basketball games while watching his son Joachim become a college and NBA star. Noah may not be at Roland Garros much this year, but Joachim was often in the box of American Francis Tiafoe, the son of African immigrants and one of the top black players on the tour.
Noah now spends most of his time in Cameroon. A photo attached to his cell phone number shows him standing in front of a turquoise ocean, sipping a straw in a full martini glass, peeking out from under the brim of his baseball cap.
Gone were the dark dreadlocks, replaced by orderly, properly thinned salt-and-pepper hair. I have lines on my forehead and dark circles under my eyes. But the gap-toothed smile, soft voice, his “There’s more life than tennis” mentality, and his combination of pomp and friendliness all remain. Midway through the concert, he circled the stadium, singing into the microphone with one hand while high-fiving and hugging the audience with the other.
He said the growing distance between the public and tennis players worries him, especially at a time when social media is supposed to bring fans and tennis players closer together. He said the game’s code of conduct did little to help, stifling players and preventing them from expressing their emotions on the court.
The emotional outbursts of McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, and even Noah once helped draw regular sports fans to elite matches. Also, he said, emotion is at the heart of the sport. Ask the players he coached to win the Davis Cup title what he talked to them about, he said. He rarely mentioned tennis, only his emotions.
