Succes 2011: Yannick Noah, the last french tennis player that won Roland Garros

Yannick Noah (born 18 May 1960 in Sedan, Ardennes) is a former professional tennis player from France. He is best remembered for being the last French man to win the French Open in 1983, and as a highly-successful captain of France's Davis Cup and Fed Cup teams. Since his retirement from the game, Noah has remained in the public eye as a very popular music performer and as the co-founder, with his mother, of a charity organization for underprivileged children.
Noah turned professional in 1977, and won his first top-level singles title in 1978 in Manila.
Noah became France's most prominent tennis hero in 1983, becoming the first Frenchman in 37 years to win the French Open. He dropped only one set during the two-week long tournament, and defeated the defending-champion Mats Wilander in straight sets in the final 6–2, 7–5, 7–6. Noah also became only the second black male to win a Grand Slam singles event (after Arthur Ashe). He remains the last native to have won the French Open men's singles title.

During his career, which spanned almost two decades, Noah captured a total of 23 singles titles and 16 doubles titles. His highest singles ranking was third in the world, in 1986.
Noah won the French Open men's doubles title in 1984 (with compatriot and best friend Henri Leconte). He was also the men's doubles runner-up at the 1985 U.S. Open (with Leconte), and the 1987 French Open (with compatriot Guy Forget). In August 1986, Noah attained the World No. 1 doubles ranking, which he would hold for a total of 19 weeks.
Noah played on France's Davis Cup team for eleven years, with an overall win–loss record of 39–22 (26–15 in singles, and in 13–7 doubles). In 1982, he was part of the French team which reached the Davis Cup final, where they were defeated 4–1 by the United States.
Nine years later, in 1991, Noah captained the French team which won the Davis Cup for the first time in 59 years, defeating a heavily-favoured US team 3–1 in the final. This feat was repeated in 1996, when France defeated Sweden 3–2 in the final held in Malmö.
In 1997, Noah captained France's Fed Cup team to its first-ever victory in that competition.
He notably admitted using marijuana prior to matches in 1981, saying that amphetamines were the real problem in tennis as they were performance enhancing drugs.
Noah was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 2005. He remains France's highest ranked player since the introduction of rankings in 1973.

Since retiring from playing tennis, Noah has developed a career as a popular singer, performing throughout Europe. 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 collaboration with Jean-Jacques Goldman, Noah released a second album in 2000 entitled simply Yannick Noah, and in October 2006, scored major French radio airplay hit with the singles Donne-moi une vie and Aux arbres citoyens from a new album entitled Charango.
In 2005, Noah performed at Bob Geldof's Live 8 concert – a fundraiser aimed at alleviating poverty in Africa.
On 21 July 2009, Noah made his U.S. live debut, headlining a concert in front of a packed house at the popular free outdoor performing arts festival in New York City, Central Park SummerStage. The performance was part of France's global music celebration Fête de la Musique.
Noah is very active in charity work. He supports 'Enfants de la Terre', a charity run by his mother, Marie-Claire, and founded 'Fête le Mur' in 1996, a tennis charity for underprivileged children, and was mentioned in association with this charity in the June 2008 French GCSE listening paper in England.
He is also the owner of a restaurant in Saint Barthelemy in the French West Indies called Do Brazil.