Chances are that sports fans have seen tennis magician Mansour Bahrami before. His trick shots and tomfoolery on court are famous around the world despite having a strong professional career.
I remember my first time seeing Mansour for the first time; it was the Seniors Tour at the Royal Albert Hall perhaps in the late 90s or early 2000s. I remember one particular trick in particular where he grabs a seat and constantly lobs the ball up to his opponents for smashing. Over the intervening years I have become a huge fan of Mansour Bahrami, probably one of the most talented players ever to hold a racket.
The Book
Mansour Bahrami’s autobiography The Court Jester: My Story tells of Mansour’s life journey from growing up in Iran during the revolution. Mansour’s family was hugely poor, were in exile. The book details the life story, the obstacles in his path and goes way deeper than just sport.
Take a look at the press release below, we have been working our way through the book and a book review will follow. We have also been granted some time with the man himself and hope to be able to publish our interview soon.
MANSOUR BAHRAMI—FACE TO FACE,” Candid Discussions led by Hamid Gharavi (with prefaces by Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe) was recently published by Amphora Editions in advance of 2026 Roland Garros and The Championships at Wimbledon.
Its subject and “co-author” is the Franco-Iranian tennis legend Mansour Bahrami—one of the most charismatic and popular tennis players of all time—a man universally recognized for his talent and humanity on and off the court. The book is novel in form and substance offering readers a mixture of entertaining, candid, and at times very vibrant and moving exchanges, perspectives and anecdotes on tennis and beyond. Tense and intense, nostalgic and forward-looking, MANSOUR BAHRAMI—FACE TO FACE is a witty and in-depth conversation with a master.
The book is co-authored with Bahrami’s Franco-Iranian friend Hamid Gharavi, an attorney and member of the New York and Paris Bars and founder of Derains & Gharavi, one of the industry leaders in international conflict resolution, including in sports and tennis. Gharavi uses his legal skills to “push” Bahrami—cross-examine him, so to speak—on his tennis career and on a variety of other subjects, driving Mansour to revisit poignant historical events and moments along his extraordinary journey.