Yannick Noah warns Roger Federer: "I could send him my lawyer"

• Sports

Yannick Noah across the board, with an hard observation on today's tennis players: "Anyone who tries to break the mold is silenced". And the warning to Roger Federer also arrives: "The tweener did not invent him. You can also send him the lawyer." Yannick Noah has always had some difficulty staying in the box.

Histrionic character and symbol of French tennis, he brought his talent up to number 3 in the world, winning Roland Garros in singles in 1983 and in doubles in 1984: "When I beat reigning champion Wilander at the Roland Garros I felt in heaven.

I had carried out a work of years." The last transalpine to smile on his home clay-courts, Noah also linked his career to Italy, where he triumphed in Rome in 1985 before winning his penultimate success on the Indoor in Milan in 1988.

Today he is an attentive spectator of the movement: "When I was playing, I was looking for the show to electrify the public and charge me: today's players are extraordinary, perhaps the best in history, but after three exchanges you know what shots they will look for.

Those who try to get out of the box, like Kyrgios or Paire, are silenced: tennis players should be free to express themselves on the pitch, even with a dirty word." Talent and predictability, an almost impossible coexistence in the way of being and living of the great Yannick, who has a name and surname regarding the initiation of his passion.

A journey through time, up to the sun of the 70s in Cameroon: "This sport became mine thanks to Arthur Ashe, who in 1972 went on tour in Yaoundé: he started dribbling with some guys and invited the French federation to give me a scholarship, so I moved to Nice.

A few years later I found him on a field at Wimbledon: it was the Juniores tournament, I didn't want to play so my legs were shaking." Already the legs, which Noah also knew how to exploit with his magical tweener: "They attributed it to Federer, but Vilas invented it, imitated by me ... Now that he's retired, I could send him the lawyer."