At 49, Mansour Bahrami is still the top ranked Iranian player. Though he feels flattered, Bahrami is hardly amused by that.
"I have been doing my part in promoting tennis in Iran for the past three or four years now... however, there is still no real progress for tennis," Bahrami admitted in front of a packed press conference to launch The Legends Rock Dubai at the Madinat Jumeirah yesterday.
Bahrami taught himself tennis while working as a ballboy in his native Tehran. He is said to have started with a racquet made from a dustbin lid and a wooden handle.
With political changes in Iran, Bahrami was forced to move to France for a new lease of life, which in the long run, has seen the Iranian as one of the best entertainers on the tour.
"The tennis federation in Iran does not have a big budget to promote the game. It is an expensive sport and not many can afford it," he acknowledged.
"But despite this, they have not done much for Iranian tennis. And it's not only tournaments (such as Satellites and Futures) that will make the difference. They also need to spot talent," Bahrami added.
Bjorn Borg too supported this line of thinking when asked the reason for the slump in Swedish tennis. "We do not have many young players who figure in the top-100 list at the moment," Borg rued.
"At the moment we have only two tournaments, and that's not enough for the youngsters to get some points and move on with the game," he agreed.
"But this is true for a lot of other countries as well," he added.
Also chipping in was the Romanian, Ilie Nastase. "It's more a question of time. At the moment, this is a concern. A sport needs time to evolve among the youngsters... and this definitely needs time," Nastase said.
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