Iranian showman Mansour Bahrami gave 1,000 delighted fans a unique pre-Wimbledon appetiser at St George's Hill Tennis Club in Weybridge last Friday.

In a special exhibition doubles match, he joined fellow ex-pros Mikael Pernfors and Peter McNamara in a quartet completed by club head pro David Collins.

Bahrami, 50, travels for 40 weeks a year alongside the legends of the game on the Champions Tour, treating fans around the world to his wacky on-court antics.

Whether it be hitting a volley between his legs or smashing a ball high into the sky and catching it in his pocket, he is always pure genius.

"My parents could not buy me a racket, so from the ages of five to 13 I was playing with a piece of wood, a dustpan - whatever I could get my hands on," he said.

"I still love the crowds, and I have lost many matches because I just wanted to entertain people - it has always been like that my whole life."

The fun and games began early as he delivered a swing-and-miss backhand serve to McNamara - with six balls in his hand and one in his mouth at the time.

In the following game, he teased Collins by hitting a succession of lobs and coaching him on his smash technique, much to the amusement of club members in the crowd.

And at set-point up in the second set, Bahrami complained that the other three players and the umpire were conspiring against him.

So Pernfors leaped over the net mid-point and suddenly it was three versus one - until the Swede completed the masterplan by deliberately dumping a volley in the net.

It was tennis entertainment at its finest, with Bahrami and Pernfors eventually prevailing 10-8 in a third-set champions' tie-break.

Bahrami, who has a new DVD entitled "The Man Behind The Moustache", added: "It's great that the people here enjoyed it - it's a good club. When I see the kids come here and they are smiling, that means more to me than any win."