Ilie Nastase

About

Ilie was the World No. 1 tennis player between 1973 and 1974 and is one of only five players in history to win more than 100 ATP professional titles. He was the first Romanian of international prominence on the tennis circuit, and it was largely through his play that Romania rose to the Davis Cup final on three occasions.

Ilie Nastase won seven Grand Slam titles: two in singles, three in men’s doubles, and two in mixed doubles. He also won four Masters Grand Prix year end championship titles and seven Championship Series titles (1970–73) the precursors to the current Masters 1000.

He was noted both for his sorcery with the racket and as an entertainer second to none, amusing spectators with his antics and mimicry.

Ilie was a right-hander and first came to attention in 1966 when he and his first mentor, countryman Ion Tiriac, reached the final of the French doubles.

His record in the season-closing Masters was spectacular. He won four times, 1971-73, ’75, and was finalist to Guillermo Vilas in five sets in 1974.

He is one of the five tennis players (third place) in the world who won more than 100 pro titles (57 singles and 45 doubles) according to the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) website.

Nastase played World Team Tennis for Hawaii in 1976 and Los Angeles in 1977-78, leading L.A. to the league title in 1978 as player-coach. Eight times between 1970 and 1977 he was ranked in the World Top Ten, No. 1, in 1973, the year he won the French and Italian back-to-back, an unusual coupling.

He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1991.

In 2005, Tennis magazine ranked him as the 28th-best player of the preceding forty years.

He is the second male player to win a Grand Slam without dropping a set and the first one to achieve this feat at French Open in 1973.

In March 2009 Ilie Nastase was made a knight of the France’s Legion d’honneur, being acclaimed for his “impressive sporting career” and “the sense of spectacle” created when playing.

One of the most remarkable figures in the history of tennis, Ilie Nastase is in demand as an after dinner speaker and event host.