Ilie Nastase (born July 19, 1946, in Bucharest, Romania) is a former Romanian professional tennis player and one of the top players of the 1970s. Năstase was the World No. 1 in 1973 according to the Association of Tennis Professionals computer rankings, which placed him first from August 23, 1973, to June 2, 1974. Career At the beginning of his career in 1966, Nastase travelled around the world competing with his good friend Ion Tiriac. Together, they reached the Davis Cup challenge round in 1969 and 1971. In 1972, they reached the Davis Cup final, the challenge round having been abolished. However, they never won the trophy for Romania. In singles, Ilie Nastase won his first minor tournament at Cannes on April 16, 1967. His first final at an important tournament was in 1969 in Stockholm, where he defeated Tony Roche and Stan Smith. Nastase became one of the best players in 1970, with many experts ranking him as the sixth best player in the world after the Australians Rod Laver, Ken Rosewall, John Newcombe, and Roche and the American Arthur Ashe. Năstase's high ranking resulted from his success at the Italian Open in Rome and at the U.S. Indoor Open in Salisbury, Maryland. With Tiriac, Năstase won the men's doubles title at the French Open. In 1971, Năstase was the runner-up at a depleted French Open with 16 of the 32 World Championship Tennis (WCT) players absent. Năstase lost in four sets to Jan Kodes. In December, Năstase won the Grand Prix Masters, again without the WCT players. The two following years saw Năstase's apogee. In 1972, Ilie Nastase became the second ranked player in the world (see World number one male tennis player rankings), owing to his winning the U.S. Open in a five set final over Ashe. This tournament was the only event of the year in which all the best players participated. Two months before in a depleted Wimbledon, Năstase lost to Smith in five sets. In the Davis Cup, in which WCT players were still not allowed to participate, Năstase was undefeated in singles until losing to Smith in the final tie. In December, Năstase won his first match of the year with Smith and his second consecutive Grand Prix Masters title. (The WCT players were again absent from the tournament.) Smith defeated Năstase four of the five times they played that year. In 1973, Wimbledon and the Australian Open again had very depleted fields. Roughly 80 players boycotted Wimbledon because of a controversy involving Nikki Pilic. Only 4 of the 20 best players in the world entered (Năstase, Kodes, Roger Taylor and Jimmy Connors). As usual from 1972 through 1982, very few of the best players visited the Australian continent. Among the top 20 players, only Ken Rosewall and Newcombe participated. Five events stood out that year: (1) the U.S. Open with only Roy Emerson missing; (2) the French Open (among the best claycourt players, only Rosewall, Laver, and Emerson were absent); (3) the Grand Prix Masters, this time accessible to all players; (4) the WCT finals, reserved for WCT players (not including Nastase, Newcombe, Connors, and Manuel Orantes); and (5) the Davis Cup, open to everyone for the first time in its history. By winning 17 tournaments in 1973 (the French Open, the Masters, the other 12 listed on the ATP website plus Washington D.C., Istanbul, and Kingston), Ilie Nastase was the undisputed World No. 1 that year. In the Davis Cup, he won 7 of 8 singles rubbers, including a victory over Tom Okker, the "Flying Dutchman." In matches against the other top players, Năstase was 1–0 against Newcombe and 1–1 against Smith. The Romanian won the French Open without dropping a set (a feat repeated twice by Bjorn Borg in in 1978 and 1980), and he won the French Open (clay) - Rome (clay) - Queen's Club (grass) in succession, a feat never equaled in the open era.
Nastase's play began to decline in 1974 even though he was the only player to qualify for both the WCT Finals and the Grand Prix Masters. (Newcombe played both events, although he played the Masters at Kooyong as an invitee instead of a qualifier.) As usual, Năstase played well in the Masters, in particular against Newcombe in the semifinals. (Năstase finished his career with a 4–1 record versus John Newcombe, losing only their first match in 1969.) The Romanian, however, lost the final to Guillermo Vilas in five sets. For the fifth consecutive year, Ilie Nastase reached the Masters final in 1975 (an event Connors did not enter even though he qualified for the second consecutive year), where he played perhaps the best match of his career to defeat Borg 6–2, 6–2, 6–1. During the first half of 1976, Năstase won four tournaments (Atlanta WCT, Avis Challenge Cup WCT, U.S. Open Indoor, and La Costa), and head-to-head, he led Connors 2–1, Vilas 1–0, Ashe 1–0, and Borg 1–0. Năstase did not enter the Australian Open, which was again avoided by most of the top players. Ilie Nastase was prevented from entering the French Open because he participated in World Team Tennis. In the second half of the year, Nastase lost to Borg in the men's singles final of Wimbledon and in the semifinals of the U.S. Open. Năstase won three other tournaments during the second half of the year, the Pepsi Grand Slam, South Orange, and the 4-man tournament of Caracas, Venezuela, in October (not to be confused with the Caracas WCT tournament in March), making seven tournament championships for the year. Nastase was generally considered to be the World No. 3 for the year, behind Connors and Borg. In 1977, most tennis specialists considered Năstase to have finished the year just out of the top 10, although he finished ninth in the ATP rankings. He was a quarterfinalist at Wimbledon and the French Open and participated in the WCT Finals. Nastase was still one of the 20 best players in 1978. At Wimbledon, he again reached the quarterfinals, losing to Okker after defeating Roscoe Tanner. During the remainder of his career, Nastase steadily declined and only occasionally defeated a good player, such as Johan Kriek in the third round of the 1982 U.S. Open. Ilie Nastase retired from the tour in October 1985 at the age of 39 after playing in the tournament in Toulouse, although he did play the challenger tournament at Dijon in June 1988.
Ilie Nastase was able to play every tennis shot except that his volley was comparatively weak. When Năstase was playing well, his speed around the court and superb anticipation compensated for his lack of an excellent volley. He was one of the only players to have an effective offensive and defensive lob off both his forehand and backhand. His major weakness was a periodic loss of concentration, especially during high pressure matches such as: (1) the 1972 Davis Cup final singles match against Stan Smith; and the 1976 Wimbledon final. Distinctions * Ilie Nastase has 88 singles titles, only 53 of which are recorded at the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) website. Quotations * "If you have confidence, you have patience. Confidence, that is everything." In his recent book, Ilie Nastase claimed that he slept with around 2,500 women. After hearing this, his wife said that she was happy to have conquered such a man. Career statistics Grand Slam finals Singles Wins (2) Runner-ups (3)
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