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We had never seen a player like this.
This fresh, young guy,
and everybody was talking about Ilie Năstase.
I just... I was born like that.
I cannot help it, I'm trying, sometimes, but it's not me.
Sometimes people want more than just tennis.
When Ilie was on the court, there was always something happening.
I think of him as this unfulfilled genius.
What fascinated me the most
was how he returned the balls.
It was almost like a dance.
That was the magic, you know, he made you play his game.
His life was very tumultuous in 1972.
It was very, you know, what's gonna happen next?
You couldn't take your eyes off the guy on the tennis court!
The Wimbledon final, the US Open, the great David Cup final in Bucharest,
1972 was the key year for Năstase.
Watching him was like going to the theater.
And I always felt Ilie...
...wanted to be loved by everyone, and we did love him.
I think Năstase is one of the great geniuses of our sport,
one of the first stars of our sport.
Ilie and Jimmy, they kind of made tennis cool.
And we were a couple of outlaws.
We were. And we liked it!
And at the time, the tennis rules weren't as strict,
so he could get away with a lot more than anybody could today.
But that's how it was.
I think the reason he has millions of fans all over the world is that personality.
It's not that he prepared to do stuff, it just came naturally.
He'd say anything that popped out of his mouth to linesmen,
to the opponent, to anybody.
I think part of the problem was
tennis was really not ready for Năstase when he began
some of this histrionics on the court.
For me, tennis was my life, since I was 3-4 years old.
I played for pleasure, but if you add spirit and talent,
start winning and become number one, it's something, for sure.
He was extremely shy,
but, on the other hand, he's always had this charisma.
You just can't learn that.
You either have it or you don't.
Him coming from sort of a Communist country, and people didn't know him,
it was like wow, what's this guy's story? This is crazy!
He was such a curiosity because...
Early on, he was winning all these tournaments in Europe,
and we in America didn't really know who he was.
And we didn't know any Iron Curtain athletes.
We saw now Eastern European athletes match up to our own athletes.
But Ilie, to his credit, you know, he opened up that for us.
The Soviets and others produced many outstanding athletes.
But tennis was a little bit of a stepchild at that time.
I don't think most Americans had any idea where Romania was
and what it was.
Năstase really was the first big splash of an Eastern European country.
In 1969 Nixon came,
in 1972 Romania joined the World Bank,
so there was a pattern of trying to break out from under the Soviet thumb.
For once, please use words instead of the ball.
- Who wants to start? - Ţiriac! He's older.
Warm-up compliments, I see. Let's warm up with some questions.
Can you please decide which of you will serve first?
Ţiriac, he always warms up faster than me.
Fine, I'll start, or we'll never finish.
I really understand the Romanian sense of humor, I do.
There's a different, different kettle of worms,
a different type of people,
and you really either get it or you don't get it.
I don't think there was a serious word ever spoken between Ion and Ilie,
they just can't help themselves.
They're brothers from a different mother.
We know each other well. We're close friends.
We share a room at every championship, each week, month, year...
Ţiriac says he shares a room with me more often than with his wife.
When you travelled abroad, you needed accommodation.
Wimbledon, for example, didn't provide a room.
I said to Ilie: If we sleep in a park, we can save two pounds.
Two pounds a day would buy us four pairs of sneakers,
that we could sell in Bucharest.
We were doing business, not just flying around.
Then our families could get by another month.
He was the brains, telling me to go all-out or not,
or do those defensive, high lobs that landed right on the baseline.
I think we complement each other wonderfully.
We understood each other.
We each knew where to go, how and why.
Mr. Năstase was in another league.
The rest of us should know our place.
He won Grand Slam titles with other players too,
in doubles and mixed doubles.
Năstase had been winning a lot,
and the computer ranking, the first one that came out,
had him No. 1 in the world, so no one can take that away from him.
the first ATP-ranking world No. 1.
We were watching every Monday morning what our ranking was,
and he was first.
He was physically very fit, very fast, could jump well.
could slide well on the clay,
but his main strength was his feel for the ball.
When people pay expensive tickets,
they want to be mesmerized by the action on the court.
Ilie gave them that.
- Mr. Ilie Năstase? - Yes.
Excuse me, may I...
- How do you know me? - How could I not?
- You know the lady? - I did gymnastics.
Of course, Mrs. Comăneci!
- The boy knows his stuff! - May I?
Sure. You come over too!
Look at the kid!
They opened up tennis, they showed it to the world.
In many ways, they made the journey easier for us,
the players of today.
There is character, and there is charisma.
Ilie Năstase, smolderingly handsome,
and Ion Ţiriac, rugged as some Ruthenian bandit.
But it's Năstase who sets the hearts aflutter.
So Wimbledon's underway!
For your first match, this is probably where you'll start.
Very interesting, playing on these outside courts as a youngster.
A lot of older people never make the inside court.
But if you're young and ambitious, this is where you'll play your first matches.
And you'll look way back up there and see the scoreboard.
The things that are going on inside that center court...
You'll probably just be a spectator, watching what's going on.
It was Romanian Ilie Năstase playing Stan Smith in the Wimbledon finals.
It was a big thing.
And for me to be there, sitting, watching Ilie play...
I'll never forget that, because that was starting, for me, to...
I was dreaming, maybe one day I'm gonna be on that center court.
Maybe not in a final, but...
I want to be there.
This is the biggest thing you can do.
So I was sitting, enjoying, and of course I was rooting for Ilie.
You know, Nasty was great on every surface, particularly on clay,
but he became a very good grass court player,
his serve was more effective on grass and he could move really well,
so he became a very good grass court player.
I was clueless.
How do you slide? The court wouldn't let me slide.
I was used to clay, which lets you skid around.
On grass, you hop around.
It threatens to be one Sabbath day which isn't too holy.
It's almost where we came in.
If Năstase were a violinist,
you'd feel sure he'd take the name of Stradivarius in vain.
But his choice of serving racket now is vital!
Dan, if I can tell you what's happening...
Năstase realizes he's got too tight a racket for these heavy conditions.
Advantage Smith!
For the second successive year,
Wimbledon is to be graced with a 5-set final of Olympian scale.
Advantage Smith!
So, for the fourth time, Smith has championship point.
It was the last shot of Wimbledon '72,
and Stanley Smith is informally crowned the new champion.
But Ilie Năstase will not be a forgotten finalist.
He brought to Wimbledon an arduous temperament
and revealed a talent many thought beyond him.
He was always exciting.
He missed that shot and I didn't really realise, for a second, that it was over,
then I threw my racket about 40 feet in the air, jumped over the net.
He was disappointed, obviously.
So people would ask me, was it difficult to play against him?
Because Nasty was controversial a lot of times.
But in that match he wasn't, he was just complaining about his racket strength.
And it just didn't work out for him,
but I think it was not just lack of preparedness, but nerves, I think he...
He didn't handle the pressure well, and when it got close near the end,
he didn't quite have the nerve to pull it off.
Năstase, will you come here, please?
First of all...
Don't call me Năstase!
- You call me Mr. Năstase! - Mr. Năstase!
That's better! Yes!
- Mister Năstase. - Yes, Sir!
I'm reporting you for delaying.
I'm reporting you to the referee, you call me Năstase.
Call me Mister!
Let's play nice, I tell the guy.
You don't want trouble from me, you know I'm crazy.
From now on, I'm Mr. Năstase to you.
So the match starts. Borg on the serve.
Love-15, Mr. Năstase!
Let's not overdo it, only call me Mr. for the games!
The Năstase phenomenon did not begin with Ilie.
It began, though at a much smaller scale,
with Costică Năstase, his older brother.
Costică Năstase, he beat him all the time,
but it helped him a lot,
having Costică and myself in the team.
Costică... what a hard worker, what an amazing character.
I always said, if he had had 10% of Ilie's talent,
he'd have been a world champion.
Costică was 13 years older than me.
The house was full of tennis rackets and dirty tennis shoes.
I had the equipment.
It made you want to play.
I was living in the tennis club.
My house was just inside of the tennis club.
And every time I was going home from school,
or going to school, I would pass the tennis club on my way.
Our house was between a tennis court and a football stadium.
When I was five, I got out of the house with a football and a tennis racket.
I walked around the stadium kicking the ball and swinging the racket.
They were both in my head, I didn't know which one to choose.
Like everybody in Europe, I was interested in soccer more than tennis.
Why didn't you become a football player, then?
Well, when I was 13 or 14,
I won my first tournament in tennis and they gave me a brand new racket,
which was something unbelievable for me at that age.
Just because of that racket, maybe,
I switched completely from soccer to tennis.
The first time he put on ice skates, I couldn't keep up.
I wanted to teach him skiing in Poiana Braşov,
and he skied down perfectly,
except he ran into the fence because I hadn't taught him to stop.
Definitely, because Ţiriac was quite a few years older
and he also came from another sport,
a very good ice hockey player, a very good sportsman.
He knew all the tricks of the game, and I think definitely Ilie learned from him.
Năstase grew by my side, I would say...
I saw him evolving in everything, not only in tennis.
It was very hard for me to get here,
it took at least 10-12 years.
Others told me that I met Ilie back in 1959,
apparently he was my ball boy.
I don't remember that.
I do remember seeing him in Bucharest in the '60s,
but he wasn't playing tennis.
He was playing football with some boys and kept hiding the ball.
He must have weighed 30 kilos or something.
At first, they only let me bounce the ball against the wall.
It was actually great training, my racket was a piece of fence
cut in the shape of a paddle-bat.
If you did it wrong, the ball didn't bounce back.
You had to chase it.
You had to really focus so you could hit it a second and third time.
That wall was good training for me.
Besides, behind that wall was the chocolate factory!
Sometimes, the workers would throw me some.
I started to see more and more of Ilie.
The Federation already had their eye on him.
So I sort of took him along.
I was a great sportsman back then, 17 tournaments under my belt,
in a position to negotiate my pay.
I could say if you won't give me a few lei extra for Ilie,
I'm not coming.
Ţiriac would tell the organizers:
If I come to your tournament,
Năstase and Mărmureanu are coming too.
He was the brains.
He always got us contracts with racket and shoe brands,
with equipment providers.
We were satisfied, we got our equipment.
Lately, your name is connected with that of Ţiriac.
Could you describe your fellow sportsman?
I've been playing with Ion for...
...about eight years,
and I can say I owe him my first participation in a great tournament.
He was famous, I was just starting to become famous.
When we started to pair for doubles, it worked very well from the start.
He was a wild child.
In 1966, we first played in the Davis Cup against France.
We lost the doubles in five sets.
We lost it because of Năstase.
I still believe this, he may not agree.
It was the event that cemented our doubles team.
We match each other's qualities and faults.
We played the finals here. In 1966.
Two Americans beat us in the finals.
It was my first French Open.
That is, my first time at the French Open.
This afternoon at Roland-Garros, in sunny weather, before 2.000 spectators,
young Năstase proved to be the best of the four,
while his partner Ţiriac was the weakest.
Ţiriac made constant disparaging remarks about his young partner,
who, however, played far better.
He played a lot with Ion. They made an amazing team.
They were winning a lot. They were very, very, very strong.
Ion's game was very serious, intelligent and all that,
Năstase flitted around, intercepted, creative all the time.
He couldn't do anything stupid, because Ion...
Would twist his neck.
There were a couple of things that made him stand out.
You could almost call him a genius.
He was hitting shots that nobody else could play at that time.
Santana had introduced the topspin lob off the back end,
he took it to another level.
Tennis was in a very, very...
strong state of transition,
at the time that Năstase was on the scene.
You have to keep in mind that in 1968
tennis went from essentially an amateur sport to the Open era.
uniting amateurs and professionals.
And that brought a whole new element into the game, besides money.
It also brought prominence to players who'd have been away.
It also changed the emphasis in terms of what was important,
because now the game was open, it was now a sort of free-for-all.
Tennis was sort of a sport for the elite,
and when Năstase came along, it became...
more exciting for the common man.
It created emotion that the average man could identify with.
I find the tennis back then more beautiful than the one now.
The ball wasn't so fast,
it gave you time to see the elegance of it.
Năstase was highly artistic,
as well as highly aesthetical.
Before him, all the players were very humble and serious,
and Ilie combined all of that: the beautiful game, the good looks,
the interaction with the crowd, he could speak Italian, so...
All of that made him an overnight rockstar, I think.
But I don't remember if there was one player that was having as much fun
and being as disruptive as Ilie was.
I don't know where he got it, I think it's a Romanian thing.
There was another guy before him, Pancho Gonzáles,
Pancho Gonzáles was amazing, I think he, in some ways, was the first superstar
before court tennis the way we know it,
but Năstase definitely was the superstar of our sport.
He transcended our sport.
People knew about him whether they were into tennis or not.
Insolent, elegant, angry, whimsical, bon vivant,
Ilie Năstase is more than just a great tennis player.
His personality makes him the most courted champion
of modern-day tennis.
The success of a federation tournament is built on his name.
The năstase is the only tennis currency
on par with the US dollar of professional tennis.
A daredevil on the court and in real life,
he is loved by some, hated by others.
He is certainly far removed from the distinguished gentlemen
who in 1920, at Wimbledon,
between backhand shots, bowed to the ladies in attendance.
But Năstase is also not akin to Pancho Gonzáles,
the sportive expression of the American consumerist society.
He is something new from the East,
a rebellious bohemian armed with a racket
with which, when offended, he deals vicious blows.
He could serve that way, and the ball goes the other way.
I've seen him do that, he goes backwards and he serves and flicks his wrist back,
it's almost impossible, and the ball goes in.
He has a fantastic wrist and great control over the ball.
I think he has more control over the ball than himself, that was his problem.
Because he was in fact ahead of the game as to where it was,
many people mistook what his behaviour was on the court
and these officials, the linesmen, they were not prepared to accept
what Năstase was bringing to the table,
I don't think anybody in the officialdom were prepared
to help them understand these players
and what that behaviour was.
Năstase, play on, please, otherwise you are disqualified!
People would say I never come to tennis, I don't even know what it is,
and yet, because of Năstase, I'm coming out to watch.
His match with Hans-Jürgen Pohmann was the talk of the tennis world,
during the first week at Forest Hills.
Most considered it the worst display of his career.
On the court, they say, he would losing it
and there were times that it would get almost...
Monster is a strong word, but there was a very dark side that would come out.
This is the first set. The 6th point, the tie-breaker.
This is when it all began.
A shot by Năstase appeared to have hit on the sideline.
It was called out.
It was on the line, the ball!
Năstase's anger continues...
Here comes a backhand down the line, called good.
This is by far the longest delay of the match.
The linesman comes out to take a look.
Now watch Năstase shout at him, he uses bad language.
More shouting, haranguing.
He finally reaches over and touches his arm, right there.
Linesman says Hold it, the ball is good.
He was wrong for two fucking balls!
Pohmann's complaining about the delay,
and now Ilie is complaining about the linesman's calls.
You're always on the edge of your seat with Năstase.
You're not sitting back and relaxing.
He really brought the crowd in.
Now Pohmann serving. This is the first time he fell.
He had leg cramps.
Right here!
The umpire thought he had hurt himself badly,
thought maybe he'd broken his leg, you'll hear him call for a doctor.
Pohmann refuses the doctor, momentarily says I'm OK,
wants to walk it off.
Now here's a delay on Pohmann's part.
The rules state you cannot get help from a doctor for leg cramps.
If you can't continue, you're supposed to be defaulted.
This is bad, he's saying: Come on, play, play!
Pohmann's in pain, but refuses to quit.
He's down again! This is the second time.
He definitely had a way of riling things up.
I ballboyed at the Forest Hills when he was playing,
for his match against Pohmann, which was, like, a crazy match,
and I was like man, this guy's unbelievable!
Unbelievably crazy! But he sort of got away with it.
Do you know the rules? How many times he can stop the match?
Twice he is down, the son of a bitch.
Twice he is down! Five minutes I waited!
The crowd is angry with Năstase.
Lady with thumbs down, and he spits orange juice towards the crowd.
Năstase is really upset.
You know, Jack, if I were the umpire, right now, I'd throw him out.
When this is over, the umpire and all the linespeople
might go someplace to have a nice quiet drink.
- Wouldn't you? - I would think it'd be a double.
Here's the winning volley.
Now watch him yell, scream. Now he spits in Pohmann's direction.
Yells and throws the ball.
Bad language. He wants to shake the umpire's hand, umpire says no way.
Now he comes back to harangue Pohmann more.
Your legs, your cramps?! You were down twice.
More bad language.
Now you'll see him. Another gesture.
Now the doctor says to Năstase Calm down, take it easy.
You'll see him push the doctor. Now watch.
Fuck you too!
Pushes and cusses him as well.
Twice he was down. Twice!
I just was born like that.
I mean I cannot help it. I'm trying sometimes, but it's not me.
I get sick of trying something which I don't like.
Do you sleep well? Do you sleep much?
No, I'm very nervous. I have to touch things when I...
Even in interviews, or when I eat, at the table I have to talk to people.
I have so much energy, I have to spend it.
So I'll always be like that.
And sometimes on the court I'm so emotional
that I have to talk with people or do things
to get out of this.
Now there are two left.
Ashe and Năstase.
Ashe had had this great run beating Stan Smith in the quarterfinals.
It looked like he was gonna get that title, like he had the match won.
It was a challenge to try to put some perspective on it,
because many of the things that occurred were so different in nature
that you had to draw an analysis as to whether this was creative Năstase
or whether he was doing something that was so totally off the books
that no one could understand it at the time.
- 15 - love. - Correct call?
Năstase asks the umpire: Correct call?
I can't put my finger on one moment of Năstase doing something,
but there were a number of little outbursts.
Now the advantage to Ashe.
Ilie's trying to let us know the airplanes are coming so close
he can hardly hear himself think.
They have airplanes in Bucharest.
Dominique Grazia, she's a Belgian, fiancée of Ilie Năstase.
They split the first two sets, then Ashe won a tie break on the third,
it looked like that was going to be the pendulum-swinging moment
and he went up 3-1 in the fourth set with a break point for 4-1,
almost two breaks, didn't get it,
still went ahead 4-2,
then Năstase came back and won that set, beat him in 5.
He has the match right here on his racket.
The Open championship at match point.
And he'll have to suffer through a second serve.
Hell of a shot, Ilie Năstase!
Off of a net-caught ball!
He is the champion!
First major championship title for Năstase.
The US Open 1972 is his!
Dominique says: We'll take the 25.000$ in 1$ bills and spread them around.
For Ilie, I'm sure, is really overcome with what he's just accomplished.
Dominique Grazia can't quite believe it.
Yesterday I went back and watched Năstase beat Gorman.
Mister Năstase. Sorry.
When the match went over, Ashe said in the presentation ceremony
Ilie is a great player,
but someday he'll be even better when he learns to behave better.
Năstase, typically of him, waved his winner's cheque at Ashe,
as Arthur said that, just to sort of poke fun at him.
He had the body of a man, he had something of the psyche of a man,
and yet often his conduct seemed to be like that of a...
I don't mean it meanly, but kind of a spoiled brat.
He was the master of play. He won Monte Carlo, he won Rome.
He won the US Open, he won the French. At that time, he was the best.
Năstase wins the French Open, taking home the first prize of 15,000$.
This is the second major championship title for Ilie.
Will Wimbledon be next?
Of course he was No. 1 in the world. In 1973 and 1972 he won everything.
We grew up watching him on TV. I learned how to count, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
I learned that Ilie Năstase won this and this.
He won the Masters many, many times.
I believe that he did what he enjoyed,
and managed to be unique, an icon through how he lived.
Being number one, all the while being naughty
and enjoying life...
is there anything more beautiful than that?
His hand-to-eye coordination was unbelievable.
He was a great athlete... run, speed, everything.
I mean, playing tennis was easier for him than tying your shoelaces.
...some wonderful plays by Năstase and a remarkable performance,
to win the Masters title four times in five years.
He is the first player to achieve this incredible feat.
In our time, my time, Ilie's time,
I think you had more personalities.
You could relate to different plays on the court,
like myself, Ilie, Vilas...
in different ways compared to today.
We meant the human sides.
They were much more human, today they are much more machine.
It's difficult also for the journalist to build
a friendship or a communication with the players.
I saw him playing an unforgettable match against Arthur Ashe.
That was the only match in history where both players lost.
Because that never happened before and afterwards.
At the time, I was a referee for the event.
And somebody came to me and said:
Please go down to the locker rooms, something is happening there.
Ilie is trying to irritate Arthur.
I went down and I saw...
that Arthur Ashe was trying to comb his hair,
and suddenly Ilie came from his side:
"Negroni, you don't have such nice hair as I have here!
"So get off here!"
Nasty, who's making a movie of you now?
No, they don't make a movie, it's just for a television here.
My friend, Negroni is my best friend in the whole America!
Nobody else talks to you, that's why.
Billie Jean King and Arthur Ashe, the two most important tennis players of all time.
Because they went beyond tennis.
There you go. And then you have, maybe, a few crazy people along the way.
Ilie would be someone who's very passionate, very soulful,
and when you're passionate, things...
And you can't help it.
He is also making mistakes. Why don't you give him a warning too?
If you give me a warning give one to him too.
You always knew that something was gonna happen.
He's gonna blow up, or something to try to make you mad.
And I had no problem with that, I only had a problem if the referee didn't...
control the match, sometimes the umpires at that time,
they were a bit afraid of some players.
They were a little bit afraid of Ilie as well, I think.
15 - 40.
First service.
- First service. - Why?
- Let.
When?
Let?
- Arthur wasn't ready. - Not my fault, my friend.
Ashe was leading 4-0-1 in the final set, with 15-40 lead and Năstase serving,
to make it 5-1.
Every time Năstase started to serve,
he kept looking up and saying: Are you ready, Mr. Ashe? Are you ready?
Give him a warning if he's not ready all the time.
15-40. First service.
- No. 30-40. - Come on!
Shut up.
It's not my fault he's not ready all the time.
Play now.
I'll play, but it's not my fault he's not ready all the time.
And I said "Uh-oh."
At that time, the rules were not so clear as they are now.
All the rules were in 10 little chapters,
on three pages.
Ready, Mr. Ashe?
- One? - Play, play!
Yes, Ma'am.
Please be quiet. Thank you.
15-40. First service.
Yes, Ma'am.
Năstase, you are already warned.
Play now.
And this happens three or four times.
And, unfortunately, the chair umpire didn't interfere immediately.
Only after the third time, he said:
"Please go on, Mr. Năstase, play has to be continuous."
Go, play!
Yes, Sir! Unbelievable!
Umpire, he's talking to me!
Something in me snapped, I just couldn't take it anymore.
I waited and waited, and he was warned two times on the court,
then, finally, I said I'm not taking it anymore.
That's that, I'm leaving.
The referee immediately defaulted Ashe,
and Ashe said "I'm out of here before you default me."
"It's not a real default, I quit", and he walked off.
The referee defaulted him,
then immediately defaulted Năstase screaming
"Why can he do that?"
So the referee defaulted Năstase.
You know, within two minutes, they're both defaulted, the match is over.
The funny part was 24 hours later they reinstated both of them,
into the tournament,
because they couldn't have the guys both going out, there was no round robin.
Do you think you are missing some rules when such things happen?
Certainly, we are having a meeting of the Professional Council this week.
One of the major items on the agenda is a code of conduct for tennis players.
If a player commits a gross infraction of the rules,
very gross, maybe you take a set away from him.
I would have them, yesterday, rather than default Năstase,
when he is serving at 1-4, 15-40,
just say to him "It's 1-5, 15-40."
Arthur Ashe helped write the code of conduct,
writing 500 pages,
which were afterwards reduced,
or 500 pages of notes,
because he had experiences with Năstase of all kinds!
If he sees me in the locker room or something, he'll go...
It sounds crazy, but this is Năstase.
I don't think of him as a man.
I think of him as 30 years old, going on 10.
Something's gonna have to be done.
A couple of guys should jump over the net and threaten him.
Listen, Ilie, I want a nice match, just go out and play tennis,
but if you start pulling the crap you've pulled against others,
I'm not gonna tell you when, but I'm gonna deck you.
The good thing about playing Năstase is there's a chance he'll get defaulted.
So you want to hang in there, there's no telling when he'll go crazy.
Are you going to behave better in the future?
Do you think I'm bad?
We need a code of conduct so it's absolutely laid down
what happens when one does this and one does that.
I'm saying if they want me to be perfect or professional,
I want the umpire to be professional.
That's all I'm asking.
Do you feel different from normal people?
No, I don't realise who I am or what I'm doing.
Everyday I'm involved in the game so...
So the next morning I saw in the breakfast room of the Grand Hotel
Arthur sitting close to the windows, and suddenly I saw a kind of...
a big bunch of flowers moving through the tables there,
and behind these big flowers was...
Ilie Năstase.
Going like this,
approaching Arthur's table,
taking the flowers and saying:
"Mr. Ashe, I apologise."
After last night, when you left in an temper,
when did you start talking to Năstase?
We started talking in the locker rooms!
Look, between Năstase and myself, it will blow over in five to ten...
Five or ten days.
That's just the way he is.
I just decided I wasn't going to take it on the court.
Off the court it's something else.
I just said hello to him five minutes ago.
I cannot be like Ashe, for instance. Or Ashe cannot be like me.
So why do you want me to change now, when I'm 30?
Well, you know, he did call Arthur Negroni,
and today if he did that he'd be... you know, put in jail.
Tennis great Serena Williams is speaking out
against another legendary star of the sport,
accused of making a shocking remark about her unborn child.
Controversy struck the ITF press conference on Friday.
Romanian team captain Ilie Năstase, once a No. 1 tennis star himself,
is now facing serious backlash after he was overheard
making racially insensitive remarks.
Năstase allegedly said "Let's see what color it has, chocolate with milk?"
His words have ignited a firestorm of criticism,
with many condemning Năstase's inappropriate comment.
I think it's a good thing for her...
Let's see what color the baby will be!
It's nice to have a kid, in my opinion.
Serena Williams, who had recently shared her pregnancy through a selfie,
slammed Năstase on Instagram.
In a powerful quote, she stated:
"It disappoints me to know we live in a society where people like Ilie Năstase
"can make such racist comments towards myself and an unborn child."
I know he didn't mean it in a bad way, I've known him a long time.
But I told him to think twice before he makes such remarks.
I think it hurts him to be in the middle of this kind of story,
because that's not him.
You know, things have changed since what he would say and get away with.
You just have to be more cautious in what you say,
and hopefully he learned his lesson.
He unfortunately got involved saying some things where we would say...
"That's just the way he was, that's the way he is."
But, you know, you just can't do that today.
He made stupid comments all the time,
but we used to go "That's Năstase, don't worry about it, that's Nasty."
But deep down I know the essence of who he is, he's got a good heart.
Hey, Commie, how are you?
Commie sounded nicer than Communist.
We were friends, it didn't matter that one guy was from South Africa,
another from Kenya or the US. We were all equal.
In the locker rooms, we were all the same.
He had names for all his rivals, Tom Okker he'd call Omelette,
like cheese omelette.
He'd call Stan Smith Godzilla,
he'd call Arthur Ashe, who was of course an African-American, Negroni.
He'd kid Jimmy Connor, call him a baby,
"you want your mummy to hold your hand?"
It was funny.
He calls me crazy, he calls me a goon, he calls me a lot of things.
Am I gonna take offense at that?
I called him Nasty, I even sometimes called him Dad. Hey, Dad!
I called him Gypsy, he called me Russian.
Yeah, that was him. He had a nickname for everybody.
He'd come in and say it and nobody would think twice about it.
But all the guys used to still love him for this,
because he was so friendly off the court.
We didn't have any money in the old days, we couldn't afford a coach.
so we helped each other.
We would eat together, talk about tennis all the time,
So we were all very close and everybody knew each other.
Because we didn't have a team of people around us to insulate us.
We weren't insulated, we didn't have that.
So we had to rely on each other like family.
Năstase was too much for me.
He was too fast for me, the way he played...
- He played like-- - I'm not fast!
I believe he is...
- Have you ever defeated him? - Never.
- The day will come. - Yes, for sure!
I remember we went to the cinema in Paris, for example,
we went to the shows, Champs-Élysées,
sometimes it happened like this, we were helping each other.
I practiced with Orantes, with Ilie, we practiced on Mondays,
then we played semifinals against each other.
Today, this is not possible.
Everybody was pretty much the same at the time,
there weren't any special places for the top players,
so even in the locker rooms, you still had players sort of...
in their section of the lockers, but players were together quite a bit.
It was a little more friendly, in an way,
everybody was pretty much treated the same, so it was...
I think it was more fun at that time,
I think they're losing some of that camaraderie that you had in general.
After training, in the evening... Mr. Năstase here was the same as ever.
In the evening, 7 or 8 of us would go to a pizzeria.
Năstase, pay for your pizza.
Ion, you know I never have money. To this day, I haven't seen that money.
Can I have a loan?
We all contributed a dollar or two.
Or francs, whatever it was.
We bought 5 pizzas and shared them between 8 or 9 of us.
The next day, we were friends.
These two were absolutely from another planet.
They won't make them like that again. Never.
That can't exist in today's tennis.
These are people who have traveled without a coach.
You have to understand they grew without a coach,
they trained each other.
We depended on one another, you know.
To travel together, to warm up together and be there for one another.
So yes, there was a very close fraternity
and likewise, as we moved into the mid-70s,
when tennis prospered.
Mixed doubles was made for a showman of Ilie Năstase's gifts.
We all wanted to dress like him.
because he was the first one wearing colours
and he was wearing these wristbands, sometimes Romanian wristbands,
that looked like my rasta wristbands.
He had this elegance about him and yes, you could tell he was real.
Because he was talking the truth.
Sometimes using bad words, which was great, we loved it.
Watching it, it was, like, bad!
There were a lot of characters back then, it was a great time in tennis.
Because of people like...
Năstase was one of those people who opened it up, like whoa!
This isn't just, like, the Country Club, this is a little different.
Năstase could be hilarious.
The thing about Nasty was he had the innate timing of a clown.
To be a good clown, it's all about timing.
I have the opportunity of introducing maybe one of the best matches here,
at Forest Hills.
First, from Romania, the great Ilie Năstase!
And also, from Rhode Island,
one of the future greats of the game, Franklin Telly!
Out!
15 - all.
Arey ou trying to make a monkey out of me?
You know your problem? You are too temperamental!
Let's play serious now.
Wimbledon, 1975.
Nasty hadn't liked this lineswoman's call, so he asked to have her moved.
His request was granted and, gallantly, he carried her chair.
Those were exactly his jokes. He was like a child, you know.
This means two balls in a let call. This means one ball.
So you take it however you like.
Listen.
Listen carefully.
If you want to film me,
you need to pay, you and your friend.
How much?
I am very expensive. Too expensive.
First of all, it was at the Hilton, I think, and they gave us a room.
Eddie Dibbs' birthday, is that the one he's talking about? With the cake?
Oh boy.
Well, we were grown-up children.
I don't know if he told you this.
There had to be 30 people there, my wife and Eddie's girlfriend and...
Nasty and Borg were there.
So we said, Nasty, we gotta do something, we gotta get him a cake.
And they brought out a huge cake for my birthday.
And there were two or three candles on it.
And I'm standing on one side and I go Eddie, blow out the candles!
So me, like an idiot, not thinking,
I go blow out the candles, and as I bend down...
I take his head and push his head in the cake.
Bang! Sticks my head completely stuffed in it, like that!
Then I looked up, I couldn't even see, I was covered with cake.
And that turned into probably the best food fight I've ever been in.
Within five seconds,
the whole room was flying with stuff.
The whole room...
You had to hide under the table, 'cause chairs were flying, everything was flying!
That room was a mess. It was a mess, and...
One of us had to clean it up. That was me.
The bad boys, yeah, I love them. I love Jimmy and Năstase together.
The connection between Jimmy Connors and Ilie Năstase was crazy.
Because they went over the limit sometimes.
The two of them connected because they were kindred spirits in many ways.
Both of them became kind of... not who I wanted to be,
but they were the main reason why I was watching tennis.
Jimbo! They were known as the Nasty Boys.
They dressed alike, they put on those big long socks, they came out...
Started playing some doubles together, I believe.
I mean, Ilie and Jimmy, they kind of...
made tennis cool, in a way,
where it wasn't
only the white men's sport wearing white clothes, not saying anything,
but suddenly it became a little bit of rock 'n' roll.
The ball was on the line!
On the line!
The ball was on the line, It touched the chalk.
It was on the line!
On the court, they were...
Completely nuts altogether!
I remember some matches they had at the US Open that were...
a nightmare!
In the doubles final, Tom Okker and Marty Riessen
lost to the flamboyant Năstase and Connors
in some of the wildest tennis in years.
Jimmy Connors, a few words for Romanian television, may I?
- What would You like me to say? - Only a few words.
Your intentions in the future.
I will play some more doubles with Năstase,
I hope we can win at Wimbledon, or Forest Hills once again.
Oh yes, he was a mentor, and oh yes, he influenced me.
And I say this from the heart because, you know, some good, some bad.
But that was my choice.
And we became more than that. Friends.
Do you think I'm tired?
No.
He's the one who is tired!
- Come on, boy, let's go! - I'm going, I'm going.
When he says I'm part of his family, that, to me, is the best.
That's the best, because we've been through more than just...
tennis together.
I mean, Jimmy was the best at the US Open.
But Năstase, because he's Romanian and he's not from a huge country,
he represents everybody who's not from the USA or UK.
If you're from a smaller country, you know,
you're probably gonna want Năstase,
you can feel it's the big guys versus the little guys.
And Năstase was a big reason our sport grew so much.
I always liked Jimmy Connors' comment.
"I could never figure out how hard he'd hit the ball,
"then I realised he didn't know either."
Ilie Năstase was the rockstar of his time.
And no question that Ilie Năstase helped the brand.
What he did was... he gave us credibility with elite athletes.
That is hard to get, and we got it.
Three months into the brand, we had the No. 1 tennis player in the world.
He had won the US Open and the French Open and was flamboyant.
It just set the tone for our whole tennis business.
We immediately followed him with his doubles partner, Jimmy Connors.
He wasn't ranked as high as Ilie at that time, so we signed him for 5,000.
But it led to a tennis... ethos, really.
That led to McEnroe, Billy Jean King, Sampras and Agassi
and Serena Williams and Carlos Alcaraz.
It was all started by Ilie Năstase.
I think I was fortunate to be a tennis player.
Especially in this period, you know.
Because players like Pancho Gonzáles and Segura,
maybe they are better players than we are,
but they didn't win any money, or they did, but less than we win now.
A few of them were traveling with their wives or with their girlfriends,
but the majority of the players couldn't afford taking another person,
so they just travelled on their own.
So they interacted with each other a lot more than they do today.
For us Eastern Europeans it was not possible
that parents would follow me to Paris, or follow me to Wimbledon,
because they couldn't travel.
So, for example,
when I was in Wimbledon or in France, my parents weren't there.
Back then, for US tournaments, we needed an invitation.
Ilie asked Edy McGoldrick
to invite Mariana Simionescu and I to the US circuit.
That's how I started.
Of course, later Ion Ţiriac became my manager,
so to us, that generation of young women and men too,
they were both idols.
The first time I got to France,
to Roland-Garros,
I was 18, Mariana was 17.
Ilie and Ion took care of us.
They were a huge help.
Oh my God!
See how strong the bandito is?
The bandito ?
You see the power he has, the guy?
You're nuts. What if he dropped you on the head?
Now I'm awake. I'm OK.
Energized before the match!
- Careful, he could hit you. - I'm awake now.
You want me to do it? Chris, you want me to?
- What's this? - I'm pulling my pants down.
I'm just kidding.
Ilie, as a person, was very sensitive.
He had a big heart, Ilie.
He helped a lot of people, he helped...
If you had problems, he was always there.
Because of the revolution and the war in Iran, I did not play for four years,
I did not hit one ball.
And then I came to France, I remember I had nowhere to go to sleep.
I remember he was practicing with Guillermo Vilas on court no. 3.
I waited until he finished, I didn't know if he remembers me or not.
After they finished the practice, he came out of the court
and I got up and said Hello, Ilie.
And he goes "Oh my God, Mansour, where have you been?
"I thought you were dead in the revolution or...
"I'm very happy to see you."
He asked if there is anything he can do for me,
he said "I can help," which was very kind and generous of him.
I would describe him as completely crazy in a mostly good way.
You know, he would give you the shirt off his back.
People he didn't even know, I saw him many times,
he'd literally give them his own clothes.
At the times, players felt more free to express themselves,
there wasn't as much at stake, maybe, if they made a mistake.
Yeah, plus, you have to consider two things.
The rules were not as strict as they are today,
and the umpires were not as good as they are today.
Most of the time, the tournament organizer would ask a friend
Could you come tomorrow and umpire this match?
If the umpires are wrong I protest every time.
We play for money, you know?
Everytime they make a mistake, it's like taking money from your pockets.
I think the umpires are not professional enough.
I was never wrong about umpire calls.
I just knew.
I knew if the ball was out or not, with my back turned.
I only argued calls for solid reasons.
Never when they were right.
McEnroe sometimes did, but not me, never.
Outside the gate, tickets cost 5 times more.
There were 20,000 spectators.
10,000 had come to boo him, 10,000 had come to hug him.
To top it off, back then McEnroe was a bit mental.
The umpire was a man named Frank Hammond.
And Hammond was this roly-poly guy whom all the players loved.
He was very even-minded and very calm.
But Năstase and McEnroe started getting into it.
Frank was the first professional tennis umpire of that era.
He was not equipped to deal with that kind of crisis.
I lost to Ilie a few times, but that time I was like
"OK, this is enough, I'm not accepting this losing anymore."
I was sort of playing the best tennis of my life
and I think Ilie knew early on that he wasn't gonna win,
so he decided to make a complete circus out of it.
Frank Hammond was a players' umpire. Loved all the players. Loved Năstase.
He called me son of a bitch.
Tell him at least to call me Mister son of a bitch!
- I never heard that. - No?
Maybe you can read his lips better than me.
I'm Romanian and I can read his lips. You cannot read his lips?
It was one of the first night matches of the US Open,
there was an energy, people had had a couple of drinks,
and, you know, Ilie was feeling the crowd.
Tell him not to talk to me when I play the point!
If you're a good umpire.
Frank Hammond was trying with every fiber of his being
to get Năstase to calm down,
trying to talk to him off the microphone in the changers, "Please, Ilie!"
Ladies and gentlemen, please.
If you quiet down, we can continue the match.
It's the only way we can.
Both players were just using the crowd and going nuts and doing stuff.
It was just the worst of all time.
Ilie!
I know, I know.
I'm telling you to serve.
You son of a bitch telling me to play? How can I play like that?
This was the one time, probably, where I just said
"I'm gonna sit back and watch the master at work."
To me, he was making a total ass out of himself.
On the other hand, that's what people wanted to see.
Tennis is... we're playing for the people watching us.
They wanna be entertained, they wanna laugh, they wanna smile,
they wanna get angry, whatever, it's part of the entertainment.
And Ilie was probably the No. 1 entertainer in tennis.
Frank Hammond had had enough.
Why they didn't both get defaulted, I don't know.
Game, set, match, McEnroe!
The crowd in New York was going absolutely berserk.
They are throwing stuffs. It's crazy. I didn't want him to be defaulted.
He deserved to be defaulted.
They took the guy out of the chair,
it's the only time in my carrier they took an umpire out of the chair.
And then the referee came out and he comes in the chair and I was like
"Oh my God!"
So, I'm like, forget it, let's just play.
I don't care. I'm going to beat his ass anyway.
Game, set, and match.
He didn't want to do it to embarrass Frank,
but it pretty much ended up ruining Frank Hammond's career in many, many ways.
It wasn't really fair, but they were worried about riots in the stands,
it was as night match, so a lot of reasons for it.
I wasn't even happy I'd won.
I walked into the locker room, I was about to go "You motherf..."
Then he's like Macaroni!
He's the only guy in the world to call me Macaroni.
He says "Where are we going for dinner? I got these two girls."
And I'm like...
"Whatever you want," and then, you know,
all of a sudden I'm having dinner with him at 1 in the morning.
He had so many women you couldn't even count.
I mean, he had beauty queens, you name it.
Năstase was on top of the list when it comes to that.
He makes the ground...
kind of like an earthquake, you know?
a small earthquake and then a bigger earthquake.
He was very aware of his surroundings.
While we were playing doubles, he knew where every woman was in the stands.
I was a good middleman: "Go talk to her, see what she's doing tonight."
His eyes and my eyes just locked with each other
and he said "You have got bedroom eyes."
He had the softest lips!
I had never kissed such beautiful lips in my life, like this!
He knows how I feel about him.
I always have and always will.
He will always have a place in my heart.
He was very flirtatious.
You know, he was married, so, you know, we were just always friends.
and we would meet... he would come to my apartment or we go to Studio 54.
We just lived out lives.
It was a place you weren't judged.
You go downstairs and there were mattresses laid out or whatever
and that was the place to be.
The people also loved Ilie because he's more Latin
the way he is on the court, the way he talks, the way he walks,
the way he wears his clothes, it's always something special.
And he was a good-looking man.
- Want to greet anyone in Bucharest? - All the girls.
Those who sent you cables for your birthday?
Yes, and for my victories in Tbilisi and at Wimbledon.
How does mail reach you while you're traveling?
Is your address Ilie Năstase, Europe?
Sort of.
That's all I know. But I love the melody.
Down with Ceauşescu!
...to the initiators...
which we consider to be...
To be...
Come inside.
I did not risk my life. The people reigns supreme.
The people has proven its greatness.
For me to be here, in the National Television building,
the people who, on the stadium, cried as they heard the anthem
stood before machine guns so I could talk to you now.
I urge all our sportspeople to support the population,
just as our wonderful army defends them.
And to remain calm, as true examples for the people,
as uplifting models.
The people needs each of us in these awe-inspiring times.
Earlier, our great Ilie Năstase left to reunite with his family in Paris.
Right now, he is our spokesperson abroad, heralding this grand victory.
This Air France flight is the first to arrive from Bucharest tonight.
Its 30 passengers, joyful but tired,
were under siege on Bucharest Airport for 4 hours.
On the first row, Ilie Năstase, tennis player.
I've seen tanks there.
But if we continue to fight, it will be all worth it.
We're the first out of there.
It's over.
After 25 years of Ceauşescu's dictatorship,
the people, everyone, even those who were close to him...
No one will support him.
And now, Comrade Lieutenant General Marin Dragnea,
First Vice-President of the National Council for Sports,
will give a medal to the best Romanian sportsman of the year,
here to celebrate his victory!
During the Communist era, all the Eastern European countries,
they wanted only the best sportsmen,
because they wanted to present only the best.
We were Romanians, part of the Eastern Bloc,
so it was harder for us, both going abroad and returning.
Each time we returned to Romania,
if we stayed more than 20 days, the government took back our passports.
We were being watched.
When traveling for the Davis Cup,
the embassy people were always following us.
They knew where we were, what we did.
We were used to the pressure.
Tennis had become such a huge thing in Romania because of these two guys,
Ţiriac first and then, of course, Năstase.
When the Davis Cup came there, they put it in City Hall in Bucharest.
And these lines of people just stretched around the city
to see and touch the Davis Cup.
It was a marvelous event.
He can beat them blindfolded!
Năstase runs circles around the Americans.
To Romania, the Davis Cup
was something grand.
Seeing the American team, with world champion Stan Smith,
seeing Ilie play against him in the grand finale at Wimbledon...
Romanian TV didn't show a lot of tennis back then.
But we could see the Davis Cup.
Ion Ţiriac and Ilie Năstase,
20 million people wish you good luck!
The best of luck!
In his mind, I think that had a huge impact on Năstase.
I think he knew this was his chance.
Because Romanians lost a couple of finals in the Davis Cup in America
before the '72.
But this was Ilie's chance to really prove himself
and I think that stayed with him a long time.
That meeting back in 1972 in Bucharest
was a perfect chance for Ceauşescu.
The presence of the US team in Bucharest
was a new chance for him to showcase the double game
that he played with the US and Russia.
The meeting happened with Nixon's approval.
The international context was very tense,
after the Munich terrorist attack on the Israeli athletes.
That year, in the Munich Olympics, those Israeli athletes had been killed.
And we had two Jewish members on our team,
So we came there, to Bucharest, certainly concerned about our welfare,
how safe it was gonna be,
so we had very tight security the whole time.
Ceauşescu said, if anything happened to anybody,
heads would roll, and I think he meant it literally.
I knew all the stories about the Americans having to take
a different route to the courts every day.
It was very dangerous.
We had guards in our hotel rooms.
We didn't get to go out that much, all we did was maybe go to the stadium,
come back, and we had protection everywhere.
Secret Service or whatever, from the Romanian government.
It was pretty tough to play in those conditions.
Năstase! Năstase!
You will be surprised, the arena has had a complete makeover,
new bleachers, sacrificed roosters...
Not bad at all!
All the workers on the site, carpenters, mechanics,
they are excited about the game.
For Comrade Ilie, we'll make an excellent court!
They were playing on red clay, behind the Iron Curtain for the first time
and it was a big deal.
With Stan Smith serving the way he was serving on grass,
the grass was very, very quick.
But on clay, it was sort of heavy clay,
because Ion Ţiriac was clever
and he knew how to prepare the court.
He said We're gonna water these courts so much
that Godzilla Stan Smith will think he's playing on a beach.
It's not Wimbledon, it's not Forest Hills, it's not Roland-Garros.
The Davis Cup is in Bucharest.
He'd won the US Open
and now they were gonna play the Davis Cup in Bucharest.
People said It's over. The Americans don't have a chance.
I remember even Năstase saying
"We're 10-1 favorites to beat the Americans."
We kind of joked that all the linesmen were related to Ţiriac
so he was orchestrating everything.
We had a neutral umpire from Argentina,
who was a big guy, but he was intimidated by the situation, it was difficult.
At every mistake by the Americans, the audience applauded and jumped up.
Myself included.
Very few countries that I've heard until now
use the colorful language that Romanians use when they're upset.
There were some terrible calls, there were actually a lot of very bad calls.
I think, frankly, there was a lot of deliberate cheating for the Romanians.
If you are in doubt, better to give the point to our compatriots
than to the others.
And it was not just the Romanian case,
it was everywhere, to be honest, in the Davis Cup.
And in 1980 there was not a neutral jury.
The umpire, the referee were local.
Just must be something that I can't play in Romania.
But people don't understand that, because...
They want me to win, they don't want me to lose.
We are told the Năstase-Ţiriac duo is rock solid?
So we hope...
Emotionally? We know the technique is impeccable.
No, there's no problem between us. No fracture.
There is nothing to confess. This is just how things are.
We are professionals, but there's a seven-year age gap between us.
As the Party has instructed, we hope to win the Davis Cup,
and I don't see what could prevent us.
Năstase deserved to be shot for one thing:
he only returned to the country on the Monday of the Davis Cup week.
He had vanished for three weeks.
Probably with his future wife or something.
By Tuesday, his palms were blistered.
Apparently, there are rumors that we've had a falling-out, but it's not true.
Not true at all. Ion and myself are friends.
We've always supported each other.
I never play well in Romania because the crowds...
expect so much from me and put so much pressure on me.
I really want
to win this Davis Cup.
They were counting on Ilie to win that match, that opening.
That was the key of the whole thing.
He served for the first set, leading with 9-8, and got broken
and that turned the whole match and Smith won its straight sets.
Than the next day, he and Ţiriac were bickering a lot during the doubles.
They were not working together as well as they could have.
In fact, they even got into a bit of a confrontation during the match.
So, you know, it was...
We loved to see that, from our point of view.
He and Ţiriac were bickering a lot during the doubles.
So Smith and Erik van Dillen, the US, beat them very comfortably.
And Smith won the decisive match the last day, beating Ţiriac 6-0 in 5th,
so Năstase's match with Tom Gorman was meaningless.
We, the ball boys... I was a ball boy in that final.
It was obvious Ţiriac couldn't beat Stan Smith.
He actually told me:
"Throw that ball wide, can't you see I'm beat?"
I realised he wanted me to throw the ball sideways,
so another ball boy would pick it up, giving him time to catch his breath.
Even with the doubles going the other way, Romania might have won.
Looking back it was a sad occasion for Năstase that he didn't perform his best
on the surface that suited him
in front of the fans that were rooting so hard for him.
Because Ţiriac did beat Gorman the first day.
I was 33 when we played in Bucharest.
If I hadn't played for five hours in the first day,
I might have had some fuel left that third day, for the fifth set,
in the singles.
The doubles went south for us.
It was one of my greatest failures.
He can't even understand it.
I mean it.
He's won all those Grand Slams, he's World Champion Ilie Năstase.
But to me...
Having come from hockey, which is a team sport.
I had seen a thing or two.
You get a hockey stick to the face, you defend, stuff like that.
But he was such an individualist.
- He was so invested-- - I'm jumping!
But he was a great artist. There you have it.
Dear watchers, we have reached the end of our programme.
Before I take my leave, though,
I wish swift progress to those who have followed our adventure
and hope that, in the coming years,
one of them will win the Grand Slam,
while others will form a new Davis Cup team.
One that might bring home the Cup.
Good luck to all!
Năstase was pure talent.
I believe that Ilie, with his way of being,
poetic, relaxed, treating tennis like a game,
but still wanting to play it as an art,
Ilie wanted to deliver a show every time.
He would say It's just a game.
He even believed this during the Davis Cup finals.
He believed it during those Wimbledon finals he lost.
To him, it's just a game.
Look, Ilie Năstase will always be Ilie Năstase.
Today when you meet him similar to 50 years ago.
I'm sure he has moments of regret, I'm sure with the talent he had, you know,
he should have been No. 1 for a long time,
but he just couldn't help himself, he didn't have the discipline,
didn't have the concentration.
I always thought he could have done a little bit more,
but maybe if he did that he wouldn't have been as natural,
so there's a bit of a give-and-take.
I remember
looking at him and saying "OK, he's playing."
The others were working.
And he was the first that was actually playing the game.
When you are the best player in the world and you're a little bit crazy,
it becomes very inspiring,
but more than that there was the simplicity that he played tennis with,
the feel that he had that was just unbelievable.
The thing was, every time he played, the courts were full.
Because sometimes people want more than just tennis.
And Ilie was able to give that little bit more to the people.
He just touches the hearts and minds of people.
He just does.
He was Romanian; he stayed in our hearts and minds,
because he made us happy.
He is one of the great people who taught me to aim at being the best.
You'd never know what he was thinking, what he was doing.
That's why Ilie was a very difficult opponent to play against.
But Ilie brought something new to the sport.
He was the fresh thing in tennis.
He made tennis
what it is today.
Forget about the record.
He has his records, he's won his tournaments, a couple of Grand Slams.
That's all good, that's all fine.
But what he did, in my opinion, to help build the game
and to create the excitement, the electricity, the charisma,
any other adjectives I can figure out, he did it.
Năstase was hard to match.
The inside of Năstase was...
People used to say he had no lungs, just two hearts.
Very generous and so on, but a lunatic.
Do you ever think of being afraid of growing old, or death?
Sometimes I'll think about death, but...
I don't see myself dead, dying, you know?
I just see myself living forever.
When you play, you tell yourself I have to win, it's what I'm here for.
But I never thought of it in a calculated way,
being No. 1.
It just happened.
That's how it was.
His style is not perfect, but each shot is an innovation,
an impulse that confuses the opponent.
He appears where he couldn't logically be,
he sends the ball where it couldn't logically go.
Has he invented surrealist tennis?
He is wrongly called shallow: he loves tennis too much to neglect it.
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