Ilie Năstase

Ilie Theodoriu Năstase born 19 July 1946 is a Romanian former professional tennis player He was ranked as the inaugural world No 1 in mens singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals ATP for 40 weeks Năstase is one of ten players to have won over 100 total ATPlevel titles with 64 in singles and 45 in doubles among which seven majors two in singles three in mens doubles and two in mixed doubles He also won four Masters Grand Prix yearend championships He was the first professional sports figure to sign an endorsement contract with Nike doing so in 1972 Năstase also wrote several novels in French in the 1980s and was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1991 At the beginning of his career in 1966 Năstase traveled around the world competing with Ion Țiriac They represented Romania in the Davis Cup competition being runners up in 1969 1971 and 1972 In singles Năstase won his first tournament at Cannes on 16 April 1967 His first victories against top players happened in 1969 in Stockholm where he defeated Tony Roche and Stan Smith Năstase became one of the best players in 1970 with many experts ranking him as the sixthbest player in the world at that time behind the Australians Rod Laver Ken Rosewall John Newcombe and Tony Roche and the American Arthur Ashe Năstases high ranking resulted from his success at the Italian Open in Rome and at the US Indoor Open in Salisbury Maryland With Tiriac Năstase won the mens doubles title at the French Open In 1971 Năstase was the runnerup at the French Open where he lost the final in four sets to Jan Kodeš In December Năstase won his first Masters Grand Prix title finishing in front of Stan Smith in a round robin competition In 1972 at Wimbledon Năstase narrowly lost to Stan Smith in an epic fiveset final one of the more exciting championship matches He won the US Open in a fiveset final over Ashe despite trailing 2 sets to 1 and 42 in the fourth set This tournament was the only event of the year in which all the best players participated In the Davis Cup Năstase was undefeated in singles until losing to Stan Smith in the final played on clay in his native Bucharest In December at the yearend tour finals Năstase defeated Smith winning his second consecutive Masters Grand Prix title Source Article Ilie Năstase from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA