Ilie Nastase (Bucharest, 1946) was the first number one in the history of the ATP ranking in 1973. The Romanian, champion of the US Open in 1972 and Roland Garros in 1973, will not be able to finally travel to the Davis Cup in Marbella, which measures Spain and Rumana, to honor his friend Manolo Santana. The racket legend reviews for MARCA how he met the racket pioneer in Spain.
Q. Do you remember when you met Santana for the first time?
R. It was in a Davis Cup tie, in 1967. He had just won Wimbledon and I was only 21 years old. He was winning by 6-0 and 3-0 and Manolo got angry. He ended up winning the match.
Q. How did you become friends?
R. He was my idol because I also grew up on clay. After playing that first time at Davis, he made me a dedication that said: ‘To a future world champion’.
Q. How would you define Santana’s tennis?
R. He is the best player I have seen on clay. I don’t know how tennis players before him played, but I know how difficult it was to beat him on that surface. And he had a lot of records that Nadal later broke over time with figures like the 13 Roland Garros titles.
Manolo signed a dedication for me and wrote: ‘for a future world champion
Q. Manolo was the pioneer of Spanish tennis?
R. He was one of those who started the current success of tennis in Spain with Arilla, Orantes, Gimeno, Couder…
Q. If there had been an ATP ranking in the sixties, would Santana have reached number one?
R. Of course, because in his time it was the journalists who made the classification and I don’t think it was fair.
Q. Rafael Nadal has just won the Australian Open and is the player with the most ‘Grand Slam’ crowns. Can you tell that he is the GOAT?
R. It is clear that if the question is who has the biggest titles, the answer is Nadal. If we talk about the best ever there are other factors. Roger Federer has impressive talent…But there is no doubt that Rafa has 21 Grand Slams and Federer and Djokovic have not.
P. Do you think that Federer has any option to dust off his palm?
R. He is playing very little lately, but he will always have a chance if he keeps playing and reaches a final.
Q. Is Djokovic’s career in danger if he doesn’t get vaccinated?
R. Since everyone has been vaccinated except for him, he has a problem. Although I’m not going to be the one to judge him because it’s not up to me.
It is a problem for Djokovic that everyone has been vaccinated except him
Q. Medvedev is a deserved number one?
R. The usual ones are getting older and it is normal for Medvedev, Zverev or Tsitsipas to take over at the top of tennis.
Q. How do you see the Davis Cup tie against Spain?
R. We have no chance of winning because Spain, even without Nadal, have many players to choose from.
We have no chance of beating Spain
Q. And why has Romanian tennis run out of tennis players?
R. It is a question we all ask ourselves. We live a little of players and now we have players. It seems like it’s hard to have boys and girls at the same time.
Q. Simona Halep is ready to return to the top?
R. To win a ‘Grand Slam’ the ranking is not important. Simona has already won and will do it again.
