The Untamed Legacy of Ilie Nastase: More Than a Tennis Player

Ilie Nastase is the first number one in the history of the ATP ranking. We are talking about the year 1973, when the ranking appears for the first time, and this Romanian was much more than a tennis player. Able to hit the chair umpires with balls, block the lens from photographers, lie down in the middle of the court and at the same time dazzle with a wooden racket who composed melodies for the joy of communist Romania in those years.

‘Nasty: much more than tennis’ is the perfect name chosen for this documentary that can be enjoyed on the Max platform and it is because that is what his colleagues on the circuit called him. The nickname ‘dirty’ could not be more precise in return to what he himself handed out to each and every one of the players he faced. One of them ‘Negroni’ was dedicated to the American myth, Arthur Ashe, with whom he had so many battles on the court and friendship off the court.. Unthinkable in today’s world is how to speculate about the color of Serena Williams’ son for a “milk chocolate” tone. This was already as captain of the Romanian Davis team and it cost him a public accusation of racism by the American champion.

With all this curriculum it is difficult to think that the documentary film will make you adore ‘Nasty’ at the same time that you hate it. It is understandable if you see and listen, mainly to his colleagues on the circuit. From John McEnroe through Bjorn Borg, Mats Wilander, Billie Jean King and of course his great friend Jimmy Connors. Everyone agrees that he never spoke or acted with bad intentions, that it was his way of expressing himself, of doing comedy and in the help he gave to many tennis players, mainly in the women’s team, when tennis was not what it is now. Because in those years fair money was earned and starting with Nastase, with the help of his mentor Ion Tiriac, tennis entered another dimension.

This is what Rafa Nadal, who participates in the format, tells it, and defines the Romanian in sports as “a pioneer who paved the way for the rest of us. He did what he enjoyed and managed to be unique“. And so much so that he was, he did whatever he wanted and brought tennis to “show business.” The sport for elites and with boarding school manners passed its ‘country house’ era to enter rock and roll. and sometimes metal. Nastase attracted those who liked tennis and those who didn’t. That magnetism and that thuggish show led him to television shows, circus shows and to live surrounded by women with whom he interacted in the American elites.

Ilie Nastase was the player who “danced when he hit” as Toni Nadal explains in the documentary and at the same time the bandit who sat in the chair umpire’s structure, moved his hat to the lineman, the one who showed the check to Artur Ashe after winning the US Open in ’72 and which caused Ashe himself to leave the Masters in ’75, fed up with his attitude on the court. With that, they went to dinner together ten minutes later. “We were two bandits and we loved being that“, are the words of another of the great protagonists of the documentary, Jimmy Connors. If Ion Tiriac had been ‘Nasty’s’ mentor, this would be Jimbo’s.

All this falls short if you don’t see it. Their gestures, their dances, their laughter, their jokes with the public, their bracelets and their colors that escaped the white prevailing in tennis. Kyrgios, next to him, is a role model. More than 100 titles, two singles majors and another five in doubles, the first ATP number in the ranking. A unique character with a narrative arc typical of the greatest villain in American fiction. “One of the geniuses of our sport” in the words of Rafa and the example of tennis from before that Toni Nadal liked more “because he didn’t hit himself so hard and gave time to see the elegance of the blows.”

A unique type capable of appearing in the foreground at the most critical moment for his country, when the communist dictator, Ceaușescu, ordered the shooting of the Romanian population.. For all this and much more, it is worth sitting down to watch this documentary with a parade of tennis and sports stars in Romania. And to be amazed by what a player was capable of doing at that time, science fiction for our eyes today.

2024-06-06 18:52:38
#story #number #tennis #villain #turns #Kyrgios #role #model #Nadal #considers #unique #Relief