Ilie Nastase (born July 19, 1946 in Bucharest) was a Romanian professional tennis player and one of the top players of 1970s, being twice number one in 1972 and 1973.

Among his 57 singles titles are the US Open in 1972 and the French Open in 1973, and in doubles he won at Wimbledon in 1973, the French Open in 1970 and the US Open in 1975. He was runner-up in the Wimbledon singles competition in 1972, playing in a classic men's final against Stan Smith. NÄ?stase was famous for his good humour on court, but also had a reputation for gamesmanship, and acquired the nickname "Nasty" after several incidents where his temperament got the better of him.

NÄ?stase's greatest victory was arguably his 6-3,3-6,6-7,6-4,6-3 against Arthur Ashe in the '72 U.S. Open final. Earlier that season, he lost a five set final at Wimbledon to Stan Smith 4-6,6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 (netting a high backhand volley at match point). Smith and NÄ?stase were polar opposites in terms of temperament, but had unusually cordial personal relations.

He wrote a couple of novels in French in the 1980s and entered politics in the 1990s, making an unsuccessful run for mayor of Bucharest in 1996.

In 2005, TENNIS Magazine put him in 28th place in its list of 40 Greatest Players of the TENNIS era.

Quotations

• If you have confidence you have patience. Confidence, that is everything.
• As long as I can get angry then I play well. If I play well I can beat everybody. I am happy because I am getting angry.
• My ambition is to do a good job. I never plan anything.
• I haven't reported my missing credit card to the police because whoever stole it is spending less than my wife.

In his recent book Ilie Năstase mentioned that he slept with around 2500 women. After hearing this, his wife said that she was happy to have conquered such a man.

Singles titles

• 1970

• • Rome

• 1971

• • Richmond, Hampton, Nice, Monte Carlo, Bastad, Wembley, Masters

• 1972

• • Baltimore, Omaha, Monte Carlo, Madrid, Nice, Dusseldorf, Montreal, US Open (Grass), South Orange, Seattle, London, Masters

• 1973

• • Omaha, Barcelona, Calgary, Monte Carlo WCT, Florence, Rome, French Open, Queens, Gstaad, Cincinnati, Madrid, Barcelona-2, Paris Indoor, Masters

• 1974

• • Richmond WCT, Washington WCT, Bournemouth, Cedar Grove, Madrid, Barcelona

• 1975

• • Barcelona, Valencia, Madrid, South Orange, Masters

• 1976

• • Atlanta WCT, Salisbury, La Costa, South Orange, Pepsi Grand Slam

• 1977

• • Mexico City WCT, Aix-en-Provence

• 1978

• • Miami