I am at Palm Springs to take my son to compete in the Easter Bowl Super Nationals and one of the USTA linesman told me that Nastase started playing tennis at 16 and joined the tour at 17. I find this hard to believe, can anyone verify this info? This linesman is from Spain and said that Nastase was originally a soccer player.
Did Ilie Nastase really start playing tennis at 16?
- Thread starter edge
- Start date
Marius_Hancu
Talk Tennis Guru
Not true.
Ilie grew up in a family of tennis players, thus he was very aware of it very early, even if he didn't play it except occasionally until 10 or so. His elder brother, Costel, was on the Romanian national team, while Ilie was a child.
In his book written with Ion Tiriac (and the great sports writer Ioan Chirila), Ilie writes:
"Until the age of 10, I played only soccer.
[then he started to get coaching from his brother who saw Ilie hitting occasionally and realized his amazing touch and from Costica Chivaru, a coach which was "paying" Ilie with sweets in order to make him play]
In 1959, at Cluj, in September, I won the national title for 13-14 years, with 6-4 6-2."
Ilie Nastase was born in 1946.
What is true however, is that about the age of 15-16, he had to take a decision between soccer and tennis, and fortunately for all of us, he stuck to tennis.
Ilie grew up in a family of tennis players, thus he was very aware of it very early, even if he didn't play it except occasionally until 10 or so. His elder brother, Costel, was on the Romanian national team, while Ilie was a child.
In his book written with Ion Tiriac (and the great sports writer Ioan Chirila), Ilie writes:
"Until the age of 10, I played only soccer.
[then he started to get coaching from his brother who saw Ilie hitting occasionally and realized his amazing touch and from Costica Chivaru, a coach which was "paying" Ilie with sweets in order to make him play]
In 1959, at Cluj, in September, I won the national title for 13-14 years, with 6-4 6-2."
Ilie Nastase was born in 1946.
What is true however, is that about the age of 15-16, he had to take a decision between soccer and tennis, and fortunately for all of us, he stuck to tennis.
Andy Hewitt
Professional
Yeah right, when u start playing all u do is tap the ball over. Took me over a year to stop doing that.... Now i think my 2nd year is winding down!
goober
Legend
I don't know how anybody can believe that somebody could go from a 1.0 to a 7.0 in one year 
Pretty funny though so far this board has had people claim that Todd Martin didn't start playing tennis until he was in college, Stan Smith until he was 17, Hewitt when he was 13 and Guga when he was 14. All a bunch of garbage of course.
Pretty funny though so far this board has had people claim that Todd Martin didn't start playing tennis until he was in college, Stan Smith until he was 17, Hewitt when he was 13 and Guga when he was 14. All a bunch of garbage of course.
Similar threads
