Mr Nastase: The Autobiography

by Ilie Nastase, Ilie Nastese

It would not be an overstatement to say that Ilie Nastase was at least partly responsible for the explosion of interest in tennis in the 1970s. Thanks to his prowess on the court, his flamboyant lifestyle, his sex appeal, and the controversy that continually surrounded him, Nastase’s name was well known far beyond the confines of tennis. In this candid autobiography, he recalls his days as a young troublemaker in Bucharest, his rise in the world of tennis, his incident-packed glory years in the game, and his high-profile life as a playboy. A sparkling memoir, recounted with all the swagger and bravado of the original bad boy of tennis.

Genres: Biography, Sports, Romanian Literature

400 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Ilie Năstase is a Romanian former professional tennis player, one of the world's top players of the 1970s.

Reviews

[Bilal Murtaza · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ilie Nastase is a man I would have loved to watch in his prime. I doubt we will ever see a generation of entertainers similar to McEnroe, Connors, Nastase and Borg simply because of the modern day players' code of conduct (both written and unwritten) and the current big four's politeness towards each other.

The book itself is a delightful, light-hearted read for tennis fans. It delves deeply into Nastase's relationship with his partner-manager, Tiriac, his modest upbringing in Romania, his many female conquests and his topsy-turvy relationship with the All-England Tennis Club. His rivalry with Borg, French Open victories and relationship with Connors are explored well enough though I would have liked to know more about his take on Connors.

It does not contain enough details of his matches to satisfy me, though his hilarious anecdotes more than make up for the lack of ball-by-ball commentary on his matches over the years.

If you enjoyed this book then I highly recommend McEnroe's latest autobiography and The Outsider: A Memoir by Jimmy Connors.

[Ian · Rating 5 out of 5]

A belting read! A bloke that you would absolutely love to spend time with and listen to. An absolute hoot! What happened to all of the true 'sports personalities' like Ilie? The world is a duller place without them isn't it??

[John Coates · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book about a great tennis player and a great character that lit up the world of tennis for both good and bad reasons, but was always so very entertaining to watch. He tells the story of his life with great candour, not only about his tennis, but his personal life as well. For Ilie Nastase he was always just being himself.

[Dragos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to read book if you love tennis.

[martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

With a few rare exceptions, today’s elite tennis players are either spoilt, entitled brats or two dimensional automata micro-managed by hordes of support staff. Images carefully controlled by media experts and PR agents. It wasn’t always so, tennis players used to have characters, they were recognisably human, often visibly imperfect. This now rather old autobiography is of one of the greatest of those characters, a man we loved to hate and also simply loved and whose antics on and off courts we were addicted to.

Nastase would delight us one minute, break our hearts the next and make us angry a few moments later. He was not just a temperamental, funny, brilliant player, he was also very much a rogue and was rarely out of the news. His Wimbledon final against Stan Smith is for me the greatest ever. If you get a chance watch it and feel the joy and the pain.

This is an amusing book that tries to be honest and self-critical and mostly succeeds. Far more than just a boring account of matches and tournaments, Nastase was larger than life and revels in his naughtiness.

[Rene Salomon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not much faith in autobiograpies. This one is pretty average. I did so love Mr Nastase as a player. He mostly glosses over his bad boy image, but its a very good insight into the pre megabucks tour. Not many players even write about their playing days, and most of those are quite pedestrian books.