Return of Mr Nasty (and what a silly Ilie he’s been)
Ageing tennis heartthrob Nastase in storm over sexist and racist outburst
HE is the original bad boy of tennis. And at 70, it appears that Ilie ‘ Nasty’ Nastase has not mellowed with age.
The former world number one made a series of questionable remarks at a tennis event yesterday which managed to embroil him in rows over both sexism and racism.
He twice interrupted a press conference to pester the captain of the British women’s team for her room number, saying: ‘We keep being attracted.’
The incident left former British number one Anne Keothavong, 33 – who is 18 weeks pregnant with her second child – cringeing with embarrassment.
Nastase – who has previously boasted of having as many as 900 notches on his bedpost ‘including the ugly ones’ – made matters worse when he loudly joked about what colour American tennis star Serena Williams’s baby would be, suggesting ‘chocolate with milk’.
Last night the International Tennis Federation threatened action against him, saying it would not tolerate ‘discriminatory and offensive language and behaviour’.
Nastase made his comments in his Romanian homeland at the press conference for this weekend’s clash with Britain in the Fed Cup, the world cup of female tennis.
Miss Keothavong had spoken in advance about the prospect of coming face to face with infamous Nastase, who captains the Romanian team – and claimed she was ready for him.
Last month when asked if she was nervous about battling Nastase courtside, she said: ‘Don’t worry. I come from a Hackney council estate and I can give as good as I get.’
But she was evidently thinking of his aggressive side, not his rep- utation as a shameless lothario. Yesterday as the pair came together in front of the press in the Black Sea resort of Constanta, Nastase, who has boasted before of his love of younger women, clearly had matters other than tennis on his mind.
As the opposing captains posed for photos, he twice asked Miss Keothavong what her hotel room number was – and despite her obvious unhappiness, put his arm tightly around her and said: ‘We keep being attracted.’
Miss Keothavong, who was born in London to Laotian immigrant parents, looked uncomfortable and gave him a withering smile.
Nastase’s other gaffe came when one of his players was asked to comment on this week’s revela- tion that the black American tennis superstar Serena Williams is 20 weeks pregnant. While the player was answering, Nastase speculated in Romanian about what colour the baby would be, saying: ‘Let’s see what colour it has. Chocolate with milk?’ Miss Williams’ fiance Alexis ohanian, co-founder of the Reddit website, is white.
A spokesman for the International Tennis Foundation said: ‘The ITF does not tolerate discriminatory and offensive language and behaviour of any kind.
‘We are aware of alleged comments made by Romanian captain Ilie Nastase and have begun an immediate investigation so that we have the full facts of the situation before taking further and appropriate action.’
Nastase had also said yesterday that he treated women players differently from men. Responding to a question about how angry he becomes, he said: ‘I don’t get angry, especially with the girls. If I was with the boys, maybe, but because I am with the girls I have to behave.’
The player is no stranger to controversy. Six years ago he was fined for discriminatory behaviour in Romania after supporting the then French president Nicolas Sarkozy for deporting Roma gipsies.
And he has had to insist his nickname for black American tennis star Arthur Ashe, ‘negroni’, was an endearment.
Nastase, whose fourth wife Brigitte is 30 years his junior, has talked publicly of his love of younger women. He said: ‘Generally, women are beautiful when they are young. It is very rare you see a woman who’s 45 or 50 who looks great and in good shape.’
‘I don’t get angry with the girls’