Victorious at the US Open in 1972, first world No. 1 in the history of tennis in 1973, Ilie Nastase, now aged 77, forged his legend through his bloody strokes. Like when he sabotaged, between provocations and insults, a match he was losing against the American John McEnroe at the US Open in 1979. “I had decided that I would not get angry, that I would “I would let myself be made a fool of,” says McEnroe in the documentary which has just been presented at Cannes, Nasty.
Younger than Nastase, the American followed in his footsteps for his volcanic temperament. The game becomes a parody of tennis. The chair umpire first gives McEnroe a win in the face of Nastase’s excesses – middle finger to the public, etc. – before being disavowed and replaced by the referee of the tournament.
McEnroe wins the match racket in hand in an atmosphere close to riot. In the film, he says that he then rushed to the locker room to come to blows with the Romanian. “And then he says “Macaroni” to me – he’s the only one who can call me that –, I have these two girls with me, will you come and eat with me? I am speechless and I say “well yes”. And there we are, we find ourselves having dinner with Nastase at 1 a.m..”
“He was the first player to dress in color, and his wristband in the colors of Romania was a bit like the reggae-colored headband that I had,” describes Yannick Noah, another great figure. of the world circuit. While the major player of the time, in the 1970s, the American Stan Smith, sports a hairstyle and smart outfits, Nastase looks like a rock star with his long hair. It opens the door to strong tennis personalities like Andre Agassi.
The dark sides of the character are not evaded in Nasty, screened in a special screening and signed by the Romanians Tudor Giurgiu, Cristian Pascariu and Tudor D. Popescu. In front of a TV crew, in the 1970s, Nastase called “Negroni” Arthur Ashe, an African-American player, who was not offended. In the 2010s, he apologized for saying about African-American tennis star Serena Williams’ pregnancy: “We’ll see what color (the baby) turns out.”