Mr. Nasty

[gzhpcu]

Great series of articles on Nastase. He is still at it, getting into the headlines with the Fed Cup debacle, and the comments on Serena Williams expected baby. Reading the articles is a reminder of where he is coming from.

The only time I experienced Nastase live was many years ago when I attended the French Open. He was playing a first round match against Onny Parun. Onny had won the first set and was putting a lot of pressure on Nasty. Onny had a distinctive, rather strange, but effective service motion. So what did Nasty do? He started imitating Onny's service motion when it was his turn to serve in the second set. The crowd chuckled and laughed. Onny got so irritated, that he quickly lost his concentration and the match. Of course, during the match, Nasty contested line calls theatrically, squabbling with linesmen over the marks.

[stotty]

Great series of articles on Nastase. He is still at it, getting into the headlines with the Fed Cup debacle, and the comments on Serena Williams expected baby. Reading the articles is a reminder of where he is coming from.

The only time I experienced Nastase live was many years ago when I attended the French Open. He was playing a first round match against Onny Parun. Onny had won the first set and was putting a lot of pressure on Nasty. Onny had a distinctive, rather strange, but effective service motion. So what did Nasty do? He started imitating Onny's service motion when it was his turn to serve in the second set. The crowd chuckled and laughed. Onny got so irritated, that he quickly lost his concentration and the match. Of course, during the match, Nasty contested line calls theatrically, squabbling with linesmen over the marks.

Interesting your story about Onny. I saw Onny play Nastase in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon back in the 70's. Nastase carried on in much the same way as you mentioned in your story. Then, midway through the second set, at the changeover, Onny audibly told Nastase: 'If you don't shut up, I'm going to whack you one". Nastase went on to win but never made another peep throughout the rest of the match.

Onny wasn't the sort of guy who took prisoners...not someone to cross.