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Former tennis player and current businessman Ion Tiriac told a press conference organized on Saturday on the occasion of the main draws for the upcoming Tiriac Open claycourt event which will take place at the Bucharest Nastase & Marica Sports Club that this is the best ATP 250 tournament Romania has ever had.
The tennis competition, whose license is held by Ion Tiriac, is back to Bucharest after eight years during which it was held abroad, after the BNR Arenas sports base in Bucharest was closed for safety reasons.
"This is the best ATP 250 tournament we've ever had in Romania. I was amazed by the fact that the Romanians liked this tournament very well, they remembered it, and now, as far as I understand, it is sold-out. So we keep it and move on. Maybe little by little some of our boys will make it among the world's top 500 or perhaps among the leading 200, because aspiring for the top 20 echelon is just wishful thinking," said the former tennis player.
Marius Copil and Frenchman Lucas Pouille received wild cards for the tournament. Tiriac recalled that many years ago he offered current world No. 1 Novak Djokovic a wild card to play in the Bucharest tournament.
"I am very proud to say that a young man named Djokovic did not have enough money to train in Serbia, so he usually trained in Romania. And the first time, for him to be able to play in this tournament, we offered him a wild card. He forgot that, but he didn't forget my name. So he recognizes me. But three quarters of Djokovic's success is due to this tournament where he once received a wild card," said Tiriac.
In the businessman's opinion, tennis will change a lot in the coming years, but he is confident that the Bucharest tournament will stay on. "There is no way for ATP 250 tournaments to disappear, but ATP 500 tournaments have a bigger problem, because somewhere in the future there's a league with the 14 major tournaments taking shape, and there is no place for the 500-level there. But this is not our problem, we're happy to have our tournament where we only host top 100 players. So I don't think it can get any better than that," added Ion Tiriac.
Also present at the press conference, Canadian Denis Shapovalov said that he is happy to have the opportunity to play for the first time in Bucharest.
The ATP 250 Tiriac Open will take place at the Bucharest Nastase & Marica Sports Club between April 15-21.
The tournament hands out EUR 580,000 in prize money, of which the winner will cash in EUR 88,125 plus 250 ATP points, and the runner-up will get EUR 51,400 and 150 ATP points.
