“I would go to Mrs. Meloni's tomorrow and tell her . . .”

The Mutua Madrid Open tournament, one of the most prestigious of the entire season, was moved to Spain's largest city while the license belonged to Ion Șiriac. The first edition took place in 2002, at the Madrid Arena, on hard indoor, the businessman and former important Romanian player deciding that Stuttgart is no longer suitable for organizing such a competition.

Țiriac owned the tournament until 2021 inclusive, then sold it to IMG (International Management Group) for approx. 390 million euros. The Romanian billionaire is constantly present, however, in the stands at Caja Magica, where the tournament has moved since 2009. That was also the case this season, and the co-director of the Mutua Madrid Open, Feliciano Lopezinvited him for a half-hour discussion on his podcast, Feli's Room.

To familiarize his viewers with the personality of his interlocutor, the former number 12 ATP urged him at the start of the interview to reveal his first steps in the white sport. “I started playing tennis when others had already given up playing. I got my hands on a racket for the first time in my life three days before my 15th birthday“, Șiriac told in a mixture of Spanish and Italian.

“Really?” Feliciano wondered. “But I was a good table tennis player, at junior level, very good. And in the Olympic ice hockey team. Tennis was an accident because the city where I was born, Brașov, in Romania, in the Carpathian mountains, had a good tennis team. It was a minor sport, but it had a national championship in cities,” he further described the situation in the 1950s.

Ion Țiriac: “He asked me: “Since when have you been playing tennis?” From 5 minutes ago»”

An interesting anecdote recalls his formal start in tennis. “One day, a guy said to me: “Don't you want to be a ball boy for 25 money?, because my opponent didn't come”. I answered: “Yes, of course, but give me your racket, I'll give it back to you”. He was a solid guy, about 100 kilograms. He asked me: “Since when do you play tennis?” From 5 minutes ago”, I told him. I played a set. I was 15 years old and had the legs I'd had all my life. I always said, as a hockey player, as a tennis player, my legs saved me. I was left with this matter in my head as a coach too”, recounted Ion Țiriac.

“That's how, through an accident, I got to tennis, in the same week I became a junior on the team, I played the first tournament and in three months I was among the top four in the country. In 2 years I played Davis Cup at 18, at 19“, he continued.

He then described his daily life, including the fact that he worked from the age of 15-16 at the factory Red Flagwhere he was allowed to play tennis for 4 hours every day. For a while he practiced ice hockey and tennis, the first sport in winter, but after the 1964 Innsbruck Olympics, he gave up hockey altogether.

Ion Țiriac and the reason for his retirement from tennis: “Because of a great disillusionment”

His tennis career was rich, including a Grand Slam doubles title at Roland Garros in 1970. Lopez was curious about the decision to retire, prompting Țiriac to make it. “In 1972 I played the last final of the Davis Cup and I said to myself: “I've had enough, I can't anymore at 33 years old” and dedicated myself exclusively to coaching“, said the businessman.

But what was the weighty reason for this decision? “Because of great disillusionment, for three years I played the Davis Cup final with Năstase who was there, number 1 in the world, and I didn't win it. For me it was an important matter, and at 33 you don't recover like at 23. We played a lot of tennis, tennis was at half the speed of today, but the time spent on the court, running, was probably much higher”, he explained.

Ilie Năstase and Ion Țiriac playing doubles in the 1970s Photo: Imago Images

I was Roland Garros doubles champion, finalist once again, three Davis Cup finals, they are the best results of my career. On the other hand, tennis was my life – Ion Șiriac

Ion Țiriac: “Vilas was the greatest in the world for someone with zero talent”

He then became a coach, later a manager, but his first important results were with the Argentinian Guillermo Vilas (73 years old), quadruple Grand Slam champion in the 1970s.

“I started training Vilas full time, it was 11 years. For me, Vilas was the greatest player of all time,” said Țiriac, surprising Feliciano. Why? “For someone who had zero talent, 8 hours of training every day… hats off to me, that's sensational“, explained Ion Țiriac.

Guillermo Vilas and Ion Țiriac in the 1980s Photo: Imago Images

“If he didn't have talent, he still had something, right?” Lopez wondered. “The power to work, the desire, the heart and also the head. You can compare someone like Vilas to Muster, another field worker“, explained the Romanian billionaire.

He also has a personal opinion about the distribution of prizes in tennis, which have had an important rise, especially in recent years.

“Premiums have increased, but not that much,” believes Țiriac. “The players are right, but I say the winner is right. Winning £100,000 by losing in the first round doesn't seem justified to me. “Yes, I sacrificed my life, I got to Wimbledon”, bravo”, he said, clapping his hands, “but on the first day of Monday at Wimbledon there are 128 players in the same line. Win, win Wimbledon and then take not 5, but 10 million”, he proposed.

Ion Țiriac: “I would go to Mrs. Meloni: “I need a billion””

He also has an idea about Italian tennis, which is on the rise, with world leader Jannik Sinner and 6 other players in the ATP Top 100, plus the women's results.

“I, if I were Italian or 50 years younger, would go to Mrs. Meloni, the Prime Minister, tomorrow and say: “Ma'am, I need a billion and I sign now, on the spot, that in 8 years I will return it to you. I'm making three stadiums, 20,000, 15,000, 10,000, and another 20 pitches elsewhere because the Foro Italico is too historic, it can't be touched»”, would be his vision to make tennis from Cizma even more visible.

But how did Madrid come to have a tournament of great magnitude? Tiriac pointed to his good friend Manolo Santanaquadruple Grand Slam champion, who died in 2021 at the age of 83, as the one who insisted a lot.

“I went to Hong Kong in 2000 to see if I could move Stuttgart there, it was too small. I was then the president of the Romanian Olympic Committee, but there was no place in Hong Kong. And Spain had Moya, Corretja, Ferrero, but no big tournament. I came to Madrid, the mayor was a great gentleman, Alvarez de Manzano“, Țiriac told, adding what his arguments were to convince the mayor.

Sorana Cîrstea – Coco Gauff round 3 Madrid 2026 at Caja Magica Photo: Luminița Paul

“It was a logical thing, on paper Paris makes a billion for the city after Roland Garros, with hotels, tourists, and Madrid, what is Madrid? It's Real Madrid three times, then Atletico Madrid, soccer, soccer, soccer, then basketball, handball. And it seemed suitable to me as a place, the huge problem was where to play. Manzano hung on with his teeth and in 6 months he was playing, indoors“, Ion Țiriac recalled the genesis of the Madrid competition. Which is no longer his, but from which he is not absent in any year.