Tennis’ richest star Tiriac only made one Grand Slam quarter but is worth £1bn
Tennis' richest ever player Ion Tiriac has amassed a fortune of $1.2billion (£1billion) in his retirement, according to CelebrityNetWorth – but he only made one grand slam quarter-final.
In fact, in his playing days, Tiriac's net worth was only believed to be around £200,000. The Romanian's best result came at the French Open in 1968 – when he was beaten in the quarter-final by then World No.1 Rod Laver.
After hanging up his racket, Tiriac initially moved into coaching – where he worked with greats such as Ilie Nastase and Boris Becker. But it was when he moved away from sports was when he made the majority of his fortune.
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As Romania moved away from communism, Tiriac set up his country's first privately-owned bank, which became a huge financial success.
With his newfound fortune, he set up Tiriac Holdings Ltd, and he has since invested in retail, insurance and airline businesses. In 2007, Tiriac was named by Forbes as Romania's first billionaire.
As a result, Tiriac now dwarfs the majority of net worths on the tennis circuit: including stars such as Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.
At the end of his career, Tiriac turned to doubles – where he experienced his biggest success with Nastase.
Nastase was tennis' original playboy, and he was forced to backtrack after claiming he's romped with 2,500 women. He said: "I like women. I love women. It is normal to love a woman.
"No, no, no [2,500 women]! It wasn't that many. It was exaggerated for my autobiography. They wanted a big number – to make it sell better." However, when asked the true total, the former World No.1 still gave a great answer.
He continued: "I don't know – 300, 400? I never added them up – it didn't feel right. How could I remember? Anyway, what does it matter – 2,500 or 500, they're not going to give me a medal, are they? And there were a lot of misses."
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