The Tiriac Open presented by UniCredit Bank welcomed some Romanian tennis royalty to help launch the 2026 edition of the ATP 250 event.
The first No. 1 player in PIF ATP Rankings history, Ilie Nastase, was in Bucharest on Saturday for the draw ceremony at the clay-court event. Nastase posed for photos with tournament director Ion Tiriac, himself a former World No. 55 and five-time tour-level champion, as well as 2026 competitors Roberto Bautista Agut and Alexander Shevchenko.
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One of the most successful performers in Romanian sporting history, Nastase became World No. 1 upon the introduction of the PIF ATP Rankings on 23 August, 1973, and stayed there for 40 weeks. He won 64 tour-level titles across his illustrious career, including two Grand Slam singles titles at the 1972 US Open and at Roland Garros in 1973, the year he also finished as the first ATP Year-End No. 1 presented by PIF. He also triumphed four times at the Nitto ATP Finals (then known as the Masters).
Nastase and Tiriac were both also top-class doubles players. They won 11 tour-level titles together from 1970 to 1977. The duo was also integral to Romania reaching the Davis Cup Final in 1969, 1971 and 1972.
Fast-forward to 2026 and it has been a wet start to the week in Bucharest, where rain forced all qualifying matches on Sunday’s schedule to be postponed until Monday. As a result, main-draw play will not begin in the Romanian capital until Tuesday, when fifth seed and 2025 finalist Sebastian Baez will be among those in action.
Baez takes on Vilius Gaubas in his opening match, in what will be the pair’s maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting. Meanwhile his fellow Argentine and seventh seed Mariano Navone will kick-start the Central Court schedule with his encounter against Christopher O’Connell, while former Top 10 star Bautista Agut competes on Court 2 against Titouan Droguet.
