US Open 1972 Final - Arthur Ashe (6) vs Illie Nastase (4)

[@chatkeow]

Greatest Tennis Showman of all time

[@patrickkelly9110]

Great upload , I’m watching it before it gets taken down ! There’s so little of nastase available . What a player he was ,

[@godlaver5924]

Thanks Patrick ! See any more Nastase Videos in God Laver Channel

[@Ruda-n4h]

@@godlaver5924 Great footage from one of the best Grand Slam finals of the 70s, thanks. I would love to see the following in their entirety - Borg/Orantes French Open Final 1974, Borg/Vilas WCT Final 1976 and two of the best matches I saw in the 80s - Borg/Connors Wimbledon semi final 1981 and Lendl/McEnroe WCT final 1983.

[@godlaver5924]

Thanks Neil !

[@java0880]

would be great if there was 1 tournament that required the use of wood rackets only

[@philippezalcberg2427]

one of the best match of tennis

[@godlaver5924]

Very good match. I think Wimbledon 72 Final against Smith is little better yet.

[@theoriginalthinker9199]

This match was lost by Artbur Ashe in the 4th set, up a break and two break points on Nastase's serve. He played about three really bad points, and lost the game. If he wins that game, he's up 2 sets to 1 serving at 4-1. No way he's gonna lose with his serve! It's the little things in life that change history.

[@jdalidis]

Năstase is unstopable when he holds his nerves.

[@briansd2772]

My gawd. They gave away a Ford Pinto Wagon back then! too?!?

[@honuman39]

The pace of the game back then is much faster. The players are so workmanlike. They serve, the point is won within a few shots then the server emotionlessly goes to the line for the next point. I'm sure the racket tech has a lot to do with the level of play. I can see the skills of these players and they're trying to make shots you see being made today but they're very low percentage in this era.

[@godlaver5924]

Agree

[@ioncoman3608]

Super campion

[@nigelgunson1025]

If nasty had focused more he would have had multiple majors. A great natural talent.

[@hendrik19601]

he was focused, you can be sure, he never went to Australia, he came here to Forest Hills for the first time when he was 23, but he went to win the Challenge Cup several times, where there were tons of prize money. The majors is more propaganda than anything else. By that time, players were more interested in the invitationals and many other things that managers and agents knew too well

[@emin7540]

This is tennis, not the ping pong amateur stuff that is today's tennis. When your opponent approaches the net hit to their shoe laces, aim for the T's, change pace etc... You can gauge their serve speed with a stop watch from when the ball is struck to bouncing in the service box and you will find that today's plays do not serve that much faster.

[@uncletony6210]

1:21:08 Wow!

[@phil_10p65]

Hello God Laver!Thanks for this upload.I wanna ask you, if you have one of the following matches or all, and you can upload them: 1.Ilie Nastase-Nikola Pilic, Roland Garros Men's Singles Final 1973 2.Ilie Nastase/Ion Tiriac-Arthur Ashe/Charlie Pasarell, Roland Garros Men's Doubles Final 1970 3.Virginia Ruzici-Mima Jausovec, Roland Garros Women's Singles Final 1978 4.Virginia Ruzici/Mima Jausovec-Gail Sherriff Lovera/Lesley Turner Bowrey, Roland Garros Women's Doubles Final 1978 5.Ilie Nastase/Jimmy Connors-John Cooper/Neale Fraser, Wimbledon Men's Doubles Final 1973 6.Ilie Nastase/Jimmy Connors-Tom Okker/Marty Riessen-US Open Men's Doubles Final 1975 7.Ilie Nastase-Jan Kodes-Roland Garros Men's Singles Final 1971 8.Ilie Nastase/Ion Tiriac-Dennis Ralston/Clark Graebner-Roland Garros Men's Doubles Final 1966 9.Romania-SUA-Davis Cup Final 1972,Arenele BNR, Bucharest, Romania (4 singles matches+1 doubles match) Thank you very much!

[@martydav9475]

Some great names there.

[@warrenrosen2326]

They play fast!

[@Ruda-n4h]

No long rallies.

[@tudvalstone]

You know the video quality is bad when they have to label the players so you can tell which one is Nastase and which one is Ashe.

[@MrPernell27]

Got to hit with Ashe when I was 12. Extremely nice man. Met Nastase in 2005 at the US Open. Absolute jackass. Was extremely rude to me, Vilas and Stan Smith. Extremely talented tennis player, but being a good person is far more important

[@martydav9475]

Nastase is in the top three most talented tennis players I've seen along with McEnroe and Federer; absolutely brilliant player who was a wizard at the net.As for his lifestyle back then: partying, womanising, chaotic; and his temperamental, self-destructive personality and behaviour? Probably the less said the better. Ashe of course was a gentleman and a terrific player.

[@christschool]

His nickname was Nasty Nastase. I'm surprised he was rude to Vilas and Smith, both more accomplished players than he was.

[@jjanderson8235]

.... Ilie mugged at me on sidecourt when I had video cam (~'91) and I remember his line to a photographer 'you think I look like monkey?' 😂 .. rude perhaps but a character.

[@drobson8004]

​@@christschoolSmith more accomplished. How so?

[@HankFinkle11]

The umpires repeating the line calls was really annoying.

[@bigkahunaburger5185]

$25,000 to the US Open champion, $12,000 to the runner up 😳

[@brettanthony3127]

That first prize was alot of money back then. Had the purchasing power of $187 000 in today's money. Course, what they got in comparison with today is ridiculous.

[@criss2528]

Well, Nastase had a career earning of ~2mil USD....about ~7,5mil usd in today's money. Not bad. But, with 100 titles won both singles and doubles (64 singles), grand slams, masters, etc...today...you would be hitting the 100million usd mark. Plus millions more from sponsorship contracts (let's not forget, that Nastase was the very first professional player to sign such a contract with Nike). And when you think, because of charismatic players, like Nastase, McEnroe, Connors, tennis became the popular sport, it is today, making it easy for players to earn these huge amounts. Before them, tennis was a boring sports, played by some club members only. Hats off to these legends of the romantic period of tennis.

[@pelehound]

See if you can spot the scoring error in the first 2 minutes.

[@georgedavid7744]

LA MULȚI ANI ILIE NĂSTASE !!!

[@johndickson9542]

Ashe was always a class act. It's too bad Nastase didn't take his advice about brushing up on court manners.

[@godlaver5924]

Impossible Illie. Talent & Chaos, all in one-pack.

[@danielburlacu4621]

Looks like Ash took Ilie's exemple and behaved like a snob villen at the end. He did not know how to lose. Instead of congratulating Ilie for the win, he talks about what to watch on TV and pretends to be players representative. If the champion says 3 words, you, the runner up, say just 2. The rest is just infatuation. Ilie was class in this match. A magic moment in his career. Ilie takes it all! The cash, the girl, the public! And the championship. Arthur takes the bitter end.

[@dadodydo]

When tennis was an elegant sport rather than a demonstration of brute force.

[@preciousjey]

Ashe getting Nasty SmAshed.

[@iamtman1]

Except nasty won!

[@serenaistheb.o.a.t]

Nastase was quite good, too bad he's a nasty racist! RIP Arthur Ashe

[@avalanche9026]

Ne-a Năstase. În 72 ? 25000 $. Erau bani greii. Oameni buni. Pe 2500 luai mașina nouă. În America. Eu am venit 10 ani mai tirziu în America. Începutul degradarii usurel. Acum în 2024. E nenorocire. Oricum. Să fii sănătos ne-a illie. Ai pus România pe hartă

[@ericw3229]

What a cheap shot by Ashe at the end of the match. Channeling Serena Williams

[@michelez715]

You are obviously unaware of the racist "jokes" Nastase made EVERY TIME he encountered Ashe. Do you think Ashe should have allowed Nastase to get away with it, EVERY TIME? We now know Nastase has always been a racist. In the 70s he got away with it, but now we can see what he has been all along.

[@Picklejam08]

Surprised Arthur would publicly admonish Nastase for his behavior during the trophy ceremony. Not very classy. Besides, I didn’t really see much “bad” behavior and antics from Nasty during the match. Arthur was always waaay to Serious of a guy. Lighten up man. Arthur Ashe is a Bore. Yawn.

[@TesterBoy]

He was anything BUT a bore! I saw him and Connors live.

[@HankFinkle11]

Ashe was a great man. RIP.

[@riderskater7248]

How Ashe lose to him? Must have had a off day.

[@johndickson9542]

You must not know much tennis history. Nastase was arguably the best player in the world at this time. The next year, 1973, he would win 14 titles, a record at the time for one year, and still the third most ever won in a season. Those wins made him the very first man ranked number one by the ATP (the rankings were instituted in '73). In contrast, Ashe was a fine player (and a better man), but never compiled that kind of a record. Nastase was a beast at the time, and was likely the favorite in this match.

[@riderskater7248]

@@johndickson9542 Nasty oftentimes won because of his antics and not despite them. He had absolutely no problem cheating his opponent.

[@iamtman1]

You clearly know nothing about tennis with such a stupid comment. Nastase in 1972-73 was higher ranked and a better player than Ashe. He won because he was better.

[@riderskater7248]

@@iamtman1 There were no computer rankings in that day. The system was totally flawed back then. The great Aussie player Evonne Goolagong Cawley never was given her rightful ranking of number one because the ranking system was terribly flawed. It wasn't until the computer rankings did the system reflect the actual performance of each player. Nasty was a good player but hardly a consequential champion of his time! How long have you been following tennis? You don't sound very informed.

[@iamtman1]

@@riderskater7248 There was a computer ranking in 73 and guess what ?? Nastase finished #1 "hardly consequential" lol. Please educate yourself before making a fool of yourself. And in 1972 the World rankings when they weren't computerized he fin #2 both years higher than Ashe. So clearly at that time Nastase was the better player. He won 15 tournaments including the French , Italian opens, masters,in 73, and in 72 won this US open, the masters, and runner up at Wimbledon. Yeah hardly "consequential" lol. OK! Then you call me uninformed? Lol!

[@jackbombay1423]

Arthur Ashe is the most overrated tennis player I can think of. Black privilege at its best.