Former Romanian tennis player turned businessman Ion Țiriac has offered Hungary the rights to the Geneva Open ATP tour for EUR 6 million, Romanian news portal foter.ro reports.
Several sports news outlets reported Țiriac as saying that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán seemed inclined to accept the offer.
Țiriac and former German tennis player Rainer Schüttler hold the franchise rights to the Geneva Open.
Two years ago, while president of the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee (COSR) Țiriac praised Viktor Orbán for his commitment to sports state sponsorship and said Romanian authorities should follow his lead.
Țiriac, a former top 10 tennis player won one Grand Slam title, the men’s doubles at the 1970 French Open with Ilie Năstase but rose to fame later as the manager of several tennis players such as Henri Leconte, Boris Becker and Goran Ivanišević. He was also a member of the Romanian ice hockey team at the 1964 Winter Olympics.
Born in Transylvania, he was a businessman in Germany and returned to his native Romania in 1990 to establish a bank and several other businesses. Forbes ranks him as the wealthiest Romanian with a net worth of US$1.2 billion as of 2018.
