Montegrappa - Ilie Nastase Retro 73

Montegrappa - Ilie Nastase Retro 73 - Limited Edition

Montegrappa Honours the Bad Boy of Tennis!

Among the families of pens created by Montegrappa, Icons pays homage to artists, performers, musicians, athletes, writers and others whose personalities transcended the fields in which they excelled and made their marks.
Tennis legend Ilie Năstase has now joined notables including Muhammad Ali, Pelé and Ayrton Senna.
There have been “bad boys” in professional tennis for decades, but the original – and still the most incorrigible – exemplar of the group is tennis great Ilie Năstase, the controversial champion of the 1970s.

The Romanian player was ranked world No. 1 from 23 August 1973 to 2 June 1974. Inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1991, Năstase is one of ten in the history of the sport to win more than 100 ATP professional titles, including 68 singles and 45 in doubles.
Năstase’s record includes seven Grand Slam victories, four Masters Grand Prix year-end championship titles and seven Championship Series titles.
In 1973, Năstase attained the coveted title of undisputed World No.1. That year, he won 17 tournaments, including the French Open (without dropping a set), a doubles title at Wimbledon and a third Masters title.

He won, in succession, the French Open (clay), Rome (clay) and Queen's Club (grass) – a feat never repeated in the Open Era.
Năstase’s record makes him a stand-out by any measure, but his stature as an icon beyond the sport is based on his larger-than-life personality.
Volatile, argumentative, a joker and mimic, he entertained with both his athletic prowess and his on-court behaviour. Appropriately in light of his “rock star” image, Maxim placed Năstase at Number 6 on its Top Ten “Living Sex Legends” list.

The Ilie Năstase Pen Collection
Offered as both a fountain pen and a rollerball, the pen’s body is made in a light-coloured wood recalling the tennis racquets of the Năstase era, personalised with his signature in red colour.
The fine details are fashioned in dark blue resin, with the final junction before the nib realised in the colours of the Romanian flag, to recall Ilie’s favourite elastic wrist-band worn during matches.

Characteristic of the volatility of the Năstase game is the unique signature clip and cap top, made of cast silver using the lost wax method.
Its overall form is that of a tennis racquet, but the webbing itself rotates. One side shows a tennis ball making contact with the racquet, while the flip side shows Ilie’s mid-finger gesture, typical of his more nervous moments.
The cap itself is clad in perforated brown leather, redolent of vintage tennis racquet grips. All Ilie Năstase Pens feature trim in sterling silver, with the piston-filled fountain pen featuring a nib in 18k gold, engraved with the Montegrappa octagon pattern.

The Ilie Năstase Collection is limited to 780 fountain pens corresponding to the number of matches won in the male singles category, and 479 Rollerball pens equalling the number of his doubles victories.