Tennis: Nastase - if they have no reason, then players should pay, but I know they're injured

Former tennis player Ilie Nastase declared on Monday that the players that refused to take part in the singles' event of the Tokyo Olympic Games should return the money received from the Ministry of Youth and Sports (MTS) and the Romanian Olympic and Sports Committee (COSR) for taking part in several tournaments if they have no reasons, but he mentioned that the players are injured. "We have no chances at medals in Tokyo because we are not going... If Simona [Halep] has participated we would have certainly had... Which financing should the minister slash? Because there is no financing. But what business is it of the Federation if the girls are not going to the Games? I do not understand...", Nastase said. It was explained to him that the players received funding from MTS and COSR to participate in competitions in order to qualify for the Olympic Games: "Then the girls should pay if they are not going and have no reasons. Let them pay. But I believe there are reasons, there are injuries, right? Simona is injured... what can we do, take her there with her leg stretched out on the bench? That is the problem, that there is no time for recovery, that was Simona's problem as well". Minister of Youth and Sports Eduard Novak showed his dissatisfaction with the fact that several Romanian tennis players refused to take part in the singles' event of the Olympic Games in Tokyo (July 23 - August 8). Romania will be represented in tennis only in the women's doubles event by the pairing made up of Monica Niculescu and Raluca Olaru. Ilie Nastase was surprised by Emma Raducanu, of Romanian origin, who is representing the United Kingdom. "I did not know about Emma Raducanu.... and I don't believe many people knew about her. But she is a surprise, because she is a good player, I saw her playing... she is young, she has time to reach the top," the former tennis player said. Ilie Nastase was present on Monday at the launch of the Tennis Summer Camp 2021 program, free-of-charge, in the Ion Tiriac Sports Complex in Bucharest, where he announced that he is resigning as chairman of the Romanian Tennis Federation, specifying that the new leader must commit to tennis 12 hours a day. AGERPRES(RO - author: Marius Tone, editor: Mircea Lazaroniu; EN - author: Catalin Cristian Trandafir, editor: Simona Iacob)