Who is the man Djokovic bought ATP tournament for Belgrade from? A billionaire with 35 children...

Novak Djokovic and Ion Tiriak; Photo: Profimedia

The news that Belgrade will host an ATP tournament this year has delighted tennis fans in Serbia, while Novak Djokovic made great efforts for this to happen. He announced such a possibility last year, as well as that he will personally deal with it.

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The engagement in the matter of the world's top tennis player paid off, and Belgrade is now set to host some of the best tennis players from around the world from April 19 until April 26.

ATP published this information along with a changed calendar for 2021, adding that a company headed by Djordje Djokovic (Novak's brother) had bought the tournament from Budapest, which was owned by Ion Tiriak.

Tiriak is a well-known name in the world of tennis, but also in Serbia, since he was the best man to folk star Lepa Brena and Boba Zivojinovic, a former Serbian tennis player. The 81-year-old Romanian businessman, himself a former tennis player, had a solid career with one trophy in singles, and 22 in doubles, including at Roland Garros.

But, he made most of his money after his professional career as an athlete ended, first as an agent to some of the best best tennis players in the world, and then as a representative of the biggest companies that came to invest in Romania after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Tiriak's fortune is estimated at 2 billion dollars, which makes him the richest person on the planet among (former) athletes. He is trailed only by Michael Jordan, whose fortune is estimated at 1.9 billion dollars.

Ion Tiriak and Boris Becker; Photo: Profimedia

This Romanian took care of the careers of many successful tennis players, Boris Becker, Stefi Graff, Marat Saffin, and Goran Ivanisevic among them...

However, that's not what made him rich, rather it was some good "bets" he made during the 1990s.

Tiriak recognized what the fall of the Berlin Wall meant for humanity, so after the fall of the regime of Nicolae Ceausescu, he returned to Romania. Aware that capital from the West would rush in towards poor Romanians, he used his contacts from Germany to become a representative of Metro AG, and then Mercedes.

He further invested the money he made into an insurance company, a private bank (which made him the bulk of his wealth), an airline, a travel agency. Today he employs about 20,000 people and is the director of the Masters tournament in Madrid.

Apart from business, Tiriak also had a turbulent private life. Today, he lives in Monte Carlo with his three children born in wedlock - but he himself says that he has 32 illegitimate ones, and he also takes care of 300 abandoned children, for whom he built a real small private paradise in Brasov, Romania.

Tiriak is a big fan of cars and motorcycles, so he has a rich collection of more than 400 models, including cars previously owned by Al Capone, Sammy Davis Junior and Elton John.

(Telegraf.rs)