Billionaire tennis icon takes shocking swipe at French Open legend Ash Barty

Billionaire tennis icon takes shocking swipe at French Open winner Ash Barty – before claiming Australians ‘don’t know how to read or write’

  • Ash Barty defeated Markéta Vondroušová in the women’s singles French Open 
  • Ion Tiriac, a former Romanian tennis star, said he walked out after one set 
  • He said Australians can’t read or write but have great technical tennis skills 

A former tennis champion turned billionaire businessman has taken a swipe at Australian French Open women’s singles champion Ash Barty.

Ion Tiriac, a former Romanian tennis star, gave a scathing assessment of the match between Australia’s Barty and Czech Markéta Vondroušová. 

In an interview with local media outlet GSP, Tiriac said he didn’t rate either player in the grand slam final and left after the first set.  

Ion Tiriac, a former Romanian tennis star, gave a scathing assessment of the match between Ash Barty (pictured with partner Garry Kissick) and Markéta Vondroušová 

‘The Roland Garros women’s final was one of the poorest I’ve ever seen,’ he said, in a Romanian interview roughly translated to English.

‘Please excuse my sincerity. It was not one that excited me. I had to go after four games.’

Barty made history as the first Australian to win the French Open in 46 years after demolishing the Czech youngster in two sets.

She defeated 19-year-old Vondroušová 6-1, 6-3 in the final in Paris.

But Tiriac claimed stars such as Simona Halep, Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova were champions more worth watching than Barty.

The interview took a turn for the worst when he said Barty’s ‘only merit’ was she was from Australia. 

In a stunning swipe, he then accused all Australians of not knowing ‘how to write or read’. 

‘Every time someone comes from there (Australia), they come out with technical knowledge from A to Z,’ he said. 

Mr Tiriac is the former mentor of Halep who worked with Australian coach Darren Cahill for two years.

The interview took a turn for the worst when he said Barty's only merit was she was from Australia. 'They do not know how to write or read. But every time someone comes from there, they come out with technical knowledge from A to Z,' he said

The interview took a turn for the worst when he said Barty’s only merit was she was from Australia. ‘They do not know how to write or read. But every time someone comes from there, they come out with technical knowledge from A to Z,’ he said

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