Romanian billionaire and former tennis player Ion Tiriac announced last weekend that the BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy tournament would be moved to Budapest in 2017. Bucharest has hosted the competition for the past 20 years.

Tiriac transferred the tournament’s license to the Hungarian capital Budapest for two years, reports local DigiSport. Initially, the competition was set to be organized in Marbella, but the tournament in Barcelona would be held at the same time.

BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy, an ATP World Tour 250 tournament, was organized at the BNR Arenas in Bucharest so far, but the improper infrastructure made the billionaire take this decision.

In March this year, Tiriac announced that he would sell the ATP tournament in Bucharest, as he was unhappy that the Romanian capital didn’t have a tennis arena suitable to host such a competition.

It was not the first time when Tiriac announced this plan. In early February, the former tennis player said that he would give up the license for the tennis tournament BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy if local authorities didn’t build a new tennis arena in Bucharest.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy on Facebook)