More often than not his behaviour on and off court was a proverbial pain the backhand. Nasty by name, nasty by nature. 

Throughout his illustrious career - although he never won Wimbledon - he was brilliantly fluent. However, as The Guardian’s excellent Sean Ingle put it, he was capable of being "sneering, leering, loud and louche".

So l am not at all surprised at his appallingly offensive behaviour in his Romanian homeland over the weekend when, as the nation's Fed Cup team captain, he was overheard calling Britain's Johanna Konta and team captain Anne Keothavong "f****** bitches". Konta was left in tears.

He asked the umpire "what’s your f****** problem" and caused the match to be temporarily suspended before he was forcibly ejected from the stadium.

Even the potty-mouthed lout Tyson Fury would have been impressed.

Before the match started he had called a British female journalist "stupid and ugly" and reportedly twice asked his opposite number Keothavong, who is married and pregnant, for her hotel room number. 

Nice one, Nasty...

A serial womaniser, he claims to have slept with upwards of 800 women and revelled in detailing his sexual extravagances.

The former United States champion Pam Shriver says that when she was 16 he repeatedly asked her if she was still a virgin and continued to do until she was 20, before she had the courage to ask him to stop.

It was not just a convenient play on his surname that earned him the sobriquet "Nasty". It was because of his vile language and short temper.

Yes, he was faintly comical at times but more often than not he was a whiner and a whinger.

The International Tennis Federation confirmed the suspension of the 70-year-old Nastase not just for his deplorable behaviour during the match in the Black Sea resort of Constantia but following his shockingly vile comment about Serena Williams and her baby which is due in the autumn. "Let's see what colour it is," he said. "Chocolate with milk". Ugh.

Despite his fame and sporting prowess he has never been invited to become a member of the All-England Club as most tennis notables of his stature usually are. Perhaps now we can understand why.

Someone remarked that Nasty is the most famous figure in Romania, strutting around as if he owns the place. Given his immense earnings and the state of the Romanian economy he probably does.

He also has previous of course, once being banned from the Davis Cup for a year for "bringing the game into disrepute" after attacking Britain's David Lloyd with his racket and making an obscene remark.

In 1976 he was disqualified four times from matches in less than 12 months.

He once called a linesman who foot-faulted him "a member of the SS" and in 1980 physically assaulted a journalist at Wimbledon, jabbing him in the throat and smashing his glasses.

Too frequently such incidents have been brushed aside because Nastase was deemed one of the game's great "characters". 

Yet by comparison, John McEnroe was a paragon. He was also genuinely amusing. Nastase was, and remains, plain nasty.

There is a certain irony that while we have had to endure the puerile rantings of one of sport's great chauvinist bigots against British sportswomen, the past few days have also seen the further advancement of women themselves in British sport through the admirable appointment of Dame Katherine Grainger as the incoming chair of principal funding body UK Sport.

The former rowing icon is Britain's most decorated female Olympian and the first British woman to win medals at five successive Games.

She takes up the role from July 1, 2017 after sailing chief Rod Carr stepped down at the end of his term last week.

Until then another female UK Sport Board member, Lis Astell, will be in temporary charge with the redoubtable Liz Nicholl continuing as chief executive.

A woman's sporting world? It is very much so in this branch of sports administration and Dame Katherine's is an interesting appointment. It is much in the same strong-minded mould of one of her predecessors, Baroness Sue Campbell.

It gives women more welcome leverage in the Government of sport in Britain, with a second successive female sports minister (at least until the general election) in Tracey Crouch. Her boss Karen Bradley is Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.

Over at Sport England Jenny Price is the long-serving-serving chief executive while ex-gymnast Barbara Slater heads up BBC Sport.

Alison Kervin is a pioneer female sports editor at the Mail on Sunday and British Rowing boss Annamarie Phelps is the newly-appointed vice chair of the British Olympic Association.

I wonder how these formidable leading ladies would deal with sport's Mr Nasty?

A swift return volley to the unmentionables should do the trick.

New balls please.