It was the successor event to the earlier Romanian International Championships (1930–1983).
Its name is taken from Romania's famous tennis players Ilie Năstase and Ion Țiriac.
The tournament never saw a Romanian winner in singles (though the 2005 edition saw two Romanian players reaching the semifinals, and the 2007 edition saw Victor Hănescu reach the finals), but a Romanian pair (Andrei Pavel and Gabriel Trifu) took home the doubles title in 1998.
Also, Horia Tecău took three consecutive doubles titles at the tournament (2012, 2013 & 2014), each time with a different partner.
The organizers announced that from 2012, the ATP World Tour 250 series tournament would be scheduled to take place in April, thus ending a period of 19 years when it took place in the last week of September.