BUCHAREST, March 9 (Xinhua) -- Former tennis player Ion Tiriac is the first Romanian included by Forbes review in the classification list of billionaires from all over the world, local media reported on Friday.

    Tiriac ranks 840th from a total of 946 people, with an estimated wealth of 1.1 billion US dollars.

    According to Forbes' Internet site, Tiriac, 67, is the first Romania's billionaire, with a self-made wealth from doing businessin the banking and insurance fields.

    Forbes describes Tiriac as an exceptional athlete, who participated in the Olympic Games in 1960 as a hockey player. Subsequently, he started to play tennis, trained some of the biggest players in the world, including Boris Becker, Steffi Graf and Goran Ivanisevic.

    After 1990, Tiriac used his relations and money to invest into Romania. He owns companies in the banking, insurance, auto leasing and retail fields.

    In January, together with Olympic champion Nadia Comaneci, he led the events marking Romania's European Union accession.