Tennis chief's shocking remarks about Ash Barty and Australians

A high-profile tennis supremo has criticised Ash Barty's breakthrough French Open final victory in a bizarre assessment of the match with Romanian media.

Ion Tiriac, a Romanian former star player turned billionaire businessman and tennis manager, also appeared to take aim at Australians.

The 80-year-old owns the Madrid Open clay-court tournament, where Barty reached the quarter-finals in the lead-up to Roland Garros.

In comments to news outlet GSP, the businessman revealed he did not rate Barty's 6-1 6-3 win over Marketa Vondrousova.

He claimed he left in the first set.

"The Roland Garros women's final was one of the poorest I've ever seen," he said in comments translated into English.

"Please excuse my sincerity. It was not one that excited me. I had to go after four games. I did it!"

Barty and Vondrousova, a 19-year-old Czech, were both playing in their first grand slam singles finals.

Tiriac appeared to suggest Barty, now the world No.2, was not a superstar amid a run of unpredictable results on the WTA tour.

He mentioned Romanian star Simona Halep, Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams, Martina Navratilova as "celebrities who are outstanding".

But the interview then took an even stranger turn.

Despite compatriot Halep's close and successful connection to the country through former coach Darren Cahill, Tiriac apparently has little time for Australia.

"Now comes Barty, who has only one merit. She's an Australian!" he said.

"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."

Whatever you say, mate.