Boris Becker: Six-time Grand Slam singles champion on prison, fame and the future
Upon his release from prison, tennis legend Boris Becker said he is writing the “third chapter” of his life. The 55-year-old German completed eight months of his 2.5-year sentence after concealing loans and assets worth £2.5 million in order to avoid paying obligations.
After his release in December, he was removed from the UK. He said on 5 Live Breakfast, “I’m typically good in the fifth set – I’ve won the first two sets, I’ve lost the next two, and I’m planning to win that.”
The six-time Grand Slam singles winner was convicted on four offences under the Bankruptcy Act in April of last year. He shot to fame in 1985 when he won Wimbledon at the age of just 17.
The case focused on Becker’s bankruptcy in June 2017 as a result of a more than £3 million loan that was outstanding on his opulent Mallorca estate.
Becker remarked, “I don’t think there was a handbook published for how to behave, what to do, and how to live your life when you win Wimbledon at 17,” before the premiere of a new TV series on his life and career.
“The fame and fortune after was very new.
“Obviously I never studied business, I never studied finance and after my tennis career I made a couple of decisions probably badly advised but again it was my decision.”
After sentencing, Becker spent the first weeks of his detention at Wandsworth Prison in south-west London, before spending the majority of his sentence at Huntercombe Prison in Oxfordshire.
“Whoever says that prison life isn’t hard and isn’t difficult I think is lying,” the three-time Wimbledon champion said.
“I was surrounded by murderers, by drug dealers, by rapists, by people smugglers, by dangerous criminals.
“You fight every day for survival. Quickly you have to surround yourself with the tough boys, as I would call it, because you need protection.”
Becker said being a legendary tennis player counted for nothing while he was in prison.
“If you think you’re better than everybody else then you lose,” he said.
“Inside it doesn’t matter that I was a tennis player, the only currency we have inside is our character and our personality. That’s it, you have nothing else.
“You don’t have any friends at first, you’re literally on your own and that’s the hard part, you have to really dig inside yourself about your qualities and your strengths but also your weaknesses.”Becker was deported to Germany after being freed, and he won’t be permitted to come back to the UK until October 2024. Becker thinks his time in prison has taught him some important lessons.
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