Boris Becker
Boris Franz Becker is a German former professional tennis player, tennis coach and a commentator. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals. Becker is considered to be one of the greatest players of all time, winning 49 career singles and 15 doubles titles, including six singles majors: three Wimbledon Championships, two Australian Opens and one US Open. He also won 13 Masters titles, three year-end championships, an Olympic gold medal in men's doubles in 1992, and led Germany to two Davis Cup titles in 1988 and 1989. Becker is the youngest-ever winner of the men's singles Wimbledon title, a feat he accomplished aged in 1985.
Becker is often credited as the pioneer of power tennis with his fast serve and all-court game. He is among the top ten players with the best win percentages in the Open Era. In 1989, he was voted the Player of the Year by both the ATP and the ITF. He holds a win percentage of 92.70% in Davis Cup singles rubbers, a win loss record of 38–3 and two championships for Germany. In his autobiography, Andre Agassi described Becker as the world's most popular tennis star in the late 1980s. Becker was featured at number 18 in the list of Tennis magazine's 40 greatest players of all time in 2006.
After his playing career ended, Becker became a tennis commentator and media personality, and his personal relationships were discussed in news outlets. He has engaged in numerous ventures, including coaching Novak Djokovic for three years, playing poker professionally, and working for an online poker company. In October 2002, the Munich District Court gave Becker a suspended two-year prison sentence for tax evasion. He declared bankruptcy in the UK in 2017. In April 2022, he was sentenced by UK courts to two and a half years in prison for hiding assets and loans that the court required him to disclose to creditors and the bankruptcy trustee. On 15 December 2022, he was released from prison early, having served eight months, and was deported to Germany by UK authorities.
Early life
Boris Becker was born in 1967 in Leimen, a town in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, the son of Elvira and Karl-Heinz Becker. Named after the Russian poet and novelist Boris Pasternak, young Becker was raised Catholic. His father Karl-Heinz, an architect, founded a tennis centre in Leimen, where Becker learned to play tennis. He received his secondary education at Helmholtz-Gymnasium in Heidelberg. His Sudeten German mother Elvira Becker, née Pisch was from the Moravian village of Kunewald.Tennis career
Junior career
In 1974, Becker joined TC Blau-Weiß Leimen tennis club and began training under Boris Breskvar. By 1977, he was a member of the junior team of the Baden Tennis Association. He went on to win the South German championship and the first German Youth Tennis Tournament. In 1977, he was chosen for the German Tennis Federation's top junior team by Richard Schönborn. According to Schönborn, the funding for Becker's training was put up by the German Tennis Federation at an expense of over 1.3 million DM. In 1981, he was included in the Federation's first men's team. In 1982, he won the doubles at the Orange Bowl International Tennis Championships.1984–1987: Teenage Grand Slam champion
Becker turned professional in 1984, under the guidance of Romanian-born coach Günther Bosch and Romanian manager Ion Ţiriac, and won his first professional doubles title that year in Munich. As a teenager, Becker won the Tennis World Young Masters at the NEC in Birmingham in 1985, before taking his first top-level singles title in June that year at Queen's Club. Two weeks later, on 7 July, he became the first unseeded player and the first German to win the Wimbledon singles title, defeating Kevin Curren in four sets. In the third round against Joakim Nystrom, Nystrom had twice served for the match before Becker won. Becker was at that time ranked 20th in ATP ranking, and was unseeded, as at that time Wimbledon did not seed players beyond the top 16. He was the youngest ever male Grand Slam singles champion at . Two months after his triumph, Becker became the youngest winner of the Cincinnati Open. Becker has since said that "the plan from my parents for me was to finish school, go to university, get a proper degree and learn something respectful. The last thing on everyone's mind was me becoming a tennis professional."In 1986, Becker successfully defended his Wimbledon title, defeating No. 1 Ivan Lendl in straight sets in the final with "a typically awesome array of sledgehammer serves and blockbuster groundstrokes". In the US Open semi finals, Miloslav Mečíř "handled the West German's booming serve with ease, used his groundstrokes to move Becker from side to side, and hit his serves so deep that Becker had trouble handling them" and Mecir won in five sets. In 1987 Becker reached his first French Open semi final, where he lost to Mats Wilander in straight sets. At Wimbledon Becker, then ranked 2, lost in the second round to Peter Doohan, ranked 70. In the Davis Cup that year, Becker and John McEnroe played one of the longest matches in tennis history. Becker won in five sets lasting 6 hours and 22 minutes.
1988–1991: Continuing success and No. 1
Becker contested the Wimbledon final in 1988, where he lost in four sets to Stefan Edberg in a match that marked the start of one of Wimbledon's great rivalries. Becker also helped West Germany win its first Davis Cup in 1988. He won the year-end Masters title in New York City, defeating five-time champion Lendl in the final. The same year he also won season ending WCT Finals for the rival World Championship Tennis tour, defeating Edberg in four sets.In 1989, Becker lost to Edberg in the French Open semifinals. He defeated Edberg in the Wimbledon final, "volleying flawlessly and returning serve so well the Swede never had opportunities to take control with his vaunted net play, made few mistakes and won almost every crucial point". Becker then beat Lendl in the US Open final to win two Grand Slam singles titles in a year for the only time in his career. Lendl admitted afterwards "I had good stamina but was missing a little bit of my explosive energy". He also helped West Germany retain the Davis Cup, defeating Andre Agassi in the semifinal round after dropping the first two sets, in an epic spread over two days. Sports Illustrated ranked it as among the best matches ever played, alongside the 1972 WCT Finals final between Rod Laver and Ken Rosewall, and the 1980 Wimbledon final between Björn Borg and John McEnroe. As a result, Becker was named Player of The Year by the ATP Tour.
In 1990, Becker met Edberg for the third consecutive year in the Wimbledon final, but this time lost in a five-set match. He failed to successfully defend his US Open title, losing to Agassi in the semifinals. Becker reached the final of the Australian Open for the first time in his career in 1991, where he defeated Lendl to claim the No. 1 ranking. Becker won the match with "his more dynamic play at the net, frolicking on the hard court as if it were Wimbledon's grass". Another loss to Agassi in the French Open semifinals kept him from winning the first two Grand Slam tournaments of the year. He was ranked No. 1 for 12 weeks during 1991 and reached his fourth consecutive Wimbledon final. However, he lost in straight sets to fellow German and No. 7 Michael Stich.
1992–1994: Mid-career decline
In 1992, Becker and Stich teamed up in 1992 to win the men's doubles gold medal at the Olympic Games in Barcelona. Becker won seven tour titles including his second ATP Tour World Championships defeating Jim Courier in four sets. By 1993, issues back home over Becker's courtship of and marriage to Barbara Feltus, whose mother was German and father was African-American, and tax problems with the German government, had caused Becker to slide into a mid-career decline. He reached the Wimbledon semi finals in 1993, where he served 12 double faults and lost his serve twice in losing in straight sets to Sampras. Becker also reached the Wimbledon semi finals in 1994, where two of his beaten opponents, Andrei Medvedev and Christian Bergström, accused Becker of distracting them by raising his hand and stalling. Becker lost in straight sets in the semis to Ivanisevic.1995–1996: Revival
In 1995, Becker reached the Wimbledon final for the seventh time. He won a baseline contest with Cédric Pioline in the quarter finals in five sets. Against Andre Agassi in the semi-finals, Becker was down a set and two breaks, but eventually won in four sets. He lost the final in four sets to Pete Sampras, losing his serve five times. "Unfortunately, he owns the Centre Court now. I used to own it a few years back, but it belongs to him now" said Becker afterwards. At the US Open, Agassi beat Becker in the semi finals in four sets. Becker won the year-end ATP Tour World Championships for the third and last time in Frankfurt with a straight-set win over Michael Chang in the final.In 1996, Becker's sixth and final Grand Slam title came as he defeated Chang in the final of the Australian Open. After winning the Queen's Club Championships for the fourth time, Becker was widely expected to mount a serious challenge for the Wimbledon title in 1996, but his bid ended abruptly when he damaged his right wrist during a third-round match against Neville Godwin and was forced to withdraw. Becker defeated Sampras in October 1996 in a five-set final in Stuttgart Masters. "Becker is the best indoor player I've ever played", said Sampras after the match. Becker lost to Sampras in the final of the 1996 ATP Tour World Championships in Hanover, although Becker saved two match points in the fourth set and held serve 27 consecutive times until he was broken in the penultimate game. Later that year he won the Grand Slam Cup defeating Goran Ivanišević in the final.