KazPost

Kazakhstan News
Tuesday, May 30, 2023

Becker on prison, fame and his future

Becker on prison, fame and his future

Tennis great Boris Becker says he is building his life's "third chapter" following his release from prison.

The 55-year-old German served eight months of his two-and-a-half-year sentence for hiding £2.5m worth of assets and loans to avoid paying debts.

He was released in December and was subsequently deported from the UK.

"I'm usually 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," he told 5 Live Breakfast.

In a lengthy interview, former world number one Becker said:

*  There was "no handbook" for dealing with fame and fortune after winning Wimbledon as a teenager

*  Prison was "brutal" and a "very different experience to what you see in the movies"

*  He's a "stronger, better man" after eight months in prison

The full interview will be played on Saturday's 5 Live Breakfast show.


'Whoever says prison life isn't hard is lying'


The six-time Grand Slam singles champion, who was catapulted to stardom in 1985 when he won Wimbledon aged just 17, was found guilty of four charges under the Insolvency Act in April last year.

The case centred on Becker's bankruptcy in June 2017 resulting from an unpaid loan of more than £3m on his luxury estate in Mallorca, Spain.

Speaking before the release of a new TV documentary about his life and career, 'Boom! Boom! The World vs Boris Becker', Becker said: "I don't think there was a handbook written for how to behave, what to do and how to live your life when you win Wimbledon at 17.

"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."

Becker is the youngest ever champion of the men's singles at Wimbledon, winning the 1985 title aged 17


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."


'I miss London'


Following his release, Becker was deported to Germany and will not be allowed to return to UK soil until October 2024.

"I miss London, I really miss Wimbledon and I won't be going there this year," he said

"I'm fortunate that I can stand on my feet, none of my partners have dropped me, they've welcomed me back home.

"When you're down, and the last five, six years were very difficult for me, you truly find out who's with you and who's not with you."

Speaking about how he has been received by people since his release, he said: "Nobody's perfect including myself and I've accepted all of that.

"I've been out now for three and a half months and I'm very humbled again by the reception I've received from fans, from people on the street from people who have followed the story a little bit."

Becker has commentated at Wimbledon for the BBC


The former BBC pundit says he has been in dialogue with the BBC about being part of its Wimbledon coverage in the future.

"I've told them I can't come back next year," Becker said.

"If I'm allowed to go back I will make a phone call and ask if they want me back on the team, I would certainly love to but it's not my decision."


'I'm a stronger, better man'


Becker believes he has learned valuable lessons from his time in prison.

"I never thought at 17 I'd be incarcerated at 54," he said.

"If anything it certainly humbled me, it certainly made me realise that whether you're called Boris Becker or Paul Smith, if you break the law, you get convicted and you get incarcerated, that goes for everybody.

"I never expected the good and I certainly didn't expect the bad but I'm a survivor, I'm a tough cookie, I've taken the penalties, I've taken the incarceration but I've also taken the glory and if anything this made me a stronger, better man.

"With my decisions in the future you can see whether I have learned from it or I didn't."

Newsletter

Related Articles

KazPost
Close
0:00
0:00
Two US Employees Fired For Chasing Robbers Out Of Store As They Broke ''Company Policy''
Pfizer, the EU, and disappearing ink - Smoke, Mirrors, and the Billion-Dose Pfizer Vaccine Deal: EU's 'Open Secret
A provocative study suggests: Left-Wing Extremism and its Unsettling Connection to Psychopathy and Narcissism
Ukrainian Intelligence Official Admits to Assassination Attempts on Putin
Bernard Arnault Loses $11.2 Billion in One Day as Investors Fear Slowdown in US Growth Will Reduce Demand for Luxury Products
Russian’s Wagner Group leader: “I am not a chef, I am a butcher. Russia is in danger of a revolution like in 1917.”
TikTok Sues Montana Over Law Banning the App
Ron DeSantis Jumps Into 2024 Presidential Race, Setting Up Showdown With Trump
Talks between US House Republicans and President Biden's Democratic administration on raising the federal government's $31.4tn debt ceiling have paused
Biden Administration Eyeing High-Profile Visits to China: The Biden Administration is heating things up by looking into setting up a series of top-level visits to Beijing by top officials in the coming months
Debt Ceiling Crises Have Unleashed Political Chaos
Weibao Wang, a former software engineer at Apple, was charged with stealing trade secrets related to autonomous systems, including self-driving cars
Mobile phone giant Vodafone to cut 11,000 jobs globally over three years as new boss says its performance not good enough
Elon Musk compares George Soros to Magneto, the supervillain from the Marvel Comics series.
Warren Buffett Sells TSMC Shares Over Concerns About Taiwan's Stability
New Study Finds That Secondary Bacterial Pneumonia Is a Major Cause of Death in COVID-19 Patients Who Require Ventilator Assistance
King Charles III being crowned.
'Godfather Of AI' Geoffrey Hinton Quits Google To Warn Of The Tech's Dangers
A Real woman
Vermont Man Charged with Stalking After Secretly Tracking Woman with Apple AirTag
Elon Musk Statements About Tesla Autopilot Could Be 'Deepfakes,' Lawyers Claim. Judge Evette Pennypacker Does Not Understand How Far and Advanced This Technology Became
Ukraine More Prepared for Counterattack as Reinforcements Arrive
UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni Discuss Migration, Defence, and Ukraine
AT&T's Successful Test of Satellite-Based Phone Call Raises Possibility of Widespread Coverage
CNN: "Joe Biden is asking for four more years — when 74% of Americans think the country is heading the wrong way“
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Cuts Short Live TV Interview Due to Health Issue
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh slams New York Times' pro-government stance and treatment of sources
Enough is enough: it's time to end the war in Ukraine. While Russia may be to blame for starting it, Russia is not the one refusing to stop it
Fox News Settles their case with Dominion Voting Systems for a staggering $787.5 MILLION
21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira has been arrested for leaking classified Pentagon Documents
The Supreme Court will allow a 12-year-old transgender West Virginia girl to compete on her middle school’s girls' sports teams amid a lawsuit over a ban
Bank of America cuts short conference after outrage at Ukraine comments
Mitt Romney calls Trump indictment 'overreach,' says charges were 'stretched' to suit a 'political agenda'
The G-7 aims to make global crypto regulations tougher
Russia arrested an American reporter for the Wall Street Journal on espionage charges
Don’t Dismiss China’s Peacemaking Bid
China and Brazil have signed a new deal that will allow them to trade in their own currencies, bypassing the US dollar as an intermediary
Elon Musk and Others Call for Pause on A.I., Citing ‘Profound Risks to Society’
“We've had evidence prior to the pandemic that masks were largely ineffective at preventing community transmission of influenza “
Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz:
Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz rejects being labeled a "billionaire"
Jamie Dimon is being deposed over JPMorgan Chase role in Epstein lawsuits
Brand new security footage has just been released to the public showing the Active shooter Audrey Elizabeth Hale drove to Covenant Church School in her Honda Fit this morning, parked, and shot her way into the building
AMERICA, 2023
U.S. charges FTX's Bankman-Fried with paying $40 million bribe
Fallen 'Crypto King' Who Owes Millions to Investors Was Kidnapped and Tortured
Regulators blame social media for SVB's rapid collapse: 'Complete game changer'
AOC explains why she opposes banning TikTok
Singapore’s Prime Minister says China and US need to stabilize relations because world can't afford a confict between the two superpowers
Gordon Moore, a co-founder of Intel Corporation, died at 94
×