Boris Becker insists prison made him ‘stronger’ as he posts new year message

Few sports stars have reached the height of Boris Becker’s tennis careers, and none as young as the German ace.

Born in Leimen, West Germany, in 1967, Becker, the son of an architect father and a Czech immigrant mother, was introduced to the world of tennis at a very young age.

His father founded a tennis center in the city, where Becker honed his skills early on.

At the age of 10, in 1977, he was a member of the youth team of the Baden Tennis Association.

He then won the South German championship and the first German junior tennis tournament.

After obtaining funding for training from the German Tennis Federation, she turned professional at age 16 in 1984, winning the Tennis World Young Masters at the NEC Birmingham in 1985, before claiming victory in Queens in June.

Two weeks later, in July, aged 17, he entered Wimbledon as an unseeded player and swept the tournament, beating Kevin Curren four sets in the final.

At just 17 years and 228 days, he became the youngest men’s singles champion in SW19, immediately becoming a household name.

The following year he defended his title, beating then world number one Ivan Lendl to secure back-to-back Wimbledon titles.

He appeared in 77 finals and won 49 singles titles during his 16 years as a professional tennis player.

But in 1993, facing criticism over his marriage to his wife Barbara and tax problems with the German government, Becker slid into a severe mid-career decline.

In 1997, Becker lost to Sampras in the Wimbledon quarterfinals. After that match, he vowed that he would never play Wimbledon again.

However, he returned once more to the prestigious west London tennis club, in 1999, this time losing in the fourth round to Patrick Rafter.

Off the court, his personal problems continued. He had to pay £2.4 million after fathering a daughter, named Anna, with a Russian model while he was married to his wife Barbara.

That incident took place after he crashed from Wimbledon to Rafter in 1999 and decided to retire from the sport, aged 31.

Becker, in his 2003 autobiography, Stay A Moment Longer, revealed how he “cried his eyes out” and felt the urge to go out for a few beers with friends.

However, his then-wife Barbara, seven months pregnant with their second child, wanted him to stay at their hotel with her.

But in 1993, facing criticism over his marriage to his wife Barbara and tax problems with the German government, Becker slid into a serious mid-career decline.

“She couldn’t and didn’t want to understand that suddenly she wasn’t first on my priorities,” Becker said.

“I told her, ‘Just one more time with the boys, Barbara, just one more time to say goodbye and then it’s just you.” This is not functional. We rowed for two whole hours. She suddenly felt pain and decided to enter the hospital.;

Becker said he told his wife to call him if the baby was really on the way, and then he went into town.

At 11pm he was in the Nobu bar in Mayfair and saw the Russian model Angela Ermakowa. The couple had sex on the steps of the London outpost.

The following February, his secretary delivered a fax to him at his Munich office. She would say: ‘Dear Herr Becker, We met at Nobu in London. The outcome of that meeting is now eight months old.

He later separated from his first wife, Barbara Feltus, a divorce estimated to have cost him over £15 million, as well as his Miami home.

Becker found a new purpose after tennis soon after, joining the BBC for its annual coverage of Wimbledon, to great success.

But his personal problems continued. He had a brief engagement with Alessandra Meyer-Wölden in 2008, before announcing that he and Dutch model Sharlely ‘Lilly’ Kerssenberg would marry in 2009.

After nine years of marriage and a child, Becker’s fourth, the couple separated in 2018.

A year earlier, Becker had filed for bankruptcy in June 2017 over an unpaid loan of more than £3m on his property in Mallorca, Spain.

His former business partner, Hans-Dieter Cleven, also claimed that the former tennis ace owed him more than £30m, although the case was thrown out by a Swiss court.