Boris Becker has said he was forced to befriend the “tough guys” in prison in order to survive as he vows to win “the fifth set” of his life.
In an interview with 5 Live Breakfast, the three-time Wimbledon champion said incarceration was a ‘real punishment’ but that he had discovered he is a ‘survivor’.
The tennis great served eight months of his two-and-a-half-year prison sentence for hiding assets worth millions of pounds to avoid paying off debt. He served time in HMP Wandsworth and Category C Huntercombe Prison near Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire.
The six-time Grand Slam singles champion was released from prison in December and deported to his native Germany.
He said he was in talks with the “responsible people.”
The six-time Grand Slam singles champion spoke openly about his time in prison on 5 Live Breakfast
Becker pictured himself attending court in London, with his partner Lilian de Carvalho, shortly before he was sentenced to 30 months in prison last April – he served eight before being released
The German, who has lived in the UK since 2012, was expected to serve half his sentence behind bars but was released in December and deported from the UK.
He is believed to have been transferred to a lower security prison, Category C Huntercombe Prison near Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, for foreign criminals awaiting deportation in May 2022.
According to reports, he was previously held at Wandsworth category B prison in southwest London.
The six-time Grand Slam champion was eligible for automatic deportation because he is a non-British foreigner and has been jailed for more than 12 months.
He will not be allowed back on British soil until October 2024.
Ahead of the release of a new documentary about his life and career, Becker said time in prison was a “real punishment” and anyone who said it wasn’t very hard was being unfair.
“It’s a real punishment. It should be a punishment, being locked up and anyone who says life in prison is not difficult and not difficult is lying.
“I think it’s a very hard life and where I’m from I’ve never been in prison before so it was a very brutal, new, very different experience from what you see in movies or what you hear from stories .’
Becker said he was forced to befriend the “tough guys” at the prison to make sure he was safe, saying the prison is “very dangerous.”
Prison is very dangerous. Like I said, it’s a dangerous place, you fight every day to survive.
Becker was released from prison and deported to Germany after serving eight months of a two and a half year sentence for failing to declare £2.5 million in assets to avoid paying debts
Boris Becker from Germany celebrates winning Wimbledon in 1985. He stunned the world when he broke into the tennis scene at just 17 years old
Boris Becker has officially confirmed that he will not be attending Wimbledon this summer
“I was surrounded by murderers, by drug dealers, by rapists, by people smugglers, by dangerous criminals.
“You soon have to surround yourself with the ‘tough guys’ as I would call them, because you need protection. If you think you’re better than the rest, you lose. So that was the harsh reality of this every day, facing different people.
The former tennis star said he learned a lot about himself in prison, including that he is a “mensch” – a German word for person of integrity.
‘I am a survivor. You can throw me in HMP Wandsworth or HMP Huntercombe and I’ll find a way to survive.
‘Certainly, I call myself a man. I am a human being with qualities and weaknesses and I lived it up and still do. I call these life lessons.
“At 17, I never thought I would end up in prison at 54. I never expected the good and certainly not the bad.
“But I’m a survivor, I’m a tough cookie. I’ve taken the punishments I’ve taken the incarceration but I’ve also taken the credit and I think at least this has made me a stronger a better man and with my decisions going forward you can see if I’ve learned from it or that I don’t.’
He said he has been in contact with people from the BBC, although he cannot return in the near future, and said he would ‘like’ to become a pundit again.
Becker also claimed that his time in prison had humbled him, despite his expensive lifestyle after his release and deportation.
“It certainly humbled me and certainly made me realize that whether you’re called Boris Becker or Paul Smith, if you break the law you’re going to be convicted and locked up, and that goes for everyone.”
He was running free under a fast-track scheme that sends criminals back to their home countries ahead of their release date to ease the strain on Britain’s overcrowded prisons.
A tearful Boris Becker reflects on his prison sentence as part of a new documentary about his life
Becker rose to fame as a 17-year-old and burst onto the tennis scene by winning Wimbledon
Becker didn’t wait long before resuming the “good life” after being released, reportedly flying to Germany on a private jet.
“It made me appreciate my past, the good life, the opportunities I was given and from my birth in West Germany. You have many people in this life who never had that opportunity, from the beginning.
“I have a wonderful set of parents, a sister, so you know, the first 54 years of my life were very good, blessed with good memories, and I think especially the first few weeks when you are alone like a very, very small prison cell , you live on that.’
Becker added that he was lucky to have the support of his friends and family and that he had discovered who really had his back over the past five years.
“I’m lucky enough to be able to stand on my feet, none of my partners have let me down. They welcomed me home. Be it television, some of my sponsors, my family have certainly been very supportive of me.
“I have a great group of people who have supported me no matter what.
“And I don’t take this lightly, but I’m building strong on my third chapter. There are two chapters in the documentary and I am now building my third chapter.
“In the tennis world, I’m usually good in the fifth set. I won the first two sets and lost the next two, but I’m playing the fifth set and I intend to win it.’