Tennis legend Boris Becker has expressed his remorse over clinching a Wimbledon title at such a young age, confessing he was “maybe too young” to deal with the subsequent pressure, with Emma Raducanu seemingly suffering the same fate.

At just 17, the German prodigy defeated Kevin Curren in the 1985 final, becoming the youngest ever men’s singles champion at the All England Club. Despite going on to secure another five Grand Slam titles and solidifying his status as one of the era’s greatest players, his off-court life was plagued by financial woes.

In 2022, Becker was handed a two-and-a-half-year jail sentence for concealing assets and loans amounting to $3.3 million to evade debt repayment. He only served eight months of his sentence before being released, but was then deported, despite having resided in the UK for ten years.

Becker has recently penned a new autobiography chronicling his time in prison and the rise and fall that led to his incarceration. In an interview with BBC Sport to commemorate the release of his memoir, Becker confessed that his early triumph at Wimbledon “changed the road ahead tremendously”, as he struggled with the immense pressure that accompanied such a historic victory.

“If you remember any other wunderkind (wonderkid), they usually don’t make it to 50 because of the trials and tribulations that come after,” he stated. “Whatever you do, wherever you go, whoever you talk to, it becomes a world sensation.

“It becomes the headline of some of the most important papers of tomorrow. And you’re just trying to mature, just trying to find your feet in the world.

“When you start a second career everything is measured at this success of winning Wimbledon at 17. And that changed the road ahead tremendously. I’m happy to have won three, but maybe 17 was too young. I was still a child.”

Becker’s reflections mirror those of British tennis star Emma Raducanu, who rocketed to worldwide fame after capturing the US Open at just 18 years old in 2021. Although she carved her place in tennis lore with that stunning triumph, the now-22-year-old has acknowledged facing psychological challenges following her Flushing Meadows breakthrough, unable to match that pinnacle of achievement since.

“That moment on the court, when I was celebrating, I was like, I would literally trade any struggle in the world for this moment,” Raducanu, who has grappled with injuries in recent seasons, told The Sunday Times in 2023.

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“Anything can come my way, I will take it for what I have right now because this is the best thing in the world. I promised myself that, on the court that day. Since then I’ve had a lot of setbacks, one after the other. I am resilient, my tolerance is high, but it’s not easy.

“And sometimes I think to myself I wish I’d never won the US Open, I wish that didn’t happen. Then I am like, remember that feeling, remember that promise, because it was completely pure.”

In an interview with the BBC, Becker shared: “I was too comfortable. I had too much money. Nobody told me ‘no’ – everything was possible. In hindsight, that’s the recipe for disaster.

“So you take accountability for your actions, which is very important because you cannot look back any more. You cannot change the past. You can only change the future because you live in today.”