During the presentation his tone wavers between that of an untouchable sporting god (“I have no limits”) and a poor wretch cramped in a prison alongside hardened criminals (“we are all equal”).<\/p>\n
But one central message stands out; Becker doesn’t see himself as an intentional perpetrator, but above all as a victim \u2013 of a harsh British<\/a> justice system, of a conspiracy he doesn’t explain in detail, and of his sporting success.<\/p>\n A frightening, alien\u00a0world<\/p>\n The book’s title, “Inside,” is something of a double entendre. The German tennis legend provides insight into the harsh daily life of a British prison<\/a>, while also revealing his innermost feelings during this difficult phase of his life.<\/p>\n Becker takes the reader into what, for him, was a previously unknown world of life behind bars. He has no way of protecting himself and his lack of experience in such an environment leaves him with no idea about how best to conduct himself.<\/p>\n That first\u00a0Wimbledon title<\/p>\n Becker repeatedly references tennis. The distant screaming of prisoners is an “endless rally between opponents who cannot see each other yet still want to destroy each other.” The tennis<\/a> court, he writes, is the same everywhere and offers “certainty in the form of straight lines and white-painted right angles.” In prison, however, such certainties do not exist.<\/p>\n Becker traces everything that went right and later went wrong in his life back to July 7, 1985. On that day,as a 17-year-old, he won the men’s singles title at Wimbledon<\/a> \u2013 and his life changed overnight. According to Becker, that early success is part of the reason he wound up in prison.<\/p>\n “My 1985 Wimbledon victory is partly to blame for this,” he tells fans and journalists at the book launch.<\/p>\n “When you’re suddenly so famous at 17, it feels like you suddenly belong to someone else. The German press told me how I should live and what I should do,” he writes in the book.<\/p>\n He also puts\u00a0his later financial problems down to his early fame.<\/p>\n “If I hadn’t won Wimbledon at 17, none of this would have happened. Then I wouldn’t have had this trust in older men to handle my business, nor the habit of letting others manage my finances.”<\/p>\n ‘Andre gets more love than I do’\u00a0<\/p>\n With tennis as the central theme of his life, Becker describes in “Inside” how he spent his months in prison. Surrounded by convicted drug dealers and murderers,\u00a0Becker says he forged temporary alliances and even made friends.\u00a0He also explains while being behind bars he encountered the philosophy of stoicism.<\/p>\n He also shares the thoughts that went through his mind during the lonely hours of his imprisonment. These initially concern his rivalry with Andre Agassi, who challenged Becker’s status as the crowd favorite at Wimbledon in the early 1990s.<\/p>\n “I need the crowd. I need their support. But when I play against Andre, he gets more of their love than I do,” Becker laments.<\/p>\n Later, he recalls how he met his partner Lilian and how the two became a couple. He also describes his long-standing business relationship with Hans-Dieter Cleven, who at one point demanded the repayment of loans totaling \u20ac36.5 million ($42.8 million) from Becker and in 2017, initiated insolvency proceedings against him in a London court<\/a>. The proceedings ultimately led to Becker’s prison sentence.<\/p>\n Experienced ghostwriter<\/p>\n Some of Becker’s anecdotes from prison are new; others he already told on German television in December 2022, shortly after his early release. At that time, Becker’s voice repeatedly failed him.<\/p>\n In the book, many things sound more serene and detached. This is certainly due to the time gap of three years, but possibly also to the work of British sports<\/a> journalist Tom Fordyce, a ghostwriter who had previously co-authored successful sports biographies.<\/p>\n Personal responsibility, but no moral guilt<\/p>\nBoris Becker blames in part his first Wimbledon title for all that went wrong in his lifeImage: Steve Powell\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Boris Becker spent the first few weeks of his incarceration in HM Prison Wandsworth in LondonImage: Anthony Devlin\/PA\/picture alliance<\/p>\n