Tennis icon Boris Becker has revealed his regret over winning a Wimbledon title as a teenager, admitting he was “maybe too young” to handle the pressure that followed.
The German star was just 17 years old when he beat Kevin Curren in the 1985 final, making him the youngest ever men’s singles champion at the All England Club. But while he went on to win another five Grand Slam titles and establish himself as one of the greatest players of his era, his life off the court was marred by financial turmoil.
In 2022, Becker received a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence for hiding assets and loans worth £2.5m to avoid paying debts. He served only eight months of his sentence before being released, but was then deported, despite living in the UK for a decade.
Becker has now written a new autobiography detailing his time behind bars and the rise and fall that led to his imprisonment. Speaking to BBC Sport to mark the release of his memoir, Becker admitted that his early success at Wimbledon “changed the road ahead tremendously”, as he grappled with the immense pressure that came with such a historic win.
“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 said. “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 sentiments echo those of British tennis sensation Emma Raducanu, who shot to global stardom by clinching the US Open at the tender age of 18 in 2021. Despite etching her name into tennis history with that remarkable victory, the now-22-year-old has confessed to experiencing mental struggles since her Flushing Meadows triumph, having not managed to replicate that level of success.
“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 battled with injuries in recent years, revealed to The Sunday Times in 2023.
“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,” she continued, admitting to occasional pangs of regret over her 2021 victory.
“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.”
Opening up about the circumstances that led to his imprisonment, Becker told the BBC: “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.”