In 1985, Boris Becker was an unranked 17-year-old when he shocked the world and won Wimbledon.
After the tournament, his then-manager Ion Tiriac took him to Monaco, where he was living, checked him right into a hotel and had a chat with the brand new champion.
“[He said] ‘I’ll teach you the appropriate and wrongs of your life now, the implications of becoming the primary German, the youngest, the unseeded,’” Becker, now 55, recalls in “Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker” a two-part documentary that premiered Friday on Apple+.
The doc goes inside Becker’s meteoric rise and spectacular fall, which culminated in him spending eight months last 12 months in a UK prison cell for hiding money during bankruptcy proceedings.
“Every time there may be a little bit of a wind in my life it becomes a tornado,” Becker says within the film of the media’s insatiable interest in him.
John McEnroe, who also appears within the documentary, puts it more succinctly, saying Becker was “like Michael Jordan in Germany.”
The Teutonic star won six Grand Slam titles and an Olympic gold medal together with his explosive play and agile, acrobatic style. He excelled on grass, winning Wimbledon thrice — in 1985, 1986 and 1989 — and making it to the finals seven times.
In 1993, he married Barbara Feltus, a black model and clothier. The couple became each an emblem of progressive Germany and a goal of racist attacks.
In 1999, Becker was mourning the recent lack of his father when he lost within the fourth round in straight sets in Wimbledon. It was time to retire.
That night, he and pals went drinking at Nobu in London. Becker had a tryst with Russian model Angela Ermakova within the restaurant’s broom closet that resulted in a pregnancy.
Within the film, he recalls learning his love child was on the best way.
“She got here in, she had an enormous coat on. She took the coat off and she or he was heavily pregnant. You only can’t imagine it. The wake-up call got here very late,” he says of Ermakova.
The quickie would eventually lead the to breakdown of his marriage to Barbara, who was pregnant with their second child, Elias, on the time.
The couple divorced in 2001, and she or he got reportedly got $14.7 million and their Miami property.
Ermakova gave birth, to a lady named Anna, and Becker didn’t take responsibility until 2001 when she was 10 months old.
Financial problems plagued the fallen star within the years that followed, but there have been also brilliant spots. In 2009, he married Dutch model Lilly Kerssenberg, and the couple welcomed a son the next 12 months.
Starting in 2013, he spent three years coaching superstar Novak Djokovic.
But in 2017, he declared bankruptcy. He was ultimately convicted of hiding assets related to the insolvency, and, in 2022, sentenced to 2 and a half years in a UK prison.
He was released in December after serving eight months and deported from the UK.
“Prison life is a really dangerous place,” he told CNN of his experience. “I watched a pair of flicks beforehand just to organize myself somewhat bit, but I didn’t expect it like that. It’s very scary. It’s an actual punishment. I mean, prison’s presupposed to be that, nevertheless it’s an actual punishment taking away your freedom, your livelihood.
“The one currency you have got is your character and your personality — literally — and also you higher make friends with the strong boys because you would like protection, you would like a gaggle of folks that look out for you.”
But he told the Recent York Times that he won’t reveal the main points of what happened on the within.
“There’s a code of honor that you simply don’t discuss prison on the surface. I even have an excessive amount of respect for the inmates.”
Becker, who’s estranged from Lilly, said the experience has modified him.
“If prison doesn’t humble you, I don’t know what is going to. While you literally lose every thing and also you go into a extremely small cell for 231 days. If that doesn’t humble you, you’ve lost anyway.”
But he says this isn’t the last you’ll hear of him.
“That’s not the tip yet,” he says within the doc. “There’s going to be one other chapter.”
