Boris Becker appears on my computer screen for a chat from his ultra-modern London flat. It’s all sleek lines and soft furnishings, with a huge floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the city.
A rich man in his bachelor pad, even if it is a step down from the £5m Wimbledon mansion with its own swimming pool and planetarium he moved out of after separating from his second wife in 2018.
Boris has just finished quarantining after a quick trip to his native Germany, where two of his four children live. But for him London is home, and has been for many years.
‘I might have a German passport but I feel like I’m a part of this city,’ he tells me.
Boris Becker, 53, (pictured) who lives in London, has commentated for the BBC almost every year at the championships since he retired from tennis more than 20 years ago
‘I like the diversity of London, the fact that everyone has their own space here. I feel quite protected in London, when I’m walking around I get treated with a lot of respect.’
A big part of that is because London – Wimbledon to be precise – is where the Boris Becker legend was born. ‘On 7 July 1985 the world got to know Boris Becker,’ he says.
Boris was an unseeded 17-year-old when he beat Kevin Curren to become the youngest person (at the time) and first German to win the prestigious tournament. Life would never be the same again.
‘I became this household name, this wunderkind, this phenomenon,’ he says. ‘Wimbledon is my professional birthplace and I have felt at home there ever since.’
He has commentated for the BBC almost every year at the championships since he retired from the game more than 20 years ago – and he is again this year.
Seventeen is incredibly young to become one of the most famous sportspeople in the world but Boris, now 53, says his second win at Wimbledon a year later proves he wasn’t too young (he won for a third time in 1989).
‘I think I showed that I wasn’t a flash in the pan by winning it again,’ he says, although he does admit that the pressure could sometimes be too much.
‘I’m lucky that I had a good team around me who were there to protect me. There were a lot of expectations – mental health is a very common phrase these days – but I had a great ride.
Pictured: Holding the Wimbledon trophy aloft after his first win in 1985
‘For me the big challenge was thinking, “Where do you go when you’ve climbed Everest?” Every mountain you want to climb afterwards is lower, but there are always more goals to achieve.’
He has a lot of sympathy with today’s young players – particularly Naomi Osaka, the world number two and highest paid sportswoman in history, who quit the French Open last month citing mental health issues and has pulled out of Wimbledon.
‘I think my team saved me but a lot of young players don’t have that,’ he says.
‘So we have to watch out for their well-being, which is the most important thing, not their next tournament or their next contract. It was very sad to see Naomi pull out of Paris and Wimbledon.
Behind the big names, there’s a real person there
‘People have to remember that behind the names of the players there is a real person there. Everybody has their own trials and tribulations and we have to be careful about criticising something we don’t know about.’
He abhors the way that social media has magnified everything, particularly for the younger players, and believes governments should intervene to stop the peddling of hate.
‘Social media is not reality, it’s a perceived reality. You get your likes and your dislikes and then you have your trolls.
‘There should be laws to protect young people, players, who are active on social media. The Government really needs to find some proper guidelines.’
Boris didn’t have to deal with social media in his heyday, but admits he found some aspects of fame difficult.
Pictured: Boris with second wife Lilly and son Amadeus in 2017
‘It’s very challenging to grow up in the spotlight. You’re making the same mistakes that everybody else makes, but when you’re in the spotlight all the time everything is magnified times ten.
‘There are a lot of pressures. If you’re the centre of attention, everything seems much bigger. I’m human, I make mistakes. Everybody does.’
He’s certainly lived a colourful life. Declared bankrupt in 2017 after a series of poor business decisions, he’s been accused of hiding assets including £1.2m in cash, some of his trophies and various properties.
In September he will stand trial. He obviously can’t comment on this ongoing situation, but denies all 28 charges against him. If he’s found guilty he faces up to seven years in jail.
He has two children with his first wife, German model Barbara Feltus – Noah, now 27, and Elias, 21. Boris and Barbara split when he had a brief dalliance in the broom cupboard of London’s Nobu restaurant with waitress Angela Ermakova while Barbara, pregnant with Elias, was in hospital having contractions.
The notorious episode resulted in the birth of his third child Anna, who is also 21 and now a model.
In 2009, Boris married Dutch model Lilly Kerssenberg and they have a son, Amadeus, 11. The pair separated in 2018, and he declines to say whether he is presently attached.
He seems close to his children, and says racism is something they confront together. When he first started dating Barbara they faced a spate of nasty racism in Germany, and in 2018 Boris and Noah sued a German politician for a racist tweet.
‘I’ve been confronted with racism for a long time,’ he says.
‘My son has faced it in Germany, and so have my other children. I’m very protective of them. As a family we have big discussions about values, about who you are and how you’re not defined by the colour of your skin.
‘When we sued the politician we won and he lost his job. It’s important to stand up against this stuff, but we’re still very far from a solution.’
The ordered world of Wimbledon is a haven from his complex life. He has commentated for the BBC since 2002, pausing only between 2014 and 2016, when he was reigning champion Novak Djokovic’s coach, and he calls the presenting team his ‘television family’.
‘Last year when it was cancelled was so disappointing. I went there to film with Sue Barker and Tim Henman, to talk about old matches. It was weird. The studio and courts were empty, so I was looking forward to going through the gates again.’
He says 2019’s five-hour final between Djokovic and Roger Federer was the best match he’s ever commentated on, and maintains he was able to stay neutral despite his history with Djokovic. But he says it was a different matter for the rest of the team when it came to Andy Murray’s famous first victory in 2013.
‘As a commentator you should stay neutral and although I have that history with Djokovic, I love Federer just as much so it was easy,’ he recalls.
‘It was a different matter when Andy was in the final; my fellow commentators Tim Henman and Andrew Castle were dying for him to win. I was trying hard to stay calm but they were going bonkers at the idea of the first Brit to win Wimbledon in 77 years.’
He says he’s glad Murray was given a wild card entry this year, and he’d like to see some upsets too.
‘Novak is the reigning champion and I expect him to do well, but there’s nothing like seeing a young player coming up against or even beating one of the favourites.’
Wimbledon coverage is across the BBC until 11 July.