Tennis great Boris Becker says he is building his life’s “third chapter” following his release from prison.
He was released in December and was subsequently deported from the UK.
“I’m usually good in the fifth set – I’ve won the first two sets, I’ve lost the next two and I’m planning to win that,” he told 5 Live Breakfast.
In a lengthy interview, former world number one Becker said:
- There was “no handbook” for dealing with fame and fortune after winning Wimbledon as a teenager
- Prison was “brutal” and a “very different experience to what you see in the movies”
- He’s a “stronger, better man” after eight months in prison
The full interview will be played on Saturday’s 5 Live Breakfast show.
‘Whoever says prison life isn’t hard is lying’
The six-time Grand Slam singles champion, who was catapulted to stardom in 1985 when he won Wimbledon aged just 17, was found guilty of four charges under the Insolvency Act in April last year.
The case centred on Becker’s bankruptcy in June 2017 resulting from an unpaid loan of more than £3m on his luxury estate in Mallorca, Spain.
Speaking before the release of a new TV documentary about his life and career, ‘Boom! Boom! The World vs Boris Becker’, Becker said: “I don’t think there was a handbook written for how to behave, what to do and how to live your life when you win Wimbledon at 17.
“The fame and fortune after was very new.
“Obviously I never studied business, I never studied finance and after my tennis career I made a couple of decisions probably badly advised but again it was my decision.”
After sentencing, Becker spent the first weeks of his detention at Wandsworth Prison in south-west London, before spending the majority of his sentence at Huntercombe Prison in Oxfordshire.
“Whoever says that prison life isn’t hard and isn’t difficult I think is lying,” the three-time Wimbledon champion said.
“I was surrounded by murderers, by drug dealers, by rapists, by people smugglers, by dangerous criminals.
“You fight every day for survival. Quickly you have to surround yourself with the tough boys, as I would call it, because you need protection.”
Becker said being a legendary tennis player counted for nothing while he was in prison.
“If you think you’re better than everybody else then you lose,” he said.
“Inside it doesn’t matter that I was a tennis player, the only currency we have inside is our…
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