Boris Becker - Boris Beckers Wimbledon: My Life and Career at the All England Club

Acknowledgements

A book like this doesnt just happen because I want it to happen. It takes the efforts of a number of people, and I am grateful to various individuals for contributions big and small. They include John Blake, Nick Brown, Craig Gabriel, Brian Holmes, Chris Lewis and Audrey Snell. Im particularly indebted to Chris Bowers who found my voice in both English and German, to my agent Adrian Sington, and to Joel Simons and Clare Tillyer from Blink Publishing. Most of all, my love and gratitude go to my wife Lilly I wouldnt be living in Wimbledon without her, and she has helped me make Wimbledon into my home.

Boris Becker

June 2015

Contents

Foreword

By Novak Djokovic

Welcome to Boris Beckers Wimbledon ! Boris welcomed me to his Wimbledon in the summer of 2014, during our first year working together as player and coach. The stories of how he showed me his city and how my wife Jelena and I dropped in one night while we were out walking the dog are told in , and testify to the fact that Wimbledon is not just a tennis tournament for Boris but is very much his home, a home I could profit from in the pursuit of my second Wimbledon title.

But my gratitude to Boris goes back much further than that.

I wasnt even born when Boris won his first Wimbledon title, and he won his last title when I was two and hadnt discovered tennis. When I took my first steps on a tennis court at the age of five, I was mainly watching Sampras and Agassi.

But Boris did influence my tennis game indirectly. I have this one very important recollection from my past about Boris.

When I was 12 years old, I had to leave my country to look for better facilities and conditions for training. My parents and my coach, Jelena Geni, thought that Niki Pilis academy in Munich would be the best place for me at that time. Niki generally didnt work with kids until they were at least 14, but he and his wife were kind enough to allow me to be there even though I was a couple of years younger than the other kids attending his academy.

I remember well my first day there. I was both excited and anxious. It had not been easy to leave my brothers and parents and be in a foreign country, but I knew I had to do it if I wanted to reach my dream of becoming the best tennis player in the world. I remember how everything seemed strange and new, exciting and scary at the same time. I was passing by the hallway to get to the indoor training facilities, and on the wall I saw photos of Niki and Boris Becker, the greatest male tennis champion that Germany ever had. And he played on the same tennis courts where I was about to spend months and months away from my family!

That made my blood rush so fast through my body, I was so motivated to get on court and show the world that I can do it, that I can be a champion too! It was a really sensational feeling. Just a few days earlier, I had been in Serbia, a war-torn country with no facilities or means to cultivate a tennis professional, let alone a tennis champion. It really felt like confirmation that I was in the right place.

Even though I didnt look at Boris as my idol, I admired his ability to become a Wimbledon champion at such a young age, to defy the odds, to be such an aggressive and furious player on court, to always fight till the end. Niki was my coach, and a person who helped me lift my game to a higher level, but Boris was also indirectly there, confirming to me that it was the right place for me to be. I can only imagine how many other kids he has inspired both directly and indirectly just by being the champion he is to be better people and better athletes.

Its really a privilege to have him today in my box as my coach and a person I look to for eye contact in the tough moments. I feel like the skys the limit when our two minds collide, and Im excited to see where the future will lead us.

This book tells you about the moments that shaped him and allowed him to be the inspiration he was to me and to others. I hope you enjoy it.

Wimbledon, please, I say to the taxi driver after clearing customs at London Heathrow Airport.

The driver recognises me. Yes sir, he says, with a nod that seems to imply: where else would Boris Becker want to go but Wimbledon? But Im not going to the All England Lawn Tennis Club. Im going home. Yes, home today is Wimbledon, where my wife Lilly, my son Amadeus and I live.

To some people this may seem like a dream. A small-town boy from the rural south of Germany wins Wimbledon at 17 and ends up living within walking distance of the scene of his biggest triumph. Its not quite like that. When I finished my playing career in 1999, I moved to Zurich after periods living in Monaco and Munich. I was still based in Zurich when I met Lilly, whos Dutch but was living in Miami at the time. When Amadeus was on the way, we knew we had to settle down somewhere, but where? By then, a fixed part of my year was based around Wimbledon, because from 2002 the BBC had included me as part of their Wimbledon commentary team. So London seemed an obvious choice (the mayor was even called Boris!), and we decided Wimbledon, with its village feel, was the place we wanted to raise our family.

I first won Wimbledon as a 17-year-old in 1985.

So Wimbledon became my home, and it feels like home in many senses of the word. Two of my four children were born in London, we speak English at home, I have a business in the city of London, and Im a member of my local tennis club (the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club) even though I dont play much these days. Im a member thanks to having won their tournament, which saved me a 20-year spell on the clubs waiting list. More importantly, I love Wimbledon as a village, and while things may change, at the moment Id be happy to spend the rest of my life with Wimbledon as home.