Boris Becker and his turbulent life: women, scandals, successes
Created: 12/23/2022, 4:46 am
By: Marco Busselmann
Boris Becker is considered one of the most successful German tennis players.
However, the man from Leimen has also made headlines outside of sport.
His turbulent life in pictures:
1 / 24The beginning of a great tennis career: Boris Becker, who was born in Leimen, became the youngest Wimbledon winner of all time in 1985 at the age of 17.
In the final, Becker defeated Kevin Curren in four sets.
© Rüdiger Schrader/dpa
2 / 24A year later, the next big coup follows: as an 18-year-old, Boris Becker wins the men's singles final at Wimbledon again in 1986.
His third and last triumph in the prestigious tournament came in 1989. © Wolfgang Eilmes/dpa
3 / 24Boris Becker with his first trainer Günther Bosch.
Together they conquered the Wimbledon throne in 1985, and the separation followed a good one and a half years later.
Nevertheless, Bosch was regarded as Becker's sporting surrogate father.
© Michael Probst/dpa
4 / 24Great honour: tennis star Boris Becker (2nd from left) and his then girlfriend Benedicte Courtin (left) welcomed Princess Diana (2nd from right) and Prince Charles (3rd from right) in Bonn in November 1987.
The then Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker (3rd from left) and his wife Marianne (right) were also present.
© Wolfgang Eilmes/dpa
5 / 24Steffi Graf (left) and Boris Becker beaming with joy as they present their trophies.
In July 1989 there was a historic German double success in Wimbledon.
It was the second Wimbledon title for Graf and the third for Boris Becker.
© picture alliance/dpa |
father
6 / 24With Michael Stich (left), Boris Becker wins the gold medal in doubles at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona.
It was to remain Becker's only Olympic victory.
© Kai-Uwe Wärner/dpa
7 / 24Boris Becker with his first wife Barbara.
The tennis star married the actress and jewelry designer in December 1993 before divorcing in January 2001.
© Ursula Düren/dpa
8 / 24Becker's two sons Noah (born January 18, 1994) and Elias (born September 4, 1999) came from his marriage to Barbara.
While Noah stands on his own two feet as a musician and painter, Elias works as a model.
© Hannibal Hanschke/dpa
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9 / 24Becker was often an advertising medium for various brands during his tennis career.
Advertisements such as the one shown here in 1999 for the internet provider AOL or in 2006 for the legal expenses insurance company DAS became well-known © picture alliance/dpa |
AOL
10 / 24The end of a great tennis career: In June 1999, Becker played his last professional match against Patrick Rafter.
In total, he has won 49 singles tournaments – including six Grand Slam tournaments – and 15 doubles titles.
© Anja Niedringhaus/dpa
11 / 24Becker is also the father of Anna Ermakowa (born March 22, 2000), who emerged from a fleeting encounter with Angela Ermakova, a British woman from Russia.
Becker later said on the TV talk show Piers Morgan's Life Stories that the place of conception was a stairway between the toilets of a posh London restaurant.
© Horst Ossinger/dpa
In 2002, the Munich Regional Court sentenced Becker to two years' imprisonment on probation and a fine totaling 500,000 euros for tax evasion.
Becker deliberately made false statements in his tax returns in order to evade 3.3 million marks.
© Stephan Jansen/dpa
13 / 24From August to November 2008, Boris Becker was engaged to Alessandra Meyer-Wölden, the daughter of his manager Axel Meyer-Wölden, who died in 1997.
© Patrick Seeger/dpa
14 / 24In June 2009, Becker married the Dutch model Sharlely Kerssenberg in St. Moritz, with whom he had been in a short relationship since 2007.
Since then, Kerssenberg has been known as Lilly Becker.
© Rolf Vennenbernd/dpa
15 / 24The son of Boris and Lilly Becker Amadeus was born in February 2010, eight years later the couple separated, but without getting a divorce.
© Tobias Hase/dpa
16 / 24One of the rare joint public appearances: Boris Becker 2019 with his mother Elvira in Europa-Park for the Radio Rainbow Awards.
© Uwe Anspach/dpa
17 / 24Becker's father Karl-Heinz died in April 1999 as a result of cancer.
Together with his mother Elvira (left) and his then wife Barbara (right), he bids farewell at the funeral in the mountain cemetery in Leimen.
© Uli Deck/dpa
18 / 24From November 2007 to mid-May 2013, Becker was the advertising medium for the online poker platform PokerStars.
During this time he participated in professional poker tournaments.
Overall, Becker has tournament prize money of over 100,000 US dollars.
© Tim Brakemeier/dpa
19 / 24At the end of 2013, Becker became the coach of the then world number two Novak Djokovic, whom he led to six Grand Slam victories until 2016.
In December 2016, Djokovic announced the end of his collaboration with Becker.
© Tatiana Zenkovich/dpa
20 / 24In the summer of 2017, financial claims from Becker's former business partner Hans-Dieter Cleven (right) amounting to around 36.5 million euros became public.
In addition, Cleven initiated insolvency proceedings against Becker in Great Britain.
There, the tennis icon was declared bankrupt in June 2017 at the London High Court.
© Paul Zimmer/dpa
21 / 24In August 2017, Becker was introduced as "Head of Men's Tennis" by the German Tennis Association and took over the management of top male tennis in Germany until the end of 2020. © Arne Dedert/dpa
22 / 24Since mid-2020, Becker has been in a relationship with Lilian de Carvalho Monteiro, a daughter of the former defense minister of São Tomé and Príncipe, who works as a political risk analyst in London.
© Victoria Jones/dpa
23 / 24In the RTL film "Der Rebel - Von Leimen nach Wimbledon", which was released in 2021, Becker's successes at a young age were shown.
However, the tennis legend was anything but satisfied with the film adaptation.
"A lot of things just didn't happen the way it was shown," Becker clarified at the time in the Eurosport podcast 'Das Gelbe vom Ball'.
© Wolfgang Ennenbach/dpa
24/242022, Becker was sentenced to two and a half years in prison by a London court for bankruptcy offences.
On April 29, 2022, Becker had to be in British custody.
© Kirsty O'connor/dpa
Boris Becker was born on November 22, 1967 in Leimen.
Almost 18 years later he wrote tennis history as the youngest Wimbledon winner.
In total, Becker has won 49 singles tournaments – including six Grand Slam tournaments – and 15 doubles titles.
After numerous successful years on the tennis court, Becker repeatedly made headlines with his private life, be it through women's stories, tax evasion or delaying bankruptcy, for which he was sentenced to two and a half years in prison by a London court in April 2022.
(mab)
