Jailed tennis great Boris Becker just couldn’t play by the rules

The descent of the former golden boy of tennis is a long and tangled story of money, women and poor judgment.

Former Australian Open and Wimbledon champion Boris Becker.

In the weeks before Boris Becker was sentenced at Southwark crown court to two-and-a-half years’ jail, the three-time Wimbledon champion made visits to the London Oratory Catholic church in Knightsbridge to pray.

It had special significance for the former altar boy. His eldest son, Noah, 28, was baptised there in 1998. Four years later, Becker sought divine intervention when he was last on trial over his finances, and his prayers were answered. Now the father of four appeared to hope they could keep him out of jail again.

“Boris is a very devout Catholic, so I’m sure he did it to recharge his batteries and to pray,” his biographer, Christian Schommers, told a German magazine. “He didn’t do it for show, but really to get divine help.”

Sadly this time, neither God nor the judge, Deborah Taylor, seemed to pay much heed. Becker, who had been renting a £22,000-a-month ($39 million) house in his beloved Wimbledon, was told his home for the foreseeable future would be two miles (3.2km) away in a cell in Wandsworth jail.

The sentence imposed on Becker, 54, for concealing £2.5 million of assets after he was declared bankrupt in 2017, dismayed friends, family and admirers and surprised some by its severity.

“I’m really in shock,” his daughter, Anna Ermakova, 22, a London-based model, said. “I will support him and I will visit him whenever I can. I hope that will help him a little to get through the time.”

She said she had written to the court urging leniency for the sake of her half-brother, Amadeus, 12, who would now be deprived of a father figure. “It’s not fair to him,” she told Germany’s Bild.

There was no word from Elvira, 86, Becker’s Czech-born mother, who had described her son as an “overall decent boy” in an interview during the trial.

So how did it all go so desperately wrong for the former golden boy of tennis, who became the youngest player to win the men’s championship at Wimbledon in 1985 at 17 years, 227 days?

Boris Becker, 17, at Wimbledon in 1985.

Becker’s descent is a long and tangled story of money, women and of a man who, off-court at least, simply proved incapable of playing by the rules.

The son of an architect, Becker was brought up in Leimen, a town of 26,000 people near Heidelberg. After tasting fame so young, he acquired a love of the high life, smoked Cuban cigars and enjoyed fine wines and rare malt whisky.

Earning an estimated £38 million in his career on and off court, he appeared to enjoy spending on others. “He was very generous, he always wanted to buy gifts and presents for everybody,” broadcaster Annabel Croft, who has worked with him at Wimbledon, told the BBC.

As his playing career began to fade, Becker tried a bewildering variety of business ventures. While still in his twenties, he bought three Mercedes dealerships in Germany. He also made lucrative use of his name, whether for a tennis academy and to sell wine in China, or to promote mobile phones in Slovenia. His judgment was often poor and he was reported to have lost a good slice of the £8 million he invested in the Nigerian oil and gas industry in 2017.

Becker continued to benefit from such deals in recent years after becoming a commentator for the BBC.

“Corporate gigs were a huge cash cow for him and the likes of [John] McEnroe, who could pick up thousands for half an hour’s work,” said one source, who praised him as a brilliant broadcaster.

“What really stood out to me was his humour. He has a really dry wit, and remember that he is doing this in his second language.”

Boris Becker chats with former player Sue Barker while working as a commentator in 2002.

John Lloyd, the broadcaster and former player, told Today on BBC Radio 4 that players could struggle after leaving tennis. “They still have to wake up in the morning and they have to try to get that adrenaline rush,” he said.

But Becker had hidden any concerns he had while in the commentary box. “We would hang out in our production office between matches, he was his normal self and would join in the banter, didn’t really seem to have much of a care.”

With Becker likely to serve half of his sentence, at most, he is likely to be released shortly before next year’s Wimbledon, leaving the BBC with the tricky decision whether to re-hire him.

Becker’s financial difficulties appeared to have begun after the birth in 1999 of Anna, conceived while his first wife, Barbara Feltus, was pregnant with their second child. She divorced him. He later revealed that Anna was the fruit of a brief encounter in the broom cupboard of the Park Lane Nobu with Angela Ermakova, a Russian model. He called it the “most expensive five seconds of my life”.

Becker told the court that he gave Ms Feltus their house in Miami, a £2 million settlement and £19,000-a-month maintenance for their two children. There was also a payout for Angela Ermakova to help her bring up their daughter, which included provision of a £2.5 million apartment in Chelsea, southwest London, until she completed university.

Becker’s financial affairs were already under scrutiny in Germany. In December 1996, a criminal investigation had begun into allegations that he had dodged German taxes. He was found guilty and fined, but a two-year jail sentence was suspended.

Becker told the British court that his earnings “decreased dramatically” in 2013 because “my image was not as good”.

He owed £4 million tax in Switzerland, £840,000 in Germany, and had “extensive lifestyle commitments”. He borrowed £3.85 million from the private bank Arbuthnot Latham in 2013 and £1.2 million the next year from John Caudwell, 69, founder of Phones4u at an interest rate of 25 per cent.

The Caudwell loan was secured on a property in Mallorca which Becker had bought in 1995 before spending several million pounds turning it into a luxurious estate. He put the property on the market for £10 million in 2007. But for reasons that are not clear, it never found a buyer.

The Sunday Times