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Former German tennis player Boris Becker takes part in the Active City Afterworks at the Rothenbaum tennis stadium. Marcus Brandt/dpa
Germany tennis great Boris Becker has blamed his early Wimbledon victory at the age of 17 for some of his later problems.
"For my health, for my life, it would have been better if I had won Wimbledon later, at 21 or 22, and not at 17 and 18," Becker said in an interview with Sports Illustrated magazine.
"Because then I wouldn't have been the child prodigy that people still see me as."
After the end of his career, Becker was unable to build on his sporting success and suffered financial and personal troubles. In 2022, for example, he was imprisoned in Britain for seven and a half months after violating insolvency requirements.
Becker won the London grass court grand slam three times, the first coming in 1985 at the age of 17.
"Wimbledon was always like Christmas for me. The best time of the year," said the now 57-year-old. "If I have a home as a sportsman, then it's Wimbledon."
He is now a respected tennis pundit and hopes it stays that way.
"I hope to be treated with more respect for the rest of my life, that my life's work as the best (men's) German tennis player in history will be honoured more than before," added Becker.
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