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The Becker files – problems for Boris again and again

06. April 2022 – 17:23 Clock

“Game, Set, Match Rafter” rang out on June 30, 1999 across the Center Court in Wimbledon – his so-called living room. Boris Becker fended off the first match ball with one of his famous hard serves. But then it was over – not just in this tournament, but overall. A little later he announced: “That was my last tennis match”. Almost 14 years after his sensational triumph, when he was the first German to win the Grand Slam tournament in London at the age of just 17, he ended his great career exactly where his star had risen. Where else would he have ended his career? It was clear that he would not do that with a win, because his body had long paid the price for his successes. His last final victory was two and a half years ago (December 8, 1996 in Munich, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 against Goran Ivanisevic). In 1998 Becker had not played a single Grand Slam tournament and ended the year in 69th place in the world rankings. It was the time when Becker’s life took a turn.

Wimbledon 1999: The turning point

Finish it where it started. A nice plan to start a new phase of life. His then wife Barbara – just pregnant with their second son Elias – followed the last moments of her husband Boris from the stands, everything seemed to end well. But then Boris got lost one evening in Wimbledon and ended up with Angela Ermakova in a broom closet (actually – according to Becker himself – a staircase between the toilets of the London posh restaurant “Nobu”). How the story ended is well known, daughter Anna Ermakova saw the light of day on March 22, just six months after son Elias (September 4, 1999). In January 2001, his wife Barbara divorced. Leaving the Wimbledon living room was a turning point in the life of the former world number one in more ways than one. Becker continued to dominate the headlines, no longer in sports but in tabloids.

Achievements only in tennis

Wife Lilly, Novak Djokovic and Boris after his triumph at Wimbledon in 2014

© Instagram/Boris Becker

But it wasn’t just changing relationships with more or less well-known women and the very expensive divorce from Barbara that brought Becker there, soon the suspicion arose that he was not lucky as a businessman – even during his tennis career. A sports portal in which he was involved filed for bankruptcy in 2001. In 2002 he was convicted of tax evasion. The three car dealerships he acquired in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in the 1990s are said to have made a big loss before he sold them in 2017.

Success, on the other hand, apparently only came when he returned to the tennis world, for example as coach of Novak Djokovic in the years 2013 to 2016. Djokovic achieved the so-called career grand slam at the French Open in 2016 (winning all four grand slam tournaments). As a player, Becker was always denied a win at this tournament.

2017: Court declares Becker insolvent

The financial bang finally followed in 2017 when a London court declared the former tennis star insolvent. According to a report by “Spiegel online” on June 21, 2017, the court saw no credible evidence that Becker could pay his debts to a British private bank. Becker immediately denied the insolvency through his lawyers. Shortly thereafter, he told the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” that he was “neither insolvent nor broke” and that he was meeting all of his current payment obligations. Nevertheless, the London court stuck to its decision.

And only a little later it got even worse for the three-time Wimbledon winner: On July 4, 2017, the Swiss entrepreneur Hans-Dieter Cleven announced that he now felt compelled to “put his demands into this [Londoner] to assert insolvency proceedings”. Because Cleven had taken note of both the London decision and Becker’s denials.

Attempts to reach an agreement went unnoticed and deadlines were not met. These are claims of around 40 million Swiss francs recognized by Becker in writing. A Swiss court had recently established that Cleven’s claim “to the amount of 41,774,236.65 Swiss francs (approx. 37 million euros) against Mr. Becker as of December 31, 2014 is undisputed”, although the loan agreements had not been properly terminated . Irrespective of the legal processes in Switzerland, Cleven now wants to enforce his claims in the London insolvency proceedings.

Cups were foreclosed – marriage failed

Boris Becker (Germany) and his newly wedded Lilly come from the registry office in St. Moritz

2009: Boris Becker and his then newly married Lilly come from the registry office in St Moritz

© imago/Geisser, imago sports photo service

At the end of 2017, Boris Becker commented on the allegations in the RTL annual review “People, Pictures Emotions” with Günther Jauch: “I try to the best of my knowledge and belief to pay the creditor, that is the bank, the debt that there is no doubt There is, however, an argument about interest rates. They would like to be in the high double digits, I wouldn’t because the agreement was different.”

What he had to endure during the process was not easy for the tennis legend. In the summer of 2019, for example, some trophies, medals, watches and tennis rackets were foreclosed on to pay part of the debt. At that time, the insolvency administrator hoped to complete the process within the coming months. But then the next bad news followed: In November 2019, the British insolvency authorities extended the restrictions for Becker to twelve more years, until 2031. The reason: Becker is said to have concealed assets. In addition, Becker’s insolvency administrator recognized Cleven’s claims of around 37 million euros against Becker in the summer of 2020. In the meantime, his second marriage to Lilly Becker also failed.

This insolvency procedure, which normally lasts twelve months in England, has now dragged on for almost five years. And now Becker has to answer for delaying bankruptcy. Becker is accused of more than 20 counts – among other things, it is about the fact that he is said to have tried to withdraw valuables, money and real estate from the insolvency administrator’s access. He is said to have even transferred larger sums of money to his ex-wives Barbara and Lilly Becker, not to have disclosed property ownership and not to have handed over trophies from his career. In the worst case, he faces seven years in prison. (tel)

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