Once his greatest rivals, Michael Stich sticks by Boris Becker’s abyss

They didn’t like each other, always avoided each other, couldn’t have been more different. The two greatest German tennis players. Boris Becker and Michael Stich. One, Becker: passionate, instinctive, emotional, often unpredictable, but the hero of the audience. The other, Stich: intelligent, predictable, North German cool and distant.

Becker and Stich win gold together in Barcelona

The opposite characters of Becker and Stich could not relate to each other. The two of them made no secret of this until the end. Nevertheless, the former tennis giants won gold together in doubles at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.

However, the path to Olympic victory was expectedly difficult in the collaboration between Becker and Stich. The national coach at the time, Niki Pilic, reported long after the adventure about the time in Barcelona: “It cost me years of my life. I had to lie a lot.”

Also read: First interview after imprisonment – the four big moments when Boris burst into tears on TV

Becker and Stich are said not to have even sat at a table. At tactical meetings the night before matches, Pilic wandered back and forth between Becker’s and Stich’s room to deliver each other’s messages. When changing sides on the court, they did not speak a single word to each other. All the more impressive and a sign of the sporting genius of both of them that it was still enough to win gold.

Stitch beats Becker at Wimbledon

However, Stich’s biggest career triumph came a year earlier. In the Wimbledon final, Becker from Hamburg beat in three sets and thus won his only Grand Slam title. Otherwise, Stich always lined up behind Becker. Even today he is repeatedly confronted with being only the “second” behind Becker. Unlike his competitor, he was never number one in the world, and Becker also won five more Grand Slam titles.

Boris Becker once said: “We just don’t like each other.” Both stuck to that, even after their careers. The two greatest German tennis players always avoided each other.

Stich’s emotional gesture in Becker’s most difficult moment

A new and very special moment in the interpersonal relationship then occurs during Becker’s time in prison in Great Britain. The 55-year-old reported after his release: “Michael Stich wrote me a three-page letter.” Becker has to pause, he sobs and tears come to his eyes.

Becker reports the “great words” with which Stich addressed him in this letter. A moment that reveals the complicated but also human relationship between the two sports stars. Because at the most difficult moment, the once biggest rival held stitch to Becker.