In 2022, Boris Becker sat in prison for seven and a half months in England. The tennis legend now unpacked the time in jail.
When Boris Becker was sentenced to two and a half years in prison by a court in Great Britain in April 2022 for several insolvency crimes, he first had to go to the Wandsworth prison in the west of London and was later moved to the Huntercombe in Oxfordshire.
It was not easy in both institutions, as he revealed in an interview with the “Blick”.
“The prison – and I can now only speak of English prisons – is an extremely dangerous place,” emphasized Becker and continued: “You are not sure. People die there. Be it through suicide, because of other people or you are just seriously injured. There is a number of unreported cases, you don’t want to know. All the time was a permanent struggle for survival.”
The fact that Becker is a world famous did not matter behind bars. “They didn’t care that I was a tennis player. I was perceived as a tall, white German. I was not really recognized as a star,” the 57-year-old noted.
Becker was also afraid of death during the time in prison. “It means that people are particularly reacting when they are concerned about death. Then they can jump three meters higher than usual. I experienced that twice,” said Becker, without further details: “But I am basically not the anxious type. Otherwise I would have designed my life differently. I was always a cross -border organizer.”
Becker described the jail as “brutal world” in which his own laws apply. “It is okay at night. Sometimes you hear screams and other things, but the doors are closed. When they are open again, everything can happen,” said six-time Grand Slam winner.
Becker: “Federer was very lucky”
How it could go so far that Becker ends up behind bars, he explains with a lack of support during his young career.
“Your own family does not normally do it alone, you need professional help,” emphasized Becker: “Roger Federer was very lucky. His parents and wife were in the matter right from the start that he had a network and a double floor, so to speak. He knew that they were taking care of me.”
