In April of this year, Boris Becker was sentenced to two and a half years in prison in London for delaying bankruptcy. The 54-year-old is currently being held in Huntercombe Prison. That doesn’t change anything about his status as a German sports legend. In his active career, he triumphed a total of six times in a Grand Slam tournament, and he won a total of 49 tournaments on the ATP tour. The man from Leimen celebrated his first major victory on June 16, 1985 at the Queens lawn tournament, three weeks before the Wimbledon triumph that has not been forgotten to this day.
In the summer of 1985, Boris Becker was just 17 years old. But the redhead from Leimen had long since made a name for himself on the ATP tour.
A year earlier on the professional tour for the first time, Becker celebrated his first notable successes on the biggest stages of the tennis world at the age of 16. At the Australian Open, he made it to the quarter-finals, but at Wimbledon it was enough for the third round.
Becker convinces with his courageous game
In January 1985, the next big exclamation mark followed, when Becker secured the junior world championship against his longtime adversary Stefan Edberg in Birmingham.
In London’s Queens Club, Becker started as 29th in the world tennis rankings. At the Wimbledon preparatory tournament itself, he was seeded eleventh.
His extraordinary qualities on the fastest of all rubbers became clear all too quickly. Becker’s powerful service, his safe volleying at the net and his great courage in the baseline game brought him from victory to victory in the Queens Club. Among other things, he defeated the eventual Wimbledon champion Pat Cash in the last eight.
Becker wins a total of seven titles on grass
On the way to the first ATP title, Johan Kriek stood in the way of the German in the final. But the South African, who was almost ten years his senior, had nothing to oppose Becker’s powerful and aggressive style of play. On the Center Court of Queen’s Club in London’s West Kensington, the teenager used his first match point to score 6-2 and 6-3.
The first of a total of seven tournament victories on grass meant something like the initial spark for what is still the best German tennis player of all time. Back then, Becker himself said in his youthful carelessness: “Since I was ten years old, it has been my dream to win an ATP tournament. The week was fantastic. I played my best tennis and defeated many good players.”
Becker was able to win the preparatory tournament for Wimbledon four times in his career. Just one less than the record champion Andy Murray, who had five successes between 2009 and 2016.
Immediately after the defeat, his inferior opponent suspected where the path of the serve-and-volley player would lead this year: “If Becker plays every day in Wimbledon like he does today, he can win the tournament.”
Three weeks later, Boris Becker confirmed his opponent’s prognosis and became the youngest player in history to win the largest and most important grass tournament in the world.
Mats Yannick Roth