From Boom Boom to bust
Ladies smash it… with help of Love Island
is dwarfed by his spending. He bought a huge art collection and had homes in Zurich, Mallorca and the US, boasting of drinking fine wines as he jetted between them.
As his tennis rival and friend Pat Cash noted: “Boris has always felt the need to maintain an image linked with prosperity.”
Christian added: “When Boris goes out for lunch he spends €900, for dinner he spends €1,100.
“When he goes on holiday he flies first class or business class with the whole family. That’s ok when you earn €11million a year, like he did as a player. But when you earn €550,000 you run out of money very quickly.”
Becker’s love life has proved equally expensive. His first marriage to actress Barbara, with whom he had sons Noah and Elias, ended acrimoniously after he admitted cheating while she was pregnant. A divorce in 2001 cost him €17million plus monthly support payments.
The price of his infidelity rose even further when he discovered he had a daughter, Anna, as a result of a three-minute romp with Russian model Angela Ermakova in a broom cupboard at a restaurant.
Supporting youngest son Amadeus following his split from Dutch-born Lilly will stretch his already fragile finances even further.
Christian said: “It is very sad. For a long time Boris and Lilly were a good couple. A strong couple.” Becker has been in a downward spiral for nearly 20 years. Keen to repeat his sporting success as a businessman, he initially invested in three Mercedes dealerships. But he lost his two closest advisers in the mid-1990s – one to bad blood, the other to cancer. Without their guidance he embarked on a string of failed deals. He reportedly lost €12million investing in Nigerian oil and gas, launched a tennis academy in China and tried to build a Boris Becker business tower in Dubai before the plans collapsed in 2011.
Christian said: “Boris was not a great businessman. He wasn’t focused on his deals, he didn’t look behind the scenes. He had bad managers who gave him bad tips.” Among all his other troubles Becker was accused in 2001 of tax evasion in Germany for living in Munich while claiming Monaco as his home. A year later he was hit with a suspended sentence and told to repay €2.8million.
In 2014 he was lent €2million by Phones4u billionaire John Cauldwell to clear unpaid maintenance bills on a
Mallorca villa.
The property was later taken over by hippy squatters and the debt rose to €4million.
A private bank took Becker to court in London, where a judge declared him bankrupt and said he was “burying his head in the sand”.
Two weeks later the star was back before the bench, this time in Switzerland, as former business partner Hans-dieter Cleven tried to claw back €36million he claimed to have lent him for a joint venture.
The court rejected Cleven’s claims, ordered him to pay costs and ruled in Becker’s favour.
But at the same time a €73,000 Maserati loaned to the ex-tennis ace by a dealership was towed away because of a string of unpaid parking fines.
Becker allegedly owes another €12million to companies in Switzerland and Spain.
Christian said: “Boris tries to make his own rules – that is not possible.
“You have to pay your taxes and your parking fines, you have to pay back the money you borrow from the bank or your friends. “He’s not a bad guy but he has the wrong people around him. He needs to focus on his job, calm down and stop spending money.
“He is a strong person, that is why he was such a great player. I think he is strong enough to solve these problems as well – but they are the biggest problems of his life.” ANDY Murray’s withdrawal from Wimbledon will mean Britain’s next generation of female stars grabbing more attention this week.
But the five women, aged 23 and under, share one of the ways the two-time champion found to escape the pressure – Love Island.
The youngest, Katie Swan, 19, has joined Andy Murray’s management firm and says the Scottish player is a secret fan.
She said: “I haven’t spoken to him about tennis – we have just spoken about Love Island. He is watching it as well.
“He says that he doesn’t but he’s definitely a fan. He told me he just pops his head around the corner when his wife is watching it but I don’t think that’s true.
“You can’t know what he knows by just watching a bit – he definitely knows everything that’s going on. He knows all the names.”
On the eve of the tournament Murray, 31, said it was “too soon” to play five-set matches after his comeback from hip surgery.
So Katie will be out to make British fans proud, along with Harriet Dart, 21, Gabriella Taylor, 20, Katy Dunne, 23, and Katie
Boulter, 21. Apart from Leicester City fan Katie Boulter, they are all making their debut.
And Katy Dunne is another one addicted to Love Island: “It helps when you’ve got friends there and people that you can chat to or hang out with, have dinner with. And we are all loving Love Island right now. It’s so good,” she admitted. I don’t think there is a tennis player not watching it.
“It’s kind of the perfect thing.
“We’re working hard in the day or dealing with stuff and matches and pressure. That’s the least focusing TV show that you can watch and it’s also just funny.”
The girls might not want to predict a Wimbledon winner but Katie Swan says Dani Dyer and Jack Fincham, are nailed on to take the Love Island title.