Becker’s ‘pop-star’ past can be a heavy burden
The popular German still has to cope with having once been a national icon, writes Simon Briggs
‘Boom Boom Boris’ reflected the shift in mood in West Germany
Boris Becker hopped into the interview room at the O2 Arena on a pair of crutches, a giant brace wrapped around the left knee operated on recently. He already has an artificial hip and two surgically stiffened ankles, plus a hole in his wallet that last week led to his bankruptcy ruling being extended until 2031.
And yet, even banged up like a human stock car, Becker still radiated charisma. He was sharing the stage with another pair of slam champions in Thomas Muster and Marat Safin, two of his fellow team captains at January’s inaugural ATP Cup. There was no doubt, however, about which member of the trio everybody wanted to speak to.
A similar rule applies within German tennis itself. Alexander Zverev has also been at the O2 Arena this week, defending his ATP Finals crown.
Angelique Kerber won Wimbledon last year, the first German to do so since Steffi Graf in 1996. But neither player has even approached the sort of profile that their predecessors once enjoyed.
Actually, “enjoyed” is probably the wrong word. Becker ended up moving to London because “here I’m given space, I’m not national property”.
But the point still holds. Every German who came after Becker and Graf cannot help but be compared to them, just as every Briton who hopes to emulate Andy Murray will inevitably stand in his shadow.
In a recent essay in the
Routledge Handbook of Tennis, German historian Kristian Naglo sketched out the backdrop behind Becker’s status as a cultural icon.
Clearly it helps to have won six majors. But then so did Stefan Edberg, and he never triggered the same kind of tennis Beatlemania.
Crucially, Becker’s sudden breakthrough in 1985 – when he won Wimbledon at 17 – coincided with the wider flowering of West Germany as an increasingly selfconfident nation. With his bazooka serve, diving volleys and combative personality, “Boom Boom Boris” reflected the shift from introspection to a more outgoing, exuberant mood.
Beyond Wimbledon, another transformational moment unfolded in Hartford, Connecticut – the venue for the 1987 Davis Cup quarter-final. After a 6 hr 39 min battle that makes today’s grand-slam epics look tame, Becker beat John Mcenroe 4-6, 15-13, 8-10, 6-2, 6-2, then paraded around in a huge German flag. He was creating a new kind of nationalism that was built on a combination of cheek and bravado that challenged old orthodoxies.
Coincidentally, this proved to be terrific news for the All England Club.
After Germany’s national TV stations were privatised in 1987, they bid huge sums for tennis rights, lifting the Wimbledon surplus from around £400,000 at the start of the 1980s to almost £10 million by the end of the decade.
Even after the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, Becker was still winning majors, making headlines and outshining the national football team – who were seen as negative and boring until Lothar Matthaus and Jurgen Klinsmann came good at Italia 90.
You could compare the mood in Germany in this period to the all-too-brief flowering of “Cool Britannia” in the late 1990s. According to Naglo, Becker achieved “pop-star status”. He was David Beckham and Liam Gallagher rolled into one.
Admittedly, the Becker brand has become tarnished since retirement. Every time another story lands about his bad investments or marital mishaps, the news is met with mocking humour. Schadenfreude, we might even say.
Yet only a tiny handful of former players – Mcenroe, Jimmy Connors, Andre Agassi and Bjorn Borg come to mind – have had to carry such a heavy burden of fame.
Admittedly, these other living legends managed to look after their joints a little better (Becker himself blames all those diving volleys). But none of them found the spotlight easy to bear.