Boris Becker

Boris Franz Becker was born on November 22, 1967 in Leimen, West Germany, the only son in the family of an architect. His father built the tennis center (Blau-Weiss Tennisklub), where young Becker was usually playing against young Steffi Graf in training matches. In 1984 he became a professional tennis player. Becker was an unknown 17-year-old unseeded outsider at the Wimbledon tennis tournament in 1985, when he shot to fame by setting the record for Wimbledon, becoming the youngest player ever to win the men's final. He was also the first unseeded player ever and the first German to win the men's single title at Wimbledon. He was nicknamed "Boom Boom" for his huge serve. Becker reached the Wimbledon final 7 times in 10 years and won 3 men's single titles, among the total of 49 singles and 15 doubles victories over the course of his career. Becker became the second youngest player, after Björn Borg, to be introduced into the tennis' Hall of Fame in 2003. He ranks third in sport career earnings with $25,080,956. But pressures and demands on him brought too much stress into his life. At the age of 31 Becker retired from professional tennis. In 1993, he married Barbara Feltus, who was the daughter of an African-American serviceman and a white German lady. The celebrity couple appeared naked on the cover of "Stern" magazine before their marriage (the photo was made by her father). They married on December 17, 1993, and had their first son, Noah, born on January 18, 1994, and their second son Elias, born on September 4, 1999. Becker gained respect for his stance against racism. But in 2000, his wife took both sons to Florida and filed a petition in Miami court, ignoring their prenuptial agreement, that entitled her to a single payoff of $2,500,000. She got 14,400,000 and the custody of both sons, and her lawyer was paid for by Becker. His high-profile marriage and an equally high-profile divorce from model Barbara Feltus was paralleled by the story of him impregnating a Russian-African model Angela Ermakova at an upscale London restaurant in the summer of 1999, and having an illegitimate child (Anna, born on March 22, 2000). After having positive DNA test results, Becker recognized his fatherhood of a daughter Anna and payed a generous $5,000,000 settlement in 2001. This came on top of his tax problems, for which he was fined $500,000. He also suffered from alcohol and drug addiction, which complicated matters in his turbulent life. Boris Becker was able to overcome the mistakes of his past and moved on with his life, by first moving from Monaco to Mallorca and to Zug, Switzerland. His sincere and open autobiography, titled "Boris Becker - The Player: The Autobiography" was published in 2004. He works with a British TV sports-show and has a regular gig as a BBC commentator at Wimbledon. Becker also plays exhibitions on the Senior ATP Tour and on the Billie Jean King's World Team Tennis tour. Outside of his sports career Boris Becker has been a successful businessman. He owns half of the tennis racquet company Völkl, collaborates with watchmakers, owns several Mercedes dealerships and also does promotions for Mercedes-Benz.