'I pinch myself sometimes: it's a proper second chance'

I heard the screaming and I didn't know what it was,” Boris Becker says as he remembers staring into the dark in Wandsworth prison, just over two miles from Wimbledon's Centre Court where he won the first of his three men's singles titles at the age of 17 in 1985. “Were people trying to kill themselves or harm themselves? Or couldn't they deal with their loneliness? Or are they just making crazy noises because they have lost their minds already?

- Donald McRae

Becker had been sentenced to a two-and-a-half-year jail term. Amid his insolvency, he was found guilty of not declaring all his assets so that additional funds could be distributed to his creditors. The judge confirmed that his money was used, instead, to meet his “commitments to his children and other dependents, medical and professional fees, and other expenses”.

He was taken from court to prison on Friday 29 April 2022, the start of a bank holiday weekend, which meant he was confined to a cell as bedlam broke out around him. “That Friday night until the Tuesday morning when I finally was let out to speak to the Listeners [trusted prisoners who support new inmates] were the three most difficult nights of my life.

“You can’t sleep because all of it is true. In jail people do kill themselves, people do harm themselves and people do go crazy. It’s the harsh reality when you have never been to prison and that’s what your lawyers don't tell you before - maybe not to scare you. HMP Wandsworth is probably one of the toughest prisons in the UK so to be put in there was quite a shock.”

On a Wednesday morning in Milan, having gained early release from jail when he was sent back to Germany in December 2022, Becker offers bracing and candid company. His gripping new book is an often harrowing, yet moving, insight into his time in prison and how he found calm after the tumult of his life until his mid-50s.

Becker was a wunderkind, who blew tennis open as a powerful teenager and went on to win six grand slam titles. But fame engulfed him and he made many mistakes. He allowed himself to be surrounded by people who told him how great he was and he listened to their flattering advice. Eventually, he paid a terrible price for his hubris.

His book, expertly ghosted by Tom Fordyce, makes us feel as if we are in prison alongside him.