Why Italy

Boris Becker

Summary: Boris BeckerBoris Becker wants you to know something I ve changed there is a new chapter starting So just forget that other thing you know about him the one everybody always wants to talk about instead of his magnificent tennis career OK What s that you don t know Well 10 years ago Becker locked eyes with a woman in a Japanese restaurant in London had very brief sex with her in some kind of cupboard and later a baby girl was born Oh and when the encounter happened his wife was at the hospital Pregnant But really forget it At least for now His second wedding ceremony at a Catholic church in St Moritz yesterday was not just a celebration of a joyous union It was also a tightly managed event intended as a message to all those who watched and worried over the years as the youngest ever Wimbledon champion became a wild child then a playboy There comes a time in every man s life when he needs to settle down says Becker intensely Then he smiles In my case again We are talking before the wedding sitting in the window of San Lorenzo the Italian restaurant in Wimbledon that many players use as an unofficial canteen during the tennis tournament which starts on 22 June Becker first came here as a boy before winning the championship in 1985 at the still astonishing age of 17 He went on to five more grand slam titles an Olympic gold a fortune in prize money and a tabloid life so intense it would have turned lesser mortals to dust What I do does not go unnoticed says Becker drily but in truth he doesn t exactly fight it Offered a table at the back for privacy he has chosen to sit up front for the view But he has turned his back to the street outside so was it his view he was worried about or that of the passersby Becker is something to look at Very sexy I m told if you like your men cocky fit and a bit wild He still has the indefinable physical presence common to great athletes which makes those around him well me feel flabby and inferior His clothes a green tweed jacket a blue shirt deep indigo jeans and cowboy boots look as expensive as you would expect from a man said to be worth $100m ￡60m but they are not flashy His hair is not spiky as it is when he commentates for the BBC every Wimbledon making Sue Barker blush with his quips but cut shorter and swept back Blond too rather than ginger Becker is not that carrot topped boy any more there is silver in his stubble I was really young when I first came on the scene he says I was bound to go through changes along the way and they happened in front of a lot of people s eyes Yes but it probably didn t help that he did things like pose naked on the cover of a magazine with his then wife Barbara Feltus whom he married in 1993 They were in love Publicly The sickening reaction from German racists because of her African American heritage intensified the media obsession with him in his homeland When they were divorced in 2001 the pre trial hearing was televised Barbara got a reported $14m and custody of their sons Elias and Noah who are now nine and 15 and live in Miami As for Anna the nine year old child of that brief liaison in Nobu he denied being her father but was proved wrong by a DNA test not to mention their undeniable resemblance Anna is now at school in London and Becker has news I have rented a place here he says since February I live within walking distance of Centre Court It s so much easier when you live in the same place as your child to have more privacy To do what is necessary as a dad His new wife is Sharlely Lilly Kerssenberg a Dutch model They announced their engagement live on a German gameshow in February to great surprise The host his friend Thomas Gottschalk exclaimed No not again Only a few months earlier Becker had been engaged to Alessandra Meyer Woelden the daughter of his former manager but now he told viewers I lost my way He hired his own crews to film and photograph the wedding for his personal internet site and syndication across the world I don t want to hide in a tent says Becker who has clearly learned the English art of understatement I m very happy about my next move and I want to share it with the world We have to talk about the tennis as well though Every summer he takes time off from his sportswear business and car dealerships to rile his old rival John McEnroe in the commentary box His employer the BBC has called him Britain s Favourite German not it must be said a crowded field I was honoured In Germany they don t find me German enough sometimes Humour plays an important part in my life and that s so not German He now proceeds to say nothing funny at all for the time it takes to eat an avocado and prawn salad then steak and mash Maybe his deadpan delivery obscures the side splitters He is glad he says that the British finally seem to have got over telling jokes about the war I think the World Cup in 2006 changed a lot of the stigmas and stereotypes you had We like a good time as well We are foreigner friendly The sun even shines in Germany We are a country that loves this multicultural multiracial life There s nothing funny about our perennial obsession with whether a British player can win Wimbledon Yes says Becker without hesitation I think he can Federer is the favourite Nadal is in a league of his own although he can t possibly go on the way he is going playing so many tournaments He will break down eventually But Andy Murray has impressed Becker It s his attitude He isn t satisfied with being the best British player He is willing to do whatever it takes to become No 1 in the world He s tougher than Tim Henman then Probably There s a big difference to most other players not just the shy British ones Becker knows what it takes On the wall of our restaurant is a photograph of him as a young boy because this is where he came for dinner every night before that first triumph and the subsequent ones He was alone apart from his coaches That was a good thing These days most parents become the management team of their children which I find horrendous It s very bad for the child to all of a sudden have your father on your payroll A nightmare His parents had a different plan after he was born in Leimen West Germany in 1967 the son of an architect I was supposed to be a lawyer a doctor something like that Instead their son was submerged into the fiercely competitive indulged insular world of professional tennis He thrived When his powers began to wane Barbara was a help Leaving though when his time was up in 1999 was a greater challenge than any tournament It took me a couple of years to get adjusted to my after tennis life I made a couple of mistakes Which brings us to the broom cupboard although it was actually the staircase apparently despite the myth It was the summer of 1999 and that afternoon he had played his last game at Wimbledon against Pat Rafter At his hotel that evening he got into a fierce argument with Barbara who was seven months pregnant at the time Suffering what she thought were labour pains she went to hospital He didn t go with her He went to Nobu where Angela Ermakova smiled at him A few minutes and nine months later a child was born Obviously he doesn t want to talk about this But then he does It s upsetting because there is so much more I have had an incredible 25 years of public life and most of it was amazing but of course some stories I am not proud of Becker stops himself He is proud of his children All three of them he says pointedly They re great kids and they re good at school and they re great citizens I would rather talk much more about this than what happened 10 years ago Let s then Becker has an apartment in Miami that he uses to visit the boys He also has the long term rent on his new place in Wimbledon for Anna but he adds My main residence is still Switzerland No doubt the taxman will be interested to hear that Becker was convicted of tax evasion and fined half a million dollars in 2002 after admitting that he had lived in Germany while claiming to live in Monte Carlo For a foreigner in tax terms London is good also His sons were instrumental in persuading him to marry again When you pass 25 and you ve done what I ve done you re more careful You ask yourself why More than once You don t necessarily want to fall in love again but thank God we all have a heart and emotions and they take over It is he says almost five years since he started dating Lilly We had ups and downs and splits and half splits and all that but my two boys met her and said Take no other women home we won t accept anybody but her My eldest boy and her talk five times a week to the point where I get jealous Lilly arrives looking effortlessly gorgeous in ripped white jeans a silver wraparound top and bug eye dark glasses As if to prove his point her phone goes off and it is Noah She listens Noah s going to need a new car He s on the way to passing his driving theory test at 15 Becker shakes his head and smiles realising why Noah would rather talk to her about this We ll find him a Mini Afterwards when he s gone to the loo Lilly tells me her plans Boris has children by other people Not by me I want to have twins then maybe more I want that feeling you get when you look in their eyes and say I created life Then he s back Guess where we re going this afternoon she says He can t You know that thing you said you loved only slightly less than you love me He thinks Poker Wrong answer He wasn t kidding though No The wedding ring It s ready to collect He gives me an exasperated look Becker started playing poker seriously when a sponsor paid him to attend a tournament My first time with the Boris BeckerBoris Becker wants you to know something I ve changed there is a new chapter starting So just forget that other thing you know about him the one everybody always wants to talk about instead of his magnificent tennis career OK What s that you don t know Well 10 years ago Becker locked eyes with a woman in a Japanese restaurant in London had very brief sex with her in some kind of cupboard and later a baby girl was born Oh and when the encounter happened his wife was at the hospital Pregnant But really forget it At least for now His second wedding ceremony at a Catholic church in St Moritz yesterday was not just a celebration of a joyous union It was also a tightly managed event intended as a message to all those who watched and worried over the years as the youngest ever Wimbledon champion became a wild child then a playboy There comes a time in every man s life when he needs to settle down says Becker intensely Then he smiles In my case again We are talking before the wedding sitting in the window of San Lorenzo the Italian restaurant in Wimbledon that many players use as an unofficial canteen during the tennis tournament which starts on 22 June Becker first came here as a boy before winning the championship in 1985 at the still astonishing age of 17 He went on to five more grand slam titles an Olympic gold a fortune in prize money and a tabloid life so intense it would have turned lesser mortals to dust What I do does not go unnoticed says Becker drily but in truth he doesn t exactly fight it Offered a table at the back for privacy he has chosen to sit up front for the view But he has turned his back to the street outside so was it his view he was worried about or that of the passersby Becker is something to look at Very sexy I m told if you like your men cocky fit and a bit wild He still has the indefinable physical presence common to great athletes which makes those around him well me feel flabby and inferior His clothes a green tweed jacket a blue shirt deep indigo jeans and cowboy boots look as expensive as you would expect from a man said to be worth $100m ￡60m but they are not flashy His hair is not spiky as it is when he commentates for the BBC every Wimbledon making Sue Barker blush with his quips but cut shorter and swept back Blond too rather than ginger Becker is not that carrot topped boy any more there is silver in his stubble I was really young when I first came on the scene he says I was bound to go through changes along the way and they happened in front of a lot of people s eyes Yes but it probably didn t help that he did things like pose naked on the cover of a magazine with his then wife Barbara Feltus whom he married in 1993 They were in love Publicly The sickening reaction from German racists because of her African American heritage intensified the media obsession with him in his homeland When they were divorced in 2001 the pre trial hearing was televised Barbara got a reported $14m and custody of their sons Elias and Noah who are now nine and 15 and live in Miami As for Anna the nine year old child of that brief liaison in Nobu he denied being her father but was proved wrong by a DNA test not to mention their undeniable resemblance Anna is now at school in London and Becker has news I have rented a place here he says since February I live within walking distance of Centre Court It s so much easier when you live in the same place as your child to have more privacy To do what is necessary as a dad His new wife is Sharlely Lilly Kerssenberg a Dutch model They announced their engagement live on a German gameshow in February to great surprise The host his friend Thomas Gottschalk exclaimed No not again Only a few months earlier Becker had been engaged to Alessandra Meyer Woelden the daughter of his former manager but now he told viewers I lost my way He hired his own crews to film and photograph the wedding for his personal internet site and syndication across the world I don t want to hide in a tent says Becker who has clearly learned the English art of understatement I m very happy about my next move and I want to share it with the world We have to talk about the tennis as well though Every summer he takes time off from his sportswear business and car dealerships to rile his old rival John McEnroe in the commentary box His employer the BBC has called him Britain s Favourite German not it must be said a crowded field I was honoured In Germany they don t find me German enough sometimes Humour plays an important part in my life and that s so not German He now proceeds to say nothing funny at all for the time it takes to eat an avocado and prawn salad then steak and mash Maybe his deadpan delivery obscures the side splitters He is glad he says that the British finally seem to have got over telling jokes about the war I think the World Cup in 2006 changed a lot of the stigmas and stereotypes you had We like a good time as well We are foreigner friendly The sun even shines in Germany We are a country that loves this multicultural multiracial life There s nothing funny about our perennial obsession with whether a British player can win Wimbledon Yes says Becker without hesitation I think he can Federer is the favourite Nadal is in a league of his own although he can t possibly go on the way he is going playing so many tournaments He will break down eventually But Andy Murray has impressed Becker It s his attitude He isn t satisfied with being the best British player He is willing to do whatever it takes to become No 1 in the world He s tougher than Tim Henman then Probably There s a big difference to most other players not just the shy British ones Becker knows what it takes On the wall of our restaurant is a photograph of him as a young boy because this is where he came for dinner every night before that first triumph and the subsequent ones He was alone apart from his coaches That was a good thing These days most parents become the management team of their children which I find horrendous It s very bad for the child to all of a sudden have your father on your payroll A nightmare His parents had a different plan after he was born in Leimen West Germany in 1967 the son of an architect I was supposed to be a lawyer a doctor something like that Instead their son was submerged into the fiercely competitive indulged insular world of professional tennis He thrived When his powers began to wane Barbara was a help Leaving though when his time was up in 1999 was a greater challenge than any tournament It took me a couple of years to get adjusted to my after tennis life I made a couple of mistakes Which brings us to the broom cupboard although it was actually the staircase apparently despite the myth It was the summer of 1999 and that afternoon he had played his last game at Wimbledon against Pat Rafter At his hotel that evening he got into a fierce argument with Barbara who was seven months pregnant at the time Suffering what she thought were labour pains she went to hospital He didn t go with her He went to Nobu where Angela Ermakova smiled at him A few minutes and nine months later a child was born Obviously he doesn t want to talk about this But then he does It s upsetting because there is so much more I have had an incredible 25 years of public life and most of it was amazing but of course some stories I am not proud of Becker stops himself He is proud of his children All three of them he says pointedly They re great kids and they re good at school and they re great citizens I would rather talk much more about this than what happened 10 years ago Let s then Becker has an apartment in Miami that he uses to visit the boys He also has the long term rent on his new place in Wimbledon for Anna but he adds My main residence is still Switzerland No doubt the taxman will be interested to hear that Becker was convicted of tax evasion and fined half a million dollars in 2002 after admitting that he had lived in Germany while claiming to live in Monte Carlo For a foreigner in tax terms London is good also His sons were instrumental in persuading him to marry again When you pass 25 and you ve done what I ve done you re more careful You ask yourself why More than once You don t necessarily want to fall in love again but thank God we all have a heart and emotions and they take over It is he says almost five years since he started dating Lilly We had ups and downs and splits and half splits and all that but my two boys met her and said Take no other women home we won t accept anybody but her My eldest boy and her talk five times a week to the point where I get jealous Lilly arrives looking effortlessly gorgeous in ripped white jeans a silver wraparound top and bug eye dark glasses As if to prove his point her phone goes off and it is Noah She listens Noah s going to need a new car He s on the way to passing his driving theory test at 15 Becker shakes his head and smiles realising why Noah would rather talk to her about this We ll find him a Mini Afterwards when he s gone to the loo Lilly tells me her plans Boris has children by other people Not by me I want to have twins then maybe more I want that feeling you get when you look in their eyes and say I created life Then he s back Guess where we re going this afternoon she says He can t You know that thing you said you loved only slightly less than you love me He thinks Poker Wrong answer He wasn t kidding though No The wedding ring It s ready to collect He gives me an exasperated look Becker started playing poker seriously when a sponsor paid him to attend a tournament My first time with the

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