The head (and heart) of Boris Becker, a champion sentenced to prison: “I was too weak with my emotions”

Boris Becker was not the Lion at 17 years and seven months, when he conquered the world of tennis. A teenager with the most wonderful trophy, the Wimbledon trophy, in the Cathedral. A postcard that was immortalized: the German became, since then and for more than ten years, in one of the greats in history. She had it all: talent, class, aura, youth, the whole world ahead of her. The wind, from her side. Nevertheless, mixed up in sin. She was a victim –she was an accomplice– of the temptations of life. Some and others. And today, right now, he is in prison. An idol behind bars. The information is hard, raw. Becker, triple champion at Wimbledon, faces the worst moment of his life. This Friday, the former tennis player appeared before a London court in relation to his personal insolvency, after being accused of having hidden his monetary and real estate assets to declare bankruptcy in 2017 and not pay his debts. The sentence was two and a half years in prison.. Of that time, he must serve half in jail.The former number one in the ranking, from 54 years, appeared at court in a Wimbledon suit and tie. He walked calmly up the steps and entered hand in hand with Lilian de Carvalho, his girlfriend. He was found guilty on April 8, for transferring hundreds of thousands of pounds from his business account and failing to declare a property in his hometown of Leimen.Former tennis number 1, a great in the history of his sport, Boris Becker arrives with Lilian de Carvalho Monteiro at Southwark Crown Court, London, to hear the sentence; he had already been convicted three weeks earlier.Victoria Jones-PA WireHis problem may have a direct relationship to other dramas of life. More internal, personal. An artist without psychological support can collapse, over time, like a deck of cards. The head, and also the heart, of course, are everything. Years ago, in a talk with the Spanish newspaper El País, he opened his interior. He used to say things like these…– He would get very angry on the dance floor. Did that help him? “No. I lived moments of despair and frustrationespecially at the beginning. I was too weak to hide my emotions. That showed my opponents my moments of weakness. [John] McEnroe was using it to his advantage, it buoyed him up. I yelled a lot, broke rackets… -Novak Djokovic, for example, has learned to control himself a little more. Does that have to do with improving his results?” “When he complains or whines, he doesn’t play better. To begin with, he had talent, but he wasn’t mature enough to hide his emotions from him. The more you contain them, the better you play.In another section he confessed with the utmost crudeness: “Now that I am older, I can speak more easily. When you live in the media, when you succeed in a profession that depends on them, you are bound to receive criticism: you are too tall or too short, too German or too little German… It was very easy for me to silence them: I won another tournament. Now it’s harder: I can’t win it. It is an impossible fight. I can’t please everyone. Living life well implies learning things and changing some opinions. It would be worrying to think the same at 25 as at 45. When I go through the streets of Madrid or those of Berlin, many people applaud me: I have done one or two things well, right?”.Becker is going through 54 years of a life full of ups and downs; the sentence is two and a half, but the German must spend one and a quarter in prison. The German who immortalized the popcorn as a bold response, before the net – an action that, made by another, is graphed with the phrase “Becker style” – He was a vulnerable man. Like so many, perhaps like the majority of our society. He didn’t know (he didn’t want to, he couldn’t) lie down on the divan. Those were other times. “It’s good that younger players open up and talk about the problems they have in dealing with the pressure of competition. In my time if you talked about it they called you “weak”They told you that you were not strong enough. But It is not like this. There is a real problem with mental health and it’s good that players talk about it. Not everything is as easy as it seems in this world. The tennis court is a very lonely place: even if you have your team behind you, you are alone. Sometimes, the world you carry on your shoulders is very heavy, so for your mental health it is very important to be able to talk about it and also to know when to say “enough””, he told, months ago, at a table of elect, as one of the godfathers of the Laureus awards. A great champion He must not be vulnerable. He had to hide his weaknesses. Society has changed so much that psychology is an essential part of the world of sports. Boris recounted, years before his financial waste: “It is important to find a way to live with your own expectations every day, discover the way to explain why you feel that pressure despite being in a privileged position, practicing the sport you love, It gives you freedom and gives you economic benefits. Everyone seems more open when it comes to talking about what’s going on inside. This in my time did not exist; we had a different mindset. I call Novak “Professor of Mental Health” because of the number of events he has overcome. A lot of young players would have to listen to him to learn how to do it.”An immortal image: Boris Becker, with his arms raised, saying goodbye to the Cathedral after falling against Patrick Rafter at Wimbledon 1999; Three times the Lion of Leimen was crowned in the Cathedral.DAVE CAULKIN – APThe disaster that he lives today is incomparable with other pains, stumbling blocks of a movie life. In the reflections that he offered in recent years there is a door through which one can spy. What happened. Why. How did he not notice in time? He used to say some time ago: It’s hard for him to run. How hard it was to escape from his own demons.