OLDER & WISER

He made some big mistakes - and that's how he landed up in jail. In this candid interview, tennis legend Boris Becker explains what he learnt from his time behind bars

- GUY KELLY

IF HE wanted to, and he probably doesn't, Boris Becker could tell the story of his life purely through the nicknames he's been given. "Boom Boom" (improved by the German translation Bum Bum) came from his thunderous serve; Der Bomber and "Baron von Slam", meanwhile, reflected his athleticism at the net - both of which helped him shock the sporting world by winning the Wimbledon men's singles title at just 17 years old.

"The Lion of Leimen" and "the Rembrandt of tennis" were applied when he made the newspapers for all the right reasons, usually after one of his six grand slams. "Bonking Boris", "Broom Cupboard Boris" and "Broke Boris", on the other hand, were applied when he made the newspapers for all the wrong ones.

And for a while last year, Boris was known in Britain simply as prisoner A2923EV, serving at Her (and then His) Majesty's Pleasure - initially at HMP Wandsworth, then at HMP Huntercombe in Oxfordshire - for 231 long days after a jury in London found him guilty of breaching bankruptcy rules. This was the worst of the nicknames.

"I was a number [inside]," he says, nodding slowly. "I wasn't the famous tennis guy, that's for sure...

In a boxy double-breasted pinstripe suit and black turtleneck, Boris (55) sits rigidly upright on a low sofa in a Berlin hotel suite, a free man, but looking only vaguely like the famous tennis guy. His hair is cropped short (now a faded blend of grey and red), his voice croaky, and his manner - for decades marked by a sometimes problematic excess of energy, whether that was on the court, in the commentary box or in the back-of-house area of a west London sushi restaurant - ever so slightly chastened.

Occasionally he'll lean forward into the Dictaphone, knees towards the floor, almost as if taking communion.

"I'm good," he confirms. "I feel recovered from my time inside."