Adored for his triumphs, the Wimbledon crowds adored him even in defeat: 10 years after impressing overnight at Center Court, Becker was defeated in the final by Pete Sampras. But it was Becker who called the crowd, cheering him on jogging around the court so they could applaud him. Nicknamed Britain’s favorite German – once joking that he was “at the top of a short list” – his relationship with the United Kingdom has lasted for almost 40 years. Even when he closed his racket, his good sense of humor and colorful love life ensured that he would never be out of the limelight. But the man who was once called “Boom Boom” for his powerful, aggressive service has now not only gone bankrupt, despite the fact that he was once worth 38 38 million, but has been found guilty of four insolvency offenses. He was acquitted of another 20 charges. Becker holds the Wimbledon trophy high in 1985. Photo: Bob Dear / AP The Southwark Crown Court heard Becker accused of hiding millions of pounds by hiding assets, including the same Wimbledon trophy he won in 1985, from his creditors. In the closing speech by Becker’s defense lawyer, Jonathan Laidlaw QC, jurors were informed that although there was evidence of Becker “burying his head in the sand” when it came to money and finances, “some [his] the advisers offered genuine good advice in order to be in the interest of the accused – others, as may be the way of the world, may just have wanted a piece of the pie offered by his reputation and fortune. Becker’s time at the top is still a sporting legend – always on the offensive, netting for a devastating diving volley – but his name is now synonymous not only with these successes, but also with a number of disastrous finances. bad handling, rich. living and allegations of shady fraud. The 54-year-old former BBC commentator and former coach of Novak Djokovic – during which the Serbian tennis star won seven Grand Slam titles – was accused of giving officials a “turnaround” when he ran into financial difficulties and was told to state his . assets, the Southwark Crown Court adjourned on Friday. He was accused of hiding millions of pounds in assets before and after declaring bankruptcy in June 2017, but Becker said he had done nothing wrong. It was after his retirement in 1999, after 14 years at the helm, that Becker’s privacy collapsed: his confusing love life made him a tabloid frontrunner, largely thanks to a paternity suit, DNA tests and then a divorce from the begining. His wife, Barbara, after the capture of a daughter in a brief but infamous meeting with Russian model Angela Ermakova in the vacuum cleaner of the Nobu restaurant in London in 1999. Angela Ermakova left the court in London in 2015, after they reached an agreement with Becker in their paternity case. Photo: Sean Smith / The Guardian “In sports, you are called old when you are 31,” he said at the time. “It affects your confidence and self-confidence. It took me a few years to redefine myself. I did not know what to write in my passport as a profession. Former tennis player? “It has to do with finding a new role that satisfies you just as much.” The current case was not Becker’s first brush with the law: in 2002, a Munich court sentenced Becker to two years in prison with a suspension and a € 300,000 fine for tax evasion of around € 1.7 million. Then, as now, Becker fell at the mercy of the court, claiming that he had made a mistake but not knowingly. In a remarkable testimony, he said that he was forced to give up his tennis career due to the stress of the tax investigation into his case. “Tennis is a very psychological game and you have to be free from fears and worries about what will follow,” he told the court, describing a 1998 raid on his home in Munich, where his parents lived at the time. His father, who was already living with the cancer that was about to kill him, was kept at home for six hours and the tax authorities prevented him from going to a medical appointment. However, all the lessons learned from this experience seem to have been lost. The once beloved of the crowd is now looking to rebuild his life.