Tennis superstar Boris Becker made history in 1985 when he became the youngest-ever men’s Wimbledon champion aged 17. He went on to win the competition three times, eventually winning six Grand Slam titles and establishing himself as one of the sport’s greatest players.
But his success on the court was overshadowed by a turbulent private life and financial woes, which saw him blow an estimated £100 million ($130m) in today’s money and eventually jailed for hiding assets to avoid paying his debts.
Join us as we take a look at the places 'Boom Boom' Becker called home from across the globe...
In his heyday, he could do no wrong. His multi-award-winning game earned him a string of lucrative sponsorships and the charismatic sports star became known for his playboy lifestyle, with fast cars and homes in Munich, Monaco, Switzerland and Miami.
He struggled to find a role for himself after he retired in 1999, however, and his private life came under intense scrutiny after his marriage to Barbara Feltus collapsed amid claims of infidelity and a notorious tryst in a restaurant broom cupboard with a Russian model who later gave birth to their daughter.
The former tennis star was sentenced to two years and six months in jail in 2022 for hiding millions of pounds worth of assets after being made bankrupt in 2017.
Following his release from prison in the UK in December 2022 after serving just over eight months of his sentence, he was deported to Germany and now lives in Milan with his wife Lilian de Carvalho Monteiro, who is a political risk analyst and 23 years his junior. But where did it all begin?
Born in Leimen, West Germany, in 1967, Boris Franz Becker was the son of architect Karl-Heinz Becker, and his Czech mother Elvira.
The tennis ace, who was later nicknamed “Boom Boom” for his powerful serve, was introduced to tennis at age three and is seen here as a toddler with a racket in his hand, alongside his “first coach” Sabine, his elder sister.
He started having lessons at age eight at the local Leimen Tennis Club, which was designed and founded by his father in 1974.
The centre became a key training ground for the young Boris, who dropped out of school in the 10th grade to join the West German Tennis Federation full-time. Becker occasionally trained with fellow German tennis star Steffi Graf.
Less than a year after turning professional, the talented youngster claimed his first top-level singles title with a victory at West London’s Queens Club. Two weeks later, when he was still just 17, he became – and remains – the youngest and first-ever unseeded player to win the men’s singles title at Wimbledon.
Returning home to a hero’s welcome, his open-top car was swamped by thousands of well-wishers as he rode through the streets of Leimen alongside his coach Günther Bosch.
A string of triumphs came after: two more Wimbledon titles, two Australian Open titles and the US Open in 1989. He earned his first million at age 17 and a fortune in prize money and sponsorships followed.
With the money rolling in, he quickly acquired a taste for the high life, announcing in the early nineties that he would base himself in the tax haven of Monaco, in the fashionable skyscraper Roccabella. Fellow residents have included Formula 1 drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, and other celebrities including Karl Lagerfeld, Ringo Starr and Shirley Bassey.
A year after Becker was ranked world number one in January 1991, he announced his forthcoming marriage to Barbara Feltus.
The couple tied the knot in the German town of Buehl in December 1993, welcoming their first child, Noah Gabriel, in 1994. Their second child, Elias Balthasar, arrived five years later in 1999.
Despite having declared to German tax authorities that he was living in Monaco, the tennis champion is said to have actually spent much of his time in the early nineties in this smart townhouse in the Bogenhausen neighbourhood of Munich.
The German tax authorities announced in July 2002 that they were investigating Becker for income tax evasion in the early 1990s and pretending to live in the tax haven of Monaco when he was really living in Germany.
The star snapped up a £1.5 million ($2m) holiday apartment on Fisher Island.
A short boat ride from Miami, the 173-acre (70ha) island was being referred to as the 'wealthiest zip code in America' in 2019, with homeowners boasting a typical net worth of well over £43.5 million ($57m). Former residents include Oprah Winfrey, Andre Agassi and even the Vanderbilts back in the 1930s.
Though seemingly blissfully happy with his new wife and baby son, behind the scenes, Becker, seen here outside his home on Fisher Island, was already on the radar of the tax authorities, who believed he owed significant sums in unpaid taxes.
Ironically, his tax evasion was brought to light by a super fan, who had been secretly photographing his hero in his native Germany rather than in Monaco and had turned over his scrapbooks to the authorities when the star repeatedly failed to grant him an autograph.
Later in 2002, Becker was given a suspended sentence and fined £315,000 ($411k) for persistent tax evasion during this period.
The investigations into his financial affairs, as well as the death of his father from cancer aged 63 in 1999, took their toll on Becker's tennis and his marriage.
There were rumours of affairs and Becker confirmed his retirement from tennis in July 1999, following a straight set defeat in the fourth round of Wimbledon against Australian Pat Rafter, seen here.
"It was a nice way to say goodbye,” he said after the match. "The centre court is like no other place in the world. It has this charisma, this certain feel. This has been a great love affair."
A night out in Mayfair at restaurant Nobu turned to scandal for Boris after he reportedly spent a little too much time with Russian model Angela Ermakowa.
Nine months later his daughter Anna was born. At first, Boris denied he was the father, but later accepted paternity, agreeing to pay Ermahowa at least £2 million ($3m) in child maintenance as reported in British newsaper The Guardian. The resemblance is striking in this image from his Instagram.
Becker later revealed that it was after the Rafter defeat and a row with his then-pregnant wife Barbara that he went out with friends and ended up on the stairwell, not in a broom cupboard as had previously been reported by papers across the world, including The Irish Examiner.
Perhaps not surprisingly, a year later Barbara Becker filed for divorce in Florida, resulting in a settlement in January 2001 that cost Becker almost £10 million ($11m) in cash according to Biritsh newspaper The Guardian and the couple’s home on Fisher Island, where Barbara subsequently lived with the couple’s two sons.
Prior to the split, Boris had purchased another holiday home in 1997, this time on the island of Mallorca off the coast of Spain. The beautiful property seemed just the thing after significant negative press.
Located close to the rural north-east town of Arta, the German tennis ace purchased the idyllic Finca de Son Coll for a reported £478,000 ($626k) and proceeded to spend a fortune on it, adding a pool with a Moroccan-style pool house, a guesthouse, a basketball court and more.
But the dream home soon turned into a nightmare...
Becker was slapped with a £204,000 ($267k) fine in 2004 for additions that weren't approved by the authorities and was ordered to tear them down.
The Grand Slam singles champion also struggled to afford the upkeep. In 2011, Becker was sued by his gardener who was owed £283,000 ($370k). The media was ablaze with papers around the world reporting on the fine and lawsuit, including British newspaper The Independent.
In 2007, the property was briefly put on the market with real estate company Prestige Property Group, using these images, for £13 million ($17m), but no buyer could be found.
As ordered by the Spanish court, the property was confiscated until the outstanding bill was paid. It was confiscated again in 2014 when Becker failed to settle an invoice for building work.
Meanwhile, the estate fell into a serious state of disrepair, the exterior and interior of the once majestic villa abandoned and deserted.
Becker eventually recouped the property, only to lose it for good in June 2017 when he was declared bankrupt in London over an unpaid loan of more than £3 million ($4m) on the estate. He was ordered to divulge all his assets so that he could pay back his creditors.
According to the BBC, Becker was described by his lawyer as “not a sophisticated individual when it comes to finances”.
In a bizarre twist, a year later Becker declared diplomatic immunity against further attempts to pursue him over his debts, claiming he was a sport and culture attaché of the Central African Republic (CAR).
While the CAR embassy in Belgium confirmed it had issued him with a diplomatic passport, another official said it was a fake and Becker later dropped his claim to diplomatic immunity.
Meanwhile, his estate in Mallorca was left to go to rack and ruin and was eventually commandeered by a group of squatters, including German ex-pat Georg Berres who told reporters he wanted to give the home a spruce-up, but would leave the property if asked to do so by the Spanish authorities.
While living there, Berres documented the state of the once beautiful home. It had clearly been abandoned midway through building works, with piles of furniture left in the overgrown garden and the interior stripped almost bare.
The property was handed over to administrators in 2020 and according to reports in the local Mallorcan press, was sold in 2023 to a German businessman, who is undertaking an extensive renovation.
He is said to have had to get rid of more than 150 skip loads of waste and is well underway with his plan to plant 500 orange trees. Clearly, it won't be long before it is restored to its former glory.
Following his trial for tax evasion in 2002, the former tennis star announced he was swapping his Munich home for the Swiss alpine town of Zug, which has the lowest rate of tax in Switzerland.
He said he planned to live in a modest three-bedroom flat in Zug, 50 minutes’ drive from Zurich. The Swiss town has just 22,000 inhabitants, many of them 'tax refugees' from more than 90 countries.
Other well-known sports personalities to have moved to Switzerland in the past include Formula One champion Michael Schumacher, cycling hero Jan Ullrich and West German football coach Franz Beckenbauer.
Officially, the former number one rented an apartment in the elegant Hotel Waldheim in Risch, above Lake Zug, for six years.
According to a report in the local newspaper zentralplus, however, he didn’t stay there very often, although he had business interests in Zug and took part in an exhibition match with former professional player Henri Leconte here.
Becker also found love again with Dutch actress and model Sharlely 'Lilly' Kerssenberg in 2008. The couple married in St Moritz in June 2009 and Lilly gave birth to the couple’s son Amadeus a year later.
The couple, who eventually separated in 2018, based themselves in an elegant home in Wimbledon, London, where the former number one player served as a commentator for the BBC during the tournament and proved a popular pundit for TV channels across the world.
While he lived in Wimbledon, Boris published his autobiography, competed in professional poker tournaments and served for a time as head of men’s tennis at the German Tennis Association.
According to the British newspaper the Daily Mail, he also invested in various business deals, including Nigerian oil firms that plunged in value and contributed to his financial woes.
The home was rumoured to cost £5 million ($6.5m) and came with a rooftop planetarium and sunken garage.
In one of his most meaningful roles since he retired from professional tennis, Boris coached Novak Djokovic from 2013 to 2016. The Serbian player achieved significant success under his tutelage, adding six major wins to his tally.
“He understands what I go through, the challenges that I face, the obstacles that I need to overcome to win big titles and be number one in the world, because he was there,” Djokovic told Dubai-based Zee News.
Following his split from his second wife Lilly, Becker is said to have moved into a £5 million ($6.5m) penthouse in London's Montevetro Building overlooking the Thames.
Designed by celebrated architect Richard Rogers, the west-facing side of the building is almost entirely glazed, hence the name which means 'Glass Mountain' in Italian.
The east-facing side has glass lift towers and all residents can enjoy an on-site gym and leisure centre, a tennis court and panoramic views across Chelsea and West London.
After the player was declared bankrupt in June 2017, he had been legally obliged to share all his assets so that his trustee could distribute available funds to his creditors, to whom he owed nearly £50 million ($65m).
He failed to do so and, according to British newspaper the Daily Mail, was accused of “hiding his Chelsea flat and £1.2 million ($1.6m) in cash”, a stash of silverware and medals from his glory days, including his 1985 Wimbledon trophy. He also hung onto two German properties, including this seven-bedroom villa in his native Leimen, which has views of the Rhine.
The Leimen home, a sprawling 8,880 square-foot (825sqm) property, is where his mother Elvira had lived for many years.
It was put on the market in November 2020 for £1.8 million ($2.4m), but a condition of the sale was a 'lifelong right of residence' for Becker’s mother, who is seen here with her son in a photo from his Instagram.
The house was sold to tax consultant Reinhard Hofmann in 2023 and Becker’s mother did indeed continue to live in the house.
In his 2022 trial, Becker was sentenced to two years and six months in prison for hiding millions of pounds worth of assets, after being made bankrupt in 2017. He was found guilty of removal of property, two counts of failing to disclose estate and concealing debt.
“I take into account what has been described as your ‘fall from grace’,” said the judge as reported by British newspaper The Guardian. “You have lost your career and reputation and all your property as a result of your bankruptcy. While I accept your humiliation as part of the proceedings, there has been no humility.”
He served just eight-and-a-half months of his sentence and was released from HM Prison Huntercombe in December 2022 and deported from the UK.
In May 2024, his bankruptcy officially ended after a judge found he had done “all that he reasonably could do” to fulfil his financial obligations as reported by the BBC. Throughout the process, the former tennis star was supported by his partner Lilian de Carvalho Monteiro, whom he married in September 2024 in a lavish ceremony in Portofino, Italy. The couple now live in Milan.
Seen here on the balcony of his Milan apartment, Boris is with his ex-wife Barbara and their youngest son Elias, plus his new wife Lilian. He was part of the Warner Bros coverage at the Paris Olympics and has openly said he would love to return to commentate at Wimbledon.
In the Apple TV+ documentary Boom! Boom! The World Vs Boris Becker, he vows to bounce back. “That’s not the end yet,” he says, staring into the camera. “There’s going to be another chapter.” We can't wait to see where he puts down roots next...
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