He says, with endearing pride, “I made it onto ESPN Sports News because of poker, not because of tennis.” Have they got anything in common? “Discipline,” he says, nodding. “Concentration. Not the first cards wins but the last card. You study the body language of your opponent; you have to read him, when he plays, when he bluffs. Obviously you sit down all day, so you don’t have hurting muscles.”
Now he is on the circuit, playing for big money in Vegas and Monte Carlo. “The poker tour is like the tennis tour, traveling from city to city. Very competitive. It reminds me of being 20 again.”
As 42 approaches, he is willing to admit how much he struggled after retiring from his first beloved game. “Eight years later, I think I have arrived. I have poker, and businesses that go very well. The challenge was to be known not for a Wimbledon triumph 25 years ago, but for something you’ve done this year or last.”
What is left, then, besides the search for the perfect hand? “I want to work. I want to understand the life of my children. I am happy I have found a partner who shares most of my values,” he says. “I want to maintain that, grow and hopefully make more children in the future, and to learn.” And to put the world right, about how much he thinks he has changed. “I am sick and tired of hiring lawyers to clear my name of lies. I’d rather show myself.”
To that end he has set up Boris Becker TV online, with video diaries about the bits of his life that would otherwise be private, including the wedding. He can’t seem to stop sitting in the front window, metaphorically speaking. Who is going to watch?
“There is a good chance my name is more famous than Facebook or Twitter,” says Becker. Such awesome confidence is the gift only of champions. “Of course, I needed to ask myself, ‘Am I full of myself, do I think that I am more important than I am?’” Becker finishes his third glass of wine and stares, as if demanding a response. Does he really expect me to answer that question, to his face? Not without the umpire’s help. New balls, please ...
RSS