Junior career In 1974, Becker joined TC Blau-Weiß Leimen tennis club and began training under Boris Breskvar. By 1977, he was a member of the junior team of the Baden Tennis Association. He went on to win the South German championship and the first German Youth Tennis Tournament. In 1977, he was chosen for the
German Tennis Federation's top junior team by Richard Schönborn. According to Schönborn, the funding for Becker's training was put up by the German Tennis Federation at an expense of over 1.3 million DM. In 1981, he was included in the Federation's first men's team. In 1982, he won the doubles at the Orange Bowl International Tennis Championships.
1984–1987: Teenage Grand Slam champion Becker turned professional in 1984, under the guidance of Romanian-born coach Günther Bosch and Romanian manager
Ion Ţiriac, and won his first professional doubles title that year in
Munich. As a teenager, Becker won the Tennis World Young Masters at the NEC in Birmingham in 1985, before taking his first top-level singles title in June that year at
Queen's Club. Two weeks later, on 7 July, he became the first
unseeded player and the first German to win the
Wimbledon singles title, defeating
Kevin Curren in four sets. In the third round against Joakim Nystrom, Nystrom had twice served for the match before Becker won. Becker was at that time ranked 20th in ATP ranking, and was unseeded, as at that time Wimbledon did not seed players beyond the top 16. He was the youngest ever male
Grand Slam singles champion at (a record later broken by
Michael Chang in 1989, who won the French Open when he was ). Two months after his triumph, Becker became the youngest winner of the
Cincinnati Open. Becker has since said that "the plan from my parents for me was to finish school, go to university, get a proper degree and learn something respectful. The last thing on everyone's mind was me becoming a tennis professional." In 1986, Becker successfully defended his Wimbledon title, defeating No. 1
Ivan Lendl in straight sets in the final with "a typically awesome array of sledgehammer serves and blockbuster groundstrokes". In the US Open semi finals,
Miloslav Mečíř "handled the West German's booming serve with ease, used his groundstrokes to move Becker from side to side, and hit his serves so deep that Becker had trouble handling them" and Mecir won in five sets. In 1987 Becker reached his first French Open semi final, where he lost to Mats Wilander in straight sets. At Wimbledon Becker, then ranked 2, lost in the second round to
Peter Doohan, ranked 70. In the
Davis Cup that year, Becker and
John McEnroe played
one of the longest matches in tennis history. Becker won in five sets lasting 6 hours and 22 minutes.
1988–1991: Continuing success and No. 1 Becker contested the Wimbledon final in 1988, where he lost in four sets to
Stefan Edberg in a match that marked the start of one of Wimbledon's great rivalries. Becker also helped West Germany win its first Davis Cup in 1988. He won the year-end
Masters title in New York City, defeating five-time champion Lendl in the final. The same year he also won season ending
WCT Finals for the rival
World Championship Tennis tour, defeating Edberg in four sets. In 1989, Becker lost to Edberg in the
French Open semifinals. He defeated Edberg in the Wimbledon final, "volleying flawlessly and returning serve so well the Swede never had opportunities to take control with his vaunted net play, made few mistakes and won almost every crucial point". Becker then beat Lendl in the
US Open final to win two Grand Slam singles titles in a year for the only time in his career. Lendl admitted afterwards "I had good stamina but was missing a little bit of my explosive energy". He also helped West Germany retain the
Davis Cup, defeating
Andre Agassi in the semifinal round after dropping the first two sets, in an epic spread over two days.
Sports Illustrated ranked it as among the best matches ever played, alongside the
1972 WCT Finals final between
Rod Laver and
Ken Rosewall, and the
1980 Wimbledon final between
Björn Borg and
John McEnroe. Another loss to Agassi in the French Open semifinals kept him from winning the first two
Grand Slam tournaments of the year. He was ranked No. 1 for 12 weeks during 1991 and reached his fourth consecutive Wimbledon final. However, he lost in straight sets to fellow German and No. 7
Michael Stich.
1992–1994: Mid-career decline In 1992, Becker and Stich teamed up in 1992 to win the men's doubles gold medal at the
Olympic Games in Barcelona. Becker won seven tour titles including his second
ATP Tour World Championships defeating
Jim Courier in four sets. By 1993, issues back home over Becker's courtship of and marriage to
Barbara Feltus, whose mother was German and father was African-American, and tax problems with the German government, had caused Becker to slide into a mid-career decline. He reached the Wimbledon semi finals in 1993, where he served 12 double faults and lost his serve twice in losing in straight sets to Sampras (who didn't lose a service game). Becker also reached the Wimbledon semi finals in 1994, where two of his beaten opponents,
Andrei Medvedev and
Christian Bergström, accused Becker of distracting them by raising his hand (in Bergstrom's case during a point) and stalling. Becker lost in straight sets in the semis to Ivanisevic.
1995–1996: Revival In 1995, Becker reached the Wimbledon final for the seventh time. He won a baseline contest with
Cédric Pioline in the quarter finals in five sets. Against
Andre Agassi in the semi-finals, Becker was down a set and two breaks, but eventually won in four sets. He lost the final in four sets to
Pete Sampras, losing his serve five times. "Unfortunately, he owns the Centre Court now. I used to own it a few years back, but it belongs to him now" said Becker afterwards. At the US Open, Agassi beat Becker in the semi finals in four sets. Becker won the year-end
ATP Tour World Championships for the third and last time in Frankfurt with a straight-set win over
Michael Chang in the final. In 1996, Becker's sixth and final Grand Slam title came as he defeated Chang in the final of the Australian Open. After winning the
Queen's Club Championships for the fourth time, Becker was widely expected to mount a serious challenge for the Wimbledon title in 1996, but his bid ended abruptly when he damaged his right wrist during a third-round match against
Neville Godwin and was forced to withdraw. Becker defeated Sampras in October 1996 in a five-set final in
Stuttgart Masters. "Becker is the best indoor player I've ever played", said Sampras after the match. Becker lost to Sampras in the final of the 1996 ATP Tour World Championships in
Hanover, although Becker saved two match points in the fourth set and held serve 27 consecutive times until he was broken in the penultimate game. Later that year he won the Grand Slam Cup defeating Goran Ivanišević in the final.
1997–1999: Last years on tour In 1997, Becker lost to Sampras in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon and announced his Grand Slam retirement, though he continued playing in other events. Becker lost to Agassi in the final at Hong Kong in 1999. Becker played Wimbledon one more time in 1999, this time losing in the fourth round to the number two seed,
Patrick Rafter on Centre Court. This was his final career match. Becker received a standing ovation from the Royal Box in what was his final appearance at the tournament.
Career summary Becker was most comfortable playing on fast-playing surfaces, particularly grass courts and indoor carpet (on which he won 26 titles). He reached a few singles finals playing on clay courts but never managed to win a title on such surface; he also reached the semi-finals of the French Open thrice. Becker won an Olympic Gold Medal on clay court in doubles competition alongside compatriot
Michael Stich at the 1992 Barcelona Games. Becker was close to winning a singles clay-court tournament in his last final on the surface, when he led
Thomas Muster by two sets to love in the
1995 Monte Carlo Open final, and double-faulted on match point in the fourth-set tiebreaker. Over the course of his career, Becker won 49 singles titles and 15 doubles titles. Besides his six Grand Slam titles, he was also a singles winner in the year-end
Masters / ATP Tour World Championships in 1988, 1992, and 1995, the
WCT Finals in 1988 and at the
Grand Slam Cup in 1996. He won a record-equaling four singles titles at London's Queen's Club. In
Davis Cup, his career win–loss record was 54–12, including 38–3 in singles. He also won the other two major international team titles playing for Germany, the
Hopman Cup (in 1995) and the
World Team Cup (in 1989 and 1998). He is the first male player to appear in 7 Wimbledon finals in the Modern Era, tied by Sampras in 2000, and behind the 10 Wimbledon finals reached by Djokovic and the record 12 Wimbledon finals appearances by Federer. Becker won singles titles in 14 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Qatar, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States. In 2003, he was inducted into the
International Tennis Hall of Fame. He occasionally plays on the senior tour and in
World Team Tennis. After his career, he also took part in exhibition matches as
Michael Stich and in 2005 they answered questions from the
journalist and
radio presenter Marc Engelhard about the state of tennis. He has also worked as a commentator at Wimbledon for the
BBC.
Playing style , 2007 Becker's game was based on a fast and well-placed
serve, that earned him the nicknames "Boom Boom", "Der Bomber" and "Baron von Slam", and great volleying skills at the net. He could supplement his pure serve-and-volley game with brilliant athleticism at the net, which included the diving volley that was considered a trademark of the young German, and which endeared him to his fans. The signature dives and rolls were never seen before Becker came to the scene, and the 'Becker dive' and 'Becker roll' became crowd pullers wherever Becker played. His heavy forehand and return of serve were also very significant factors in his game. Becker occasionally deviated from his serve-and-volley style to try to out-hit, from the baseline, opponents who normally were at their best while remaining near the baseline. Even though Becker possessed powerful shots from both wings, this strategy was often criticized by commentators. Becker had frequent emotional outbursts on court. Whenever he considered himself to be playing badly, he often swore at himself and occasionally smashed his rackets. In 1987, he was fined $2000 following a series of outbursts during the Australian Open in Melbourne, including breaking three rackets, "twice throwing the ball in an offensive manner at the umpire, hitting the umpire's chair on one occasion, spitting water in the direction of the umpire, and hitting three balls out of the court." Becker's highly dramatic play spawned new expressions such as the
Becker Blocker (his trademark early return shot), the
Becker Hecht (a flying lunge), the
Becker Faust ("Becker Fist"), the
Becker Shuffle (the dance he sometimes performed after making important points), and
Becker Säge ("Becker Saw" – referring to the way in which he pumped his fists in a sawing motion). ==Career statistics==