Boris Becker, Wimbledon champion, talks about time in prison

In 1985, Boris Becker was an unranked 17-year-old when he shocked the world and won Wimbledon.

After the tournament, his then-manager Ion Tiriac took him to Monaco, where he was living, checked him into a hotel and had a talk with the new champion.

“[He said] ‘I will teach you the right and wrongs of your life now, the implications of becoming the first German, the youngest, the unseeded,’” Becker, now 55, recalls in “Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker” a two-part documentary that premiered Friday on Apple+.

The doc goes inside Becker’s meteoric rise and spectacular fall, which culminated in him spending eight months last year in a UK prison cell for hiding money during bankruptcy proceedings.

“Whenever there is a bit of a wind in my life it becomes a tornado,” Becker says in the film of the media’s insatiable interest in him.

John McEnroe, who also appears in the documentary, puts it more succinctly, saying Becker was “like Michael Jordan in Germany.”

The Teutonic star won six Grand Slam titles and an Olympic gold medal with his explosive play and agile, acrobatic style. He excelled on grass, winning Wimbledon three times — in 1985, 1986 and 1989 — and making it to the finals seven times.

In 1993, he married Barbara Feltus, a black model and fashion designer. The couple became both a symbol of progressive Germany and a target of racist attacks.

In 1999, Becker was mourning the recent loss of his father when he lost in the fourth round in straight sets in Wimbledon. It was time to retire.

That night, he and pals went drinking at Nobu in London. Becker had a tryst with Russian model Angela Ermakova in the restaurant’s broom closet that resulted in a pregnancy.

In the film, he recalls learning his love child was on the way.

“She came in, she had a big coat on. She took the coat off and she was heavily pregnant. You just can’t believe it. The wake-up call came very late,” he says of Ermakova.

The quickie would eventually lead the to breakdown of his marriage to Barbara, who was pregnant with their second child, Elias, at the time.

The couple divorced in 2001, and she got reportedly got $14.7 million and their Miami property.

Ermakova gave birth, to a girl named Anna, and Becker did not take responsibility until 2001 when she was 10 months old.

Financial problems plagued the fallen star in the years that followed, but there were also bright spots. In 2009, he married Dutch model Lilly Kerssenberg, and the couple welcomed a son the following year.

Starting in 2013, he spent three years coaching superstar Novak Djokovic.

But in 2017, he declared bankruptcy. He was ultimately convicted of hiding assets related to the insolvency, and, in 2022, sentenced to two and a half years in a UK prison.

He was released in December after serving eight months and deported from the UK.

“Prison life is a very dangerous place,” he told CNN of his experience. “I watched a couple of movies beforehand just to prepare myself a little bit, but I didn’t expect it like that. It’s very scary. It’s a real punishment. I mean, prison’s supposed to be that, but it’s a real punishment taking away your freedom, your livelihood.

“The only currency you have is your character and your personality — literally — and you better make friends with the strong boys because you need protection, you need a group of people that look out for you.”

But he told the New York Times that he won’t reveal the details of what happened on the inside.

“There’s a code of honor that you don’t speak about prison on the outside. I have too much respect for the inmates.”

Becker, who is estranged from Lilly, said the experience has changed him.

“If prison doesn’t humble you, I don’t know what will. When you literally lose everything and you go into a really small cell for 231 days. If that doesn’t humble you, you’ve lost anyway.”

But he says this isn’t the last you’ll hear of him.

“That’s not the end yet,” he says in the doc. “There’s going to be another chapter.”