Boris Becker has officially ruled out a return to tennis coverage for Wimbledon this summer following his release from prison.
The three-time Wimbledon champion was handed a two-and-a-half year prison sentence last April, after failing to declare £2.5m in assets to avoid paying debts.
He ended up serving eight months and the former World No 1 was then deported to Germany.
The 55-year-old has now given his first UK television interview since his release, as he was asked about his time in prison and his future on ITV show This Morning.
Though he has regularly appeared as a pundit at Wimbledon for the BBC, the German feels he needs to take more time before he returns to the Grand Slam event.
Boris Becker has officially confirmed that he won’t be attending Wimbledon this summer
Becker was released from prison and deported to Germany after serving eight months of a two-and-a-half-year sentence for failing to declare £2.5m in assets to avoid paying debts
‘I miss London, it is my favourite city in the world,’ Becker said on Tuesday as per the Metro.
‘I’ve been there for a long time. I’m going to miss Wimbledon this year. I have to take my time before I will be coming back.’
Becker, who was speaking on a live stream from Dubai, also said that he felt his ‘sporting history’ helped him during his time in prison.
He added: ‘You’re famous, everyone knows who you are. It can play against you. Thankfully they liked my personality.
‘The only thing you have is your character and your personality. That’s your currency. If they think you have money, you have a problem anyway, so that wasn’t a problem with me.
‘They liked tennis, they liked what I did. Tennis fans. My sporting history has helped me survive prison.’
Though he won’t return to BBC’s coverage for Wimbledon, he did appear as a pundit for Eurosport – based in Germany – for the Australian Open.
He served his eight-month sentence, initially at category B HMP Wandsworth and then at the lower category C Hunterscombe.
Becker (pictured at Wimbledon in 2021) believes his ‘sporting history’ helped him survive his time in prison
Becker says he ‘needs to take’ his time before he will be able to make a comeback
He is forbidden re-entry into the United Kingdom for an undetermined amount of time – though there is no chance of this being before Wimbledon which gets underway on July 3 later this year.
Becker previously gave an interview with German television following his release.
In the interview with German presenter Steven Gatjen on Sat1, he said: ‘You are nobody in prison. You are a number Mine was A2923EV I was a number. And they don’t give a f*** who you are.’
He adds: ‘I think I rediscovered the person I used to be. I’ve learned a hard lesson. A very expensive one. A very painful one. But the whole thing taught me something important and good. And some things happen for a good reason.’
Speaking of the morning he was deported he says: ‘I sat on the edge of my bed from six in the morning and hoped that the cell door would open.
‘They came at half past seven, unlocked themselves and asked: Are you ready? I said, ‘Let’s go!’ I had already packed everything.’
Becker though did also reveal how convicted murderers threatened to kill him in prison, both for his money and to make him do their laundry.
Becker though is forbidden entry into the UK for an undetermined period after his early deportation
He said: ‘I thought I would lose my life in Wandsworth, someone, a murderer I later found out, wanted my coat and he wanted money and he said he would kill me if he didn’t get it.
‘Then in Huntercombe another murderer said they wanted to kill me, he told me what he was going to do to me unless I let him do my laundry, this was only very recently, in October and when he told me my food tray was shaking.
‘But in the end the next day he fell to his knees in front of me, apologised and kissed my hand and said he respected me.’
An Apple documentary is set to be released on April 7 about the German called ‘Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker’.
The trailer dropped on Thursday and features legend of tennis such as John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg and Novak Djokovic – who has worked with Becker as a coach – reflecting on his legacy.
On his time in prison, Becker gets tearful and chokes up as he admits: ‘I’ve hit my bottom. But that’s not the end yet, there is going to be another chapter.’