The Player: The Autobiography

by Boris Becker, Robert Lubenoff, Helmut Sorge

Boris Becker shot to fame in 1985 when, at 17, he became the youngest player ever to win the men’s final at Wimbledon. He went on to win two more Wimbledon titles, and a total of 49 singles and 15 doubles crowns, making him one of the greatest players of the 20th century. But his personal life always attracted as much attention as his professional triumphs. Now, in this remarkably candid autobiography, Boris Becker tells the real story behind the headlines. He talks about his marriage, his daughter, and his painful divorce. He talks about how he felt at the end of his tennis career and his battles with pills and alcohol. He also shares his memories of the good times, the championship wins, and the make-or-break matches.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Sports, Autobiography

366 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Boris Becker, geboren 1967 in Leimen, ist Deutschlands erfolgreichster Tennisspieler und arbeitet heute als Trainer und TV-Kommentator. Im Alter von 17 gewann er sensationell das Grand-Slam-Turnier in Wimbledon (1985), er holte zweimal den Davis-Cup (1988, 1989), wurde dreimal ATP-Weltmeister, errang Olympia-Gold im Doppel und stand zwölf Wochen auf Platz 1 der Weltrangliste. Er wurde viermal als Sportler des Jahres ausgezeichnet und zweimal als Europas Sportler des Jahres. 2003 wurde Becker in die International Hall of Tennis Fame aufgenommen. Als Trainer verhalf er Novak Djokovic zwischen 2013 und 2016 zu insgesamt 6 Grand-Slam-Siegen. Boris Becker lebt in Mailand.

Reviews

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Loaned to me by a friend, I have just started reading this book. Although Boris is a bad boy I quite like him so will see if I still have this opinion at the end of the book. I tend to find that autobiographies by tennis players (I've read those of Andre Agassi and John McEnroe) tend to be apologia but they do give some idea of the character and stresses behind the image we see at matches. I'll continue 'play' and report back !

So .... reporting back. The word that sums up this book is "disappointing". The writing style didn't grab me; it was, as I anticipated, a platform to excuse behaviour; and (really odd) not one photograph excepting that on the book cover.

[Lawrence · Rating 1 out of 5]

Maybe i'm not the target audience but I have no intrerest in his tax problems. I wished he had written more about tennis ...

[Tracey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very good autobiography.
For me Boris Becker was very likeable, and his way of telling his story was a easy read. I know he’s seen as the bad boy of tennis, But I think that there was a lot more to him than people realised.

[Ramnik Chhabra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Melodram in a autobiography should be like salt in dal. Just a pinch. Here the roles are reversed!

[Brian Haining · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has three authors and is a little uneven in it's flow possibly because of this, where Boris's individual recollections mix in with detailed tennis history.

The book highlights how tough it is leading a nomadic life on the tour and trying to maintain your edge as a leading player whilst dealing with relationships, loneliness, injuries, press, managing a coaching team and dealing with huge wealth particularly when he was thrust into the limelight at 17 years of age.

Becker comes across as a troubled single-minded individual whose life seems to be on a rollercoster of emotions. Events occur to do with his personal life and finances, which he seems ar times to blame on others.

The book covers the period up to the early 2000s, and it's interesting to observe that he continued to flout certain rules that resulted in him serving time in jail years later.

As for the time frame, the book jumps around a little, but it was interesting and enjoyable account of Boris's life as a global star covering his playing career and initial post playing period

[Paul Pryce · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was ok; This book was owned by a loved one, and I read this at a time when BB was in jail. I was doubtful of it at first, but it has some great phrases like “Hatred gives bad advice” and at times I felt the book to be a good chum. Not sure I’d ever need to read it again though. We are about the same age but like l chalk and cheese. The will now go to a charidy shop. If you see it there, buy it.

[Janardhan · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a Boris Becekr fan, this book was a fascinating insight.

It would have been nice to see more technical insight into tennis in terms of technique, and also the strengths/weaknesses of his own and other players.

[Marize De Klerk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not bad. Actually enjoyed reading about the emotions behind marches that even I can remember. And what a person.

[Paul McCormack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Average enough

[Lee Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ich möchte Ihre kleinen deutschen Kinder haben. That's (approximately; since I remember what she taught me as being slightly different) "I want to have your little German children," as I had my German-taking high school friend translate for me (thanks, Sheryl!). The reason: Boris Becker. My teenage love for him didn't really hold up; looking back, my favorite and hottest tennis players were John McEnroe and Mats Wilander, respectively. But for a while there, Boris was the living end for me.

This book, translated from the German, is not a linear narrative, but a disjointed hodgepodge of Boris' thoughts on tennis, his childhood, his life since tennis, other players, Germany, the Davis Cup system, different countries in Europe, and so on. It's hard to know what is true and what he wants us to believe is true, and like any great athlete, his ego is huge. Also, he must be more famous than I realized in his home country (maybe not David Beckham famous, but more than Alex Rodriguez famous), since many stories are told with the assumption that the reader knows some of the facts or gossip behind them. After reading this, I'm still not sure exactly what his "business" is today: a marketing firm? a sports marketing firm? Something like that.

He saves the impregnating the stranger in the restaurant broom closet story for the very end. The whole book is slightly strange and very Euro-sporty. I was disappointed by the complete lack of pictures, too.

God morgon. Mitt namn ar Lee Anne. I'll save that for when Mats Wilander writes his memoir, translated from the Swedish.

[Edith · Rating 3 out of 5]

J'ai regardé joué Becker à la télévision que dans ces dernières années et je peux pas dire qu'il était un de mes préférés. C'est vraiment un bizarre de type (si vous voulez avoir une idée, allez voir son twitter). Et c'est une drôle de bio. Plutôt ses opinions sur biens des choses comme la célébrité, la coupe davis, Wimbly, sa vie personnelle, son divorce, son procès etc. Quelques opinions sur les adversaires... rien de très surprenant à part son jugement sur Kiefer. C'est raide! Et moi-même je n'ai jamais aimé Kiefer.
La bio date de 2002 je crois, mais tout de même j'aurais aimé plus de détails sur le futur du tennis allemand, à peine un mot sur Haas et Schuettler. Aussi, il a l'air à croire qu'après lui, Agassi, Sampras, McEnroe et Connors c'est le déluge. Qu'il n'y aura plus de grosses vedettes. En 2002, Federer et Nadal n'étaient pas encore des vedettes!
Et on voit qu'il aime Wimbly d'amour ;)

Je dois dire que l'ensemble est plutôt décousu. ça ressemble plus à des chroniques. Chaque chapitre a son sujet et ce n'est pas en ordre chronologique.

Détail sur la traduction. On dirait que toutes les traductions de biographies de joueurs de tennis sont faites par des gens qui ne connaissent pas trop le tennis. Qui dit : "le French Open à Roland-Garros à Paris"?
Et il y avait des erreurs dans les noms, des coquilles.

Donc rien de mémorable, j'ai aimé parce que j'aime vraiment beaucoup le tennis, mais sinon point de vue bio de tennis, celle d'Agassi est toujours la meilleure.

[L · Rating 2 out of 5]

Though this book had its moments, like the chapter on doping and some of the early chapters on winning Wimbledon so young, it was not an overall enjoyable experience. My main problems were that (1) the chapters are not in chronological order (or any discernible order), making the story difficult to follow; (2) Becker uses extensive quotes from newspapers which only sometimes add to the narrative; and (3) very little of this book is actually about his tennis career, focusing instead on his relationship/divorce, his children, and his trial for tax evasion (though he relayed the trial through use of tennis metaphors, which at least kept it interesting).

It's never a good sign when the most enjoyable part of a book is the part written by someone other than the author. In this case, the most enjoyable chapter was the one written by John McEnroe.

[Bilal Murtaza · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disjointed writing style with events written out of chronological order make this a difficult read. This book is more about Boris's personal life than his on-court battles and persona. Although his personal reflections are insightful, they come across as quite melodramatic on several occasions. McEnroe's interview is particularly interesting but the irrelevance of anecdotes such as Boris's meetings with Muhammad Ali deters the reader from completing the book.

For those die-hard tennis fans hoping to find a quality tennis autobiography that equally balances the player's personal life with their tennis life, I highly recommend Jimmy Connors' The Outsider: A Memoir and You Cannot Be Serious by John McEnroe.

[Bonnie Samuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Frank and eloquent, the book lets us see Becker as a person instead of endlessly summarizing previous matches as so many sports autobiographies tend to do. One of the more introspective tennis players, he would make my top 5 wishlist of living people I would like to have dinner with. An interesting personality and an interesting book.

[Kathryn Blandford · Rating 4 out of 5]

Couldn't put it down!

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting read if you are a fan of Becker or tennis in the late 80s / early 90s. The first 2/3 flew by but then it started dragging for me and I had some trouble finishing it. Ended strong.

[Akshay]

Typical Becker....

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

very interesting insights into what makes a tennis player great. I had never before thought about some of the psychology that he brings up.

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK. Too much about the detail of tennis matches and too much flitting back and forth in time rather than a steady progression. But Boris comes across as great company and he's had an interesting life