Boris Becker shares regret with Emma Raducanu as he opens up on what went wrong

Tennis icon Boris Becker has revealed his regret over winning Wimbledonas a teenager, admitting he was "maybe too young" to become champion after enormous pressure was heaped upon him.

The German star was just 17 years old when he defeated Kevin Curren to win the 1985 tournament, becoming the youngest-ever Wimbledon men's singles champion. But while he went on to secure another five Grand Slam titles and establish himself as one of the finest players of his era, he endured a turbulent personal life away from the court, dogged by financial difficulties.

In 2022, Becker received a two and a half year prison sentence for concealing £2.5m in assets and loans to avoid debt payments. He served just eight months of his sentence before being released, but was then deported despite living in the UK for a decade.

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He has now written a new autobiography detailing his time in prison and the dramatic rise and fall that resulted in his imprisonment. In an interview with BBC Sport to promote his memoir, Becker admitted that winning Wimbledon at such a tender age "changed the road ahead tremendously" as he struggled to deal with the pressure that was piled upon his shoulders.

"If you remember any other wunderkind (wonderkid), they usually don't make it to 50 because of the trials and tribulations that come after," he said. "Whatever you do, wherever you go, whoever you talk to, it becomes a world sensation.

"It becomes the headline of some of the most important papers of tomorrow. And you're just trying to mature, just trying to find your feet in the world.

"When you start a second career everything is measured at this success of winning Wimbledon at 17. And that changed the road ahead tremendously. I'm happy to have won three, but maybe 17 was too young. I was still a child."

Becker's regret echoes remarks made by British tennis star Emma Raducanu, who shot to worldwide stardom after claiming the US Open title aged just 18 in 2021. While that victory cemented her place in the history books, the now-22-year-old has admitted to struggling mentally following her Flushing Meadows triumph, having failed to reach those heights again.

"That moment on the court, when I was celebrating, I was like, I would literally trade any struggle in the world for this moment," Raducanu, who has battled injury problems in recent years, told The Sunday Times in 2023.

"Anything can come my way, I will take it for what I have right now because this is the best thing in the world. I promised myself that, on the court that day. Since then I've had a lot of setbacks, one after the other. I am resilient, my tolerance is high, but it's not easy," she continued as she admitted to sometimes feeling regret about her 2021 triumph.

"And sometimes I think to myself I wish I'd never won the US Open, I wish that didn't happen. Then I am like, remember that feeling, remember that promise, because it was completely pure."

Speaking candidly about how he ended up in prison, Becker told the BBC: "I was too comfortable. I had too much money. Nobody told me 'no' - everything was possible. In hindsight, that's the recipe for disaster.

"So you take accountability for your actions, which is very important because you cannot look back any more. You cannot change the past. You can only change the future because you live in today."