Boris Becker: From Wunderkind To World No. 1

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"In the latest profile of a series on the 26 players to rise to No. 1 in the FedEx ATP Rankings, ATPTour.com looks back on the career of Boris Becker".

First week at No. 1: 28 January 1991
Total weeks at No. 1: 12

www.atptour.com

Boris Becker: From Wunderkind To World No. 1 | ATP Tour | Tennis

In the latest profile on the 26 men to have reached World No. 1 in the FedEx ATP Rankings, ATPTour.com looks back on the career of Boris Becker.
www.atptour.com www.atptour.com
 
Some curious facts about BB:

Amongst the acknowledged ATGs, he had by far the shortest time ranked at world #1 and is the only one never to finish a season as #1 or win a claycourt title.
 
Mainad said:
Some curious facts about BB:

Amongst the acknowledged ATGs, he had by far the shortest time ranked at world #1 and is the only one never to finish a season as #1 or win a claycourt title.
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Those last facts would seem to downgrade his status below the highest level or highest tier.

However, his 3 Wimbledon wins show him at his best, and he certainly looked like a world no.1 in winning them.

A grass specialist.
 
Dan Lobb said:
Those last facts would seem to downgrade his status below the highest level or highest tier.

However, his 3 Wimbledon wins show him at his best, and he certainly looked like a world no.1 in winning them.

A grass specialist.
Click to expand...

He was just as good on hardcourts (3 Slams, 3 YECs, 5 Masters) but his grasscourt prowess (winning Wimbledon and Queen's at 17) is undoubtedly the one that will resonate most with tennis fans.
 
Dan Lobb said:
Those last facts would seem to downgrade his status below the highest level or highest tier.

However, his 3 Wimbledon wins show him at his best, and he certainly looked like a world no.1 in winning them.

A grass specialist.
Click to expand...

Three points. First, Becker does have few weeks at #1, but I think most tennis fans would say that he was the true YE#1 in 1989 and should have spent a number of weeks at #1 between the 1989 U.S. Open and Wimbledon 1990.

Second, he's definitely not a grass specialist. He won 2 Australian Opens on Rebound Ace, won a U.S. Open, won 3 WTFs and made 5 other finals on carpet, and won a bunch of other big titles on hard and carpet (including the WCT Finals).

Third, he's one of the Davis Cup GOATs, going 38-3 in singles and leading Germany to 2 Davis Cup victories.
 
buscemi said:
Three points. First, Becker does have few weeks at #1, but I think most tennis fans would say that he was the true YE#1 in 1989 and should have spent a number of weeks at #1 between the 1989 U.S. Open and Wimbledon 1990.

Second, he's definitely not a grass specialist. He won 2 Australian Opens on Rebound Ace, won a U.S. Open, won 3 WTFs and made 5 other finals on carpet, and won a bunch of other big titles on hard and carpet (including the WCT Finals).

Third, he's one of the Davis Cup GOATs, going 38-3 in singles and leading Germany to 2 Davis Cup victories.
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How was his Davis Cup resume on clay?
 
Dan Lobb said:
How was his Davis Cup resume on clay?
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One loss to Sergio Casal 1987.

Was three times close to number one Ranking at the end of the the year.

If he had won Stockholm 1989 but lost to Jan Gunnarsson.

Second Chance was the Bercy final 90 with the surrending to Edberg.

Last chance was winning the Masters 90 after Edbergs win over Lendl but he lost to Agassi in the Semis.
 
Dan Lobb said:
Presumably this was part of the old standard motion towards the net following a serve.

Part of the serve-and-volley style of play.
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That's what I've read. It would be logical to step in with the dominant foot when it was illegal to jump over as is done today and has been done for quite some. I read something about Becker's motion being unique in allowing him to do that in the more modern era. I don't know if anyone else did it, but I don't believe any other famous server did that.
 
Mainad said:
Some curious facts about BB:

Amongst the acknowledged ATGs, he had by far the shortest time ranked at world #1 and is the only one never to finish a season as #1 or win a claycourt title.
Click to expand...
I think the reason here is that he was a little inconsistent and has many odd losses against way inferior players. Against the big names of his generation he actually has positive H2H against almost all apart from Sampras, Agassi and Lendl (narrowly negative). I think he sometimes lacked motivation against players he should have beaten. Apart from this he had the odd characteristic to loose in slams against players he typically beat elsewhere, this includes:

Edberg 1-3 in slams (25-10 in overall!!)
Ivanisevic 1-2 in slams (10-9 overall)
Rafter 0-1 in slams (2-1 overall)
McEnroe 0-1 in slams (8-2 overall!!)
Wilander 0-3 in slams (7-3 overall !!!!! all his losses here came at slams)

All factors that do not help to lead the rankings for a long time. However, I would say his peak level was even higher than most other ATGs in his tier. I would definitely put him above Edberg and Wilander peak for peak maybe even Agassi, Lendl and Connors (deliberately leaving out Mac here who also had a very high peak level).
 
Mainad said:
He was just as good on hardcourts (3 Slams, 3 YECs, 5 Masters) but his grasscourt prowess (winning Wimbledon and Queen's at 17) is undoubtedly the one that will resonate most with tennis fans.
Click to expand...
He was one of the very best on carpet, Sampras even called him the very best once. Even on clay he is sometimes made worse than he actually was. Sure it was his worst surface but the negative notion from never winning a tournament on clay needs to be put in context. He had a lot of clay finals and came as close as having match points. He also chose to not simply enter some Mickey Mouse tournament just to win an elusive clay title but reached the finals in masters. Three semis at the French are also not too shabby, better than Pete at least.
 
Boris was my childhood idol when he won Wimbledon at 17. My most memorable match was his 5-setter win over Lendl at the '88 Master Final. I couldn't belive that net caught on match point, then he threw his freaking racket into the crowd...I always wonder if someone got their head split opened from that throw. Out of the whole bunch of great players during the late 90s, his game was the most exciting. I remember I practiced licking my lip while I serve for a few years... :laughing:

Is a shame that his professional career couldn't have ended as gracefully as Edberg. :cry:
 
Becker sure had a rough schedule at 85 Wimbledon.

saturday- 3rd round match with nystrom suspended for darkness after 2 sets

Monday- plays 3 sets to complete match(nystrom served for it twice)

Tuesday - 5 setter vs Mayotte(which he sprained his ankle in)

Wednesday - 4 sets QF with leconte

Thursday - day off

Friday - 2 sets with Jarryd until suspension due to rain

Saturday - completes semi(2 sets)

Sunday - final vs Curren

so he had to play 6 of the last 7 days of the tournament
 
Moose Malloy said:
saturday- 3rd round match with nystrom suspended for darkness after 2 sets
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For those interested, the official Wimbledon Tube has recently put this entire match on the tube in perfect image quality. They've been releasing quite a lot of "classic" matches in full length lately. I'm not sure I always agree with their use of the word "classic" but nevertheless, they are there.

Another from the same era I saw they put up is Edberg - Mansdorf 1990, Mansodof who pushed Edberg to 9-7 in the fifth and nearly took him out.
 
andreh said:
For those interested, the official Wimbledon Tube has recently put this entire match on the tube in perfect image quality. They've been releasing quite a lot of "classic" matches in full length lately. I'm not sure I always agree with their use of the word "classic" but nevertheless, they are there.

Another from the same era I saw they put up is Edberg - Mansdorf 1990, Mansodof who pushed Edberg to 9-7 in the fifth and nearly took him out.
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yeah I was pretty excited by these matches being added. Have you watched the mansdorf match yet? Great tennis, mansdorf was in the zone, barely lost a point on serve in the 5th.
 
Moose Malloy said:
yeah I was pretty excited by these matches being added. Have you watched the mansdorf match yet? Great tennis, mansdorf was in the zone, barely lost a point on serve in the 5th.
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I just watched the Mansdorf match. A great match for sure. Mansdorf probably played the match of his life. Edberg seemed a bit slow and bothered by the heavy winds but all credit to Mansdorf
 
andreh said:
For those interested, the official Wimbledon Tube has recently put this entire match on the tube in perfect image quality. They've been releasing quite a lot of "classic" matches in full length lately. I'm not sure I always agree with their use of the word "classic" but nevertheless, they are there.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I've just had a look to their channel. Have to agree with you, some weirdo choices there. I hope they will upload more real classic stuff, the 3 Edberg-Becker finals for example but there are so many others. At least this is good to see some real grass court tennis. They should think about it.
 
NicoMK said:
Thanks, I've just had a look to their channel. Have to agree with you, some weirdo choices there. I hope they will upload more real classic stuff, the 3 Edberg-Becker finals for example but there are so many others. At least this is good to see some real grass court tennis. They should think about it.
Click to expand...

So much truth in this great post.

It would be amazing to see Wimbledon come back next year with the character that's been missing for so long.
 
Considering what they've already uploaded, here's a short list of what I would like to be shared on their channel :

- Borg-McEnroe 1980
- the Becker-Edberg trilogy 1988-1990
- Becker-Lendl 1989
- Becker-Pioline 1995
- Becker-Agassi 1995
- Pioline-Stich 1997
- Sampras-Agassi 1999

As for women, I'm sure there are many great ties too but I wasn't really into it as a kid, so now I forgot.

After 2001, they turned the grass into bloody slow courts etc. so I'm not interested any longer.

Of course this is just a small choice of what I would love to see again first but there are many other contests. What would be your list?
 
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