Well, he was down 2 sets in R1 vs a brilliant in-form Johansson, and the referee basically screwed over Thomas on a big point, and then Becker vultured the rest of the match.
Then in QFs he gets to play an INDOOR match, which was almost unheard of at that point in slam tennis. Becker loved indoors conditions, fared much worse in the heat, rain, wind... Kafelnikov would have been far more dangerous with no roof on.
Then he gets WOODFORDE in the semis. Nuff said. That'd be like a Big 3 getting Zimonjic in the semis. (OK, a tad exaggerated.)
Then he gets big-finales pigeon Chang in the finale. Agassi basically dumped the semis vs Chang to avoid playing Becker, or so the legend goes.
Just total shambles, that AO 1996.
So much luck, I was convinced he signed a pact with The Horned One.
He then injured his wrist really badly at Wimby, as ONE of the favourites (not THE favourite as you claim), and it was all downhill from there. So maybe he did sign a short-term pact after all... The 1999 "incident", the divorces, the bankruptcies...