Do we like them?

Do we like Boris Becker?

Our score: 6 out of 10. Decent enough record with no campaigning against anyone, but a conviction over his bankruptcy and some clumsy remarks, and little verified good to set against them.

Becker is one of those names that needs no introduction. In 1985 he won Wimbledon at 17, the first unseeded player to do it, and went on to become world No. 1 before retiring in 1999. Fame came before he was old enough to vote, and the rest of his story is a bloke learning what happens when the money and the roar go quiet.

The big stain is the money. Southwark Crown Court found him guilty of four charges under the Insolvency Act over his 2017 bankruptcy (removing property, concealing debt and failing to disclose his estate), and he was sentenced to 30 months in April 2022. He has denied wrongdoing and says he cooperated with the trustees. He served about eight months and was released early, then deported to Germany.

In 2024 a judge discharged him from bankruptcy, saying he had done “all that he reasonably could do” to repay creditors. He still fell well short: he owed nearly £50 million, and trustees said about £42 million remained at an April hearing. A settlement followed, including a substantial sum and the outstanding trophies. That's a conviction for hiding assets, not for hurting anyone, and it matters for the good-person test only as one real stain.

On the harm test, we found no campaigning against any group and no conspiracy-theory slide. The sore spot is commentary. In July 2021 on BBC Wimbledon coverage he said a player's fiancée was “certainly very pretty”, and critics called it sexist. Women in Sport's chief executive said it showed “there is still more to do”, while the BBC said it was light-hearted and not meant to offend.

In April 2026 a Tennis Up To Date headline quoted him on the IOC's transgender ruling: “If you’re born male and become female, you’re physically stronger”. We saw only the headline, not the full remarks. Whether you read it as a fairness-in-sport comment or as something that lands badly on trans people depends on the rest of what he said, so check it yourself.

Nothing big has turned up on him lately. In February 2026 he replied “That’s it?” to a post about Emma Raducanu reaching a semifinal, and pundits and fans pushed back on it. It's pettiness rather than harm, but it is the kind of snipe that costs a pundit goodwill.