About this episode
In 1985, a strawberry-blonde, unseeded, 17-year-old German named Boris Becker won Wimbledon, beating Kevin Curren in the final, and suddenly tennis had a new star. In what way did Becker bring levels of power and athleticism which hadn’t been seen before on a tennis court? And how did people react to his arrival on the world stage? We hear from Johan Kriek, the man who predicted Becker’s victory at Wimbledon after losing to him at Queen’s two weeks earlier, and Curren discusses his own run which saw him beat John McEnroe and Jimmy Connors without losing a set, before underestimating Becker’s big-match mentality in the final. Becker went on to have a lot more success at Wimbledon, including a hat-trick of finals against Stefan Edberg. The Swede tells us about their rivalry. Finally, we look at how fame changed Becker’s life forever, and not always for the better. The Tennis Podcast is presented by Catherine Whitaker and David Law, and features Matt Roberts. It is produced weekly year-round, and daily during the Grand Slam tournaments. It is crowdfunded by listeners each December. * TENNIS RE-LIVED * We will be doing daily shows throughout the original Wimbledon dates, looking back on some of the tournament’s best matches and most important stories. The 1985 men’s final between Boris Becker and Kevin Curren is available on YouTube . On Thursday we will re-watch the epic 1991 final between Steffi Graf and Gabriela Sabatini which is split into parts 1 , 2 & 3 . * NEWSLETTER * Sign up to get our news, isolation diaries and Matt’s Stat - http://eepurl.com/gbmzRX * EMAIL * We hope that the podcast helps to provide some form of escape during these challenging times. If you ever feel like writing to us, our e-mail is open – info@tennispodcast.net *REDDIT * We have a sub-reddit page! It's a growing online community where over 925 listeners chat about the show and all things tennis. Join in - https://www.reddit.com/r/thetennispodcast/ * KICKSTARTER * We are crowdfunded for 2020, but if you’d like to receive a reminder e-mail when we launch our next Kickstarter in December, then you can put your details here - http://eepurl.com/gwWILX *SOCIAL MEDIA * Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thetennispodcast/ Twitter - www.twitter.com/tennispodcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.