Herzogenaurach, Germany, September, 2021 – Tennis legend and PUMA ambassador Boris Becker frankly spoke about his life-changing Wimbledon victory at the age of 17, what it takes keep winning in tennis and why he would love to see the present generation of Champions take on the legends of the past with wooden rackets, in a video interview with Sports company PUMA.
Becker, who in 1985 became the first unseeded player to win Wimbledon, sat down with PUMA as part of the sports brand’s “Only See Great” campaign. A video of the conversation is available on PUMA’s You Tube channel.
“Having match point at Wimbledon 1, I felt something is different now. I felt if I win that point, my life will definitely change and when I hit the serve and won, people looked at me differently”, Becker said. “From my parents to everybody else, they had a different look when they saw me and that’s when I knew my life had changed.”
Following his Wimbledon victory, Becker said it was his passion for the sport and his competitive nature that kept him going to win a total of six Grand Slam titles.
“When you win so much at such an early age, the question is: Where is the motivation? Where is the reason to get up again the next week, the next year? For me it was always the passion for my sport. I love tennis and I love the competition,” Becker said.
Currently, there are 3 players on the ATP Tour who have won 20 Grand Slam titles, but Becker says it is impossible to say whether they are the greatest players of all time, because of a difference in equipment and tournament schedules. “I find it hard to say Djokovic, Federer or Nadal were better than Laver, McEnroe or Borg,” Becker explained. “I would have loved them to compete against each other, having Nadal play Borg with a wooden racket on clay, or have McEnroe play Federer on grass with the same tools.”
The idea for PUMA’s “Only See Great” campaign was inspired by cultural icon, entrepreneur and philanthropist Shawn “JAY-Z” Carter who first said: “I only see great. I don’t see good. I don’t see compromise. We should always strive to make something great, something that will last.”
Photographer: Manuel Schlüter
Videographer: Mike Rübsam
Hair & Make-up: Morena Maier