BORIS BECKER Not really. In the morning I need peace. No noise, no nasty phone call. But a hot shower, an espresso, and half an hour to myself

BB It depends on what stage in your career you are. At the beginning, it’s actually not that dramatic. You have to find your limits and cross them. That can hurt on the next day. When you are 25 years old, you can deal with it; after 40, my body changed and the real trouble started: knees, ankles, hips, etc. A simple massage won’t do if you are at that point. Unfortunately, that’s the price you pay.

BB You are so flushed with adrenaline and endorphins that you don’t even notice. And you need a good technique. You have to know how to fall – and to quickly get up to play the next ball.

BB You have to score, no matter what it looks like. You can’t think of your audience when you are fighting on the court.

BB No way. You have to reach the ball and win the game. If you have a hand break, you are doing the wrong job.

BB He has to understand the mind of the athlete. That requires experience, sensibility, maybe a certain age. Every player is different, feels differently,
plays differently. You have to give it time. Only under pressure do you see the strong and the weak points of a player.

BB It is not about you anymore, and that is a challenge. After my active career, I took some time to mature to be able to take care of other players.

BB No. That’s who I am. I can’t change that and I would not want to. And my player expects me to be fully committed. A lot of athletes give up too
early and don’t finish the game wholeheartedly when they are facing adversities. I’ve always tried to fight until the very end because you never know – when your opponent is serving for match, he might get nervous. I have experienced that. A match is not over until the referee says: “Game, set and
match – Becker.” Hopefully.

BB I usually don’t watch my old matches, unless a player wants to see how I used to play. I live in the now and think about the future, but don’t forget about my past.

BB None, really. But there are a few players with similar attitudes and mentality. For example, Jannik Sinner, not only because of the red hair, but
also his coolness under pressure. The wildness and unpredictability of Holger Rune. The marathon-man mentality of Sasha Zverev.

BB Oh, yes. It’s still the love of my professional life, but I’m happy I don’t have to run so much anymore.

seems to be more physical, focus is more on the groundstrokes, baseline game, and not so much on the serve-volley. Players seem to be spending
more time in the gym than on the tennis court to get in shape. I don’t know if match strategy and game plan is still as important. In general, I don’t
like to compare generations because we played with different/heavier rackets and quicker balls, and certainly our tennis shoes weren’t as good as
those today. Let me ask you a question: If they all would have played with the same materials, what would Laver, Borg, Connors, McEnroe, Wilander,
Edberg, Becker, Sampras and Agassi do against Sinner, Alcaraz and Zverev? Nobody will ever know.

BB I am surprised that so many players show their private and professional life online. It feels like they have to tell the world constantly what they are eating and how they practice. There are few examples of players who are more careful with their use of social media. For me, the best example is Sinner. You just don’t know what he is doing when he is not on the tennis court.

BB I didn’t really have a choice since Germany had completely embraced me to the point of suffocation. The first couple of years were very enjoyable;
I was actually flattered by the love of the country. Eventually, it became too much and I’m still paying the consequences today. The 17-year-old
Wunderkind Boris is very different to the 57-year-old Mr. Becker.

BB Absolutely. It’s about the inner light – sometimes it shines and other times it doesn’t. I believe a lot in creating your own energy when necessary.
By now, I have the ability to turn on my light if I want to, and turn it off when I have to.

BB I had wonderful and instrumental people in my life that taught me the right from wrong. I have to start with my parents for my personal
growth and Ion Tiriac for my professional one. But there were many people in the last 40 years who had an impact on my life, some were positive,
others were negative.
I certainly learned a lot from my kids and becoming a father.

BB Patience. If you think you know it all, become a parent. You learn about unconditional love, trying to become a good example, and it never
stops…being a parent.

BB It is difficult, but I believe in the way I was brought up. Go out there in the thing called life and make your own experiences. You very quickly find out what is good for you and what is not. You can always come home and ask questions, but the quicker you learn it on your own, the
better it is for you.

BB Never. My kids might see that differently, though.

BB I had my share. On and off the court. Professionally, losing in a Grand Slam final hurts tremendously, and on a personal level, a divorce is a
defeat, but for all parties involved.

BB I learned more about myself through defeat than victory. Losing always made me reflect about my flaws and mistakes. They teach you more
than victories.

BB It gave me time to think and reflect on why I have to spend the night in a cell.

BB That’s a problem all athletes share. Suddenly, you are old at age 35. You have to find something as fulfilling and challenging. But a match ball on the center court in Wimbledon – I won’t find anything like that. Though I was more emotional on the days my children were born. The first steps, the first words, first time they walk on their own, etc. That makes you nervous as a father. You might notice I enjoy talking about
them…

BB There is no definitive answer to that. But I am happy I fell, because it means that I am still alive. Victory is a one-way street. In my case, people know my mistakes. My setbacks have improved me. Only when you can endure pain do you gain strength. If people say life goes by so quickly, I full-heartedly disagree: My life has been quite full so far. What I went through would be enough for seven lives.

BB I find peace at Church and I actually pray a lot. I speak to God in my prayers and ask him for advice. I need my one hour of silence every
day – after all, I was an altar boy in church as a kid in Leimen.

BB Both are strong emotions. But love will always win. Which is why I don’t hold grudges. I am a loving person. Even if some people did me
wrong.

BB I believe my DNA is always the same, but my personality has changed. I would like to think that it has matured, because I’m still learning
about being Boris Becker. I am shedding many layers to get to my core.

BB We wouldn’t be having this conversation today. I like to think that I can function as a team player. But I need direction and purpose. I need
to know my role. I cannot be a bystander or a blind follower. If I know I play in the defense on the soccer team – trust me, nobody will be able
to pass by. My favorite midfielder was the Italian player Gennaro Gattuso. I would be like him: unsurmountable.

BB I hate losing and I cannot stand mediocrity.

BB It’s not so important for me anymore whether the public or the media understands me or my point of view. I do get surprised when people
who apparently know me for 25 years tell me that I have changed or that I am very different to what they thought I was. I just smile.

BB It seems to be getting colder and a lot more aggressive than before. Unfortunately, there is no easy future ahead of us. I do talk with my
children about that a lot.

BB In Milan with my wife. To get back to your first question: I don’t wake up with a song, but with an Italian state of mind. I might be living now
where I have always belonged.

Well, I think for the first time ever, I’m very interested to see the full expression of all the designers, just know-ing that it will be the first time we see a lot of Black and Brown designers featured on the red carpet. It’ll be a really interesting thing to see.

I’d say, above all, living in a smaller community with simpler values and not a lot of complexities to life. I think I was very inspired by the basic elements of human nature. I was always interested in the aesthetics that people would create and nurture to identify themselves with particular groups or subcultures. I’ve always found this to be fascinating. Also, I loved the way we would take care of our clothes and honor the value of what we owned. Even though people didn’t have much, they took very good care of what they had and expressed their self-identity in a strong and beautiful way. I always found that quite intriguing. As I got older and moved to San Francis-co from a very small town in California, I really embraced the nightlife and the thriving club scene.

Fashion has such a powerful and intimate way of touching people, and it can reach people in so many facets of their lives. I really see it as a way to communicate ideas and ideologies.
I feel there’s an opportunity to communicate the concept of love and being good to one another. I believe it can be done in a way that is not corny but still cool, chic and glamorous. Fashion reminds us of our own value and the value of those around us, emphasizing how important it is to embrace and support one another as humans. I think every brand and every designer has a message in how they pursue their storytelling. The idea that we want to make clothes and sell them because it makes us feel more valuable or more exclusive than others—
I believe that concept is outdated. That is one of the reasons fashion has become incredibly boring. There’s very little to be excited about. Among the fashion elite, there’s a shifting of designers in the top houses, but it’s the same names and the same types of people, and I feel that beyond those few fashion elites attending the shows, there is not much interest. Nobody really cares about that. So it’s almost as if the fashion industry is playing for its own demise.

I think we’re living in a time with no room to be timid about our beliefs. The younger generations understand that if you don’t have a strong point of view, you are simply going to disappear into the background. Unfortu-nately, I think we see many larger companies are afraid to take risks and stand up for human rights. They fear the actions we see from leadership around the world. I think those are the companies that tend to dissolve in-to the background, no matter how big they are. Right now, I believe that all of us working in fashion not only have the ability to create significant change, it’s necessary that we do so, because fashion is always evolving and needs to be exciting and revolutionary to have substance. I believe this is the moment to be revolutionary in speaking about our protection as humans.

I believe we are on our way; I see my team and my brand growing. I don’t see ourselves as having finished our work. I feel like we’re just getting started, and I’m grateful that the messaging we incorporate into our work is embraced. When I started the brand in 2015, my ambition was to stay true to the idea that everything we did would uplift people and speak against some of the injustices happening—especially in the United States at the time. Many discouraged me from taking that approach, fearing it would lead to losing customers and isolating people. But even in that year, I was excited to realize that people do want truth, understanding, and emotional communication. They don’t want to see brands pretend that nothing is going on.

I can still have a strong business while doing what I’m skilled at, which is design. I can manufacture beautiful clothes, create amazing looks, and make people look cool while embracing the art of it all. It just means that I believe we can do it with more heart. There are other great designers out there doing things with their art that aren’t addressing the social climate, and that’s fine. I’m not begrudging anyone for not doing that, but I do think there’s an opportunity, and I like to take advantage of it.

I love to include in my runways and presentations those who have not been included for so many years through-out fashion history. I know it’s refreshing for Black and Brown people to see themselves represented, but it’s also refreshing for everyone, as it reminds us that we are all in this together. Celebrating people who are often overlooked in film and fashion, in the glossy pages of magazines, excites all of us.

I love to embrace masculinity and femininity, religion and Catholicism, and so many things that are labeled tox-ic in our society. I really enjoy giving them new meaning and reinterpretation. I love having all the people I work with, as you saw in the photoshoot we did; they display a level of masculinity and femininity that is fluid across all characters. I celebrate masculinity as being sensitive, strong, loving, assuring, and openminded. This is some-thing to be celebrated because it doesn’t isolate people; it lets us know that everyone is welcome, even the masculine.

I do reflect on that because even with my brand’s beliefs, I need to share an evolution of ideas because it is fashion, and people want to be stimulated and excited by what they see. The topics I delve into change over time, but I see my work as eternal. I see the brand as eternal because it speaks of love, and love is eternal. It has a strong foundation based on our beliefs, coupled with our ideas of great craftsmanship and attention to detail. I’m also blessed to have such talented people on my team who are deeply dedicated not only to the phi-losophy of the brand, but also to the art of fashion, craftsmanship and fine tailoring.

I see tailoring as more relaxed, meant for all-day wear, and very gender fluid. I love a woman in a suit; that has always been one of my favorite things. I also love a man in a suit. There’s a beauty that happens when we wear suits. Personally, I love what tailoring does to a person’s identity; it’s like throwing on a jacket that ties it all to-gether. I appreciate how tailoring adds dignity to any look. While I love sportswear, activewear and jeans, and recognize the influence of street culture and athletics on contemporary dressing, I believe we need tailoring to remind us not to be too sloppy.

Yes, I love to make people feel strong and empowered when they wear my clothes. I love seeing people put on outfits and feel excited when they see themselves in the mirror. Tailoring embodies that; great leather does, too.

It was quite a battle for me to leave my small town and emerge into a world so far removed from me. I faced the challenge of being accepted by the community I left while moving into a new world that was very foreign to me. I felt like quite a foreigner in the fashion world as well.

I believed—and still believe—that I have to be great at what I do in order to be okay.

Oh, well, one is that my zodiac sign is Cancer, so I love being at home and enjoy a very simple, calm life. The other is that I am blessed with an incredible husband who is also my business partner. He is my strength and backbone—my other half—and together we live a very simple life with my dog. These are the things that keep me grounded.

Oh, I don’t think I’ll ever stop working, but I do want to do a major motion picture.

It would be a drama and a romance—a combination of Wong Kar-wai, Francis Ford Coppola and Fellini.

It would be called “Hungry.” [long pause, then laughs]

My last supper, oh my goodness! It would have Jesus Christ, Bad Bunny, Sade, my husband—oh gosh, I need 12 people for the last supper, right? Kendrick Lamar, Madonna. Well, I have a lot of friends, so they would all have to be there. Stanley Kubrick, young Sinead O’Connor, the designer Willi Smith, Dolores Huerta, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King.