Wimbledon champion banned from UK ‘negotiating’ with Home Office | Tennis | Sport
This coming edition of the Wimbledon Championships will be the fifth year in a row that Becker has been forced to miss the tournament closest to his heart. Once an annual fixture at the Grand Slam he dominated during the late 1980s, he has been forced to watch from afar in recent years, having kept tabs on the 2022 competition from behind bars before being sent back to Germany. “I don’t think I miss London, but I miss Wimbledon,” he told The Telegraph ahead of this year’s tournament. “It’s my birthplace, in a sense. I feel so close to the club, to the courts.
“I have a story on every court, in every corner, in the locker room, in the car park. I probably know Wimbledon better than anyone else alive.”
Becker confirmed negotiations with the Home Office are ongoing to bring an end to his UK ban in the same interview. The 58-year-old had previously suggested he hoped to be back at SW19 for the 2025 tournament – and yet he remains blacklisted from entering the country.
The terms of Becker’s ban aren’t exactly clear, though it was suggested at the time of his release from prison it could last up to 10 years. The tennis great has said that’s purely speculation, however, and it’s entirely up to the UK government.
“The 10 years not going back [to the UK] is rubbish, it’s not true,” he told The Telegraph in April 2024. “For me, after October 2024, [I can be] given permission from the Home Office. They decide, I don’t decide.”
Needless to say it’s clear what the Home Office’s view of his situation has been thus far. Wimbledon 2027 will mark five years since Becker’s sentencing and the halfway mark in that proposed decade-long suspension.
Becker’s mark on SW19 goes beyond his own achievements. As a coach, his most notable stint was working with Novak Djokovic between December 2013 and December 2016, during which Djokovic won six majors, including two of three Wimbledon Championships.
While he may not have a lot of love lost for the UK itself, Becker’s enduring romance with Wimbledon is clear. So too is his determination to weather the current storm and make it back to the scene of his biggest triumphs.
That reunion won’t materialise in 2026 as Becker is once again made to see the action unfold from a distance, most likely from his new residence in Milan. However, the wheels are well in motion to secure a comeback at his home away from home.
