There are two Boris Beckers featured in the new Apple TV+ documentary about his controversial life.
The first Boris we see was filmed in 2019 and his eyes sparkle as he recounts his incredible tennis career, which went stratospheric in 1985 when he won Wimbledon at the tender age of 17.
The second Boris we see, however, looks like a totally different person. With puffy eyes and paler skin, he seems decades older.
Boom! Boom! The World vs Boris Becker splits his life story into two parts: Triumph and Disaster.”
It’s then that we realise it was filmed in 2022 – and just two days before he was jailed for hiding millions of pounds’ worth of assets after being made bankrupt.
“I’ve hit my (rock) bottom,” Boris 2 says, and breaks down in tears.
Boom! Boom! The World vs Boris Becker splits his life story into two parts: Triumph and Disaster.
For tennis fans, the first episode is a rollicking good time as it looks back at his era-defining on-court battles against the likes of Ivan Lendl, John McEnroe and Stefan Edburg, as well as his relationship with first wife Barbara.
It’s court battles of a different kind that dominate part two, as Boris’s, er, questionable financial dealings land him in trouble with the law on both sides of the English Channel.
And there’s also the thorny matter of a love child conceived in a broom cupboard of Nobu restaurant which spawned yet another (costly) court battle.
If you’re cheering along with Becker in part one, he’s trickier to pin down in part two.
As financial catastrophe after financial catastrophe is recounted, he’s less easy to sympathise with.”
As financial catastrophe after financial catastrophe is recounted, he’s less easy to sympathise with and you find yourself asking: Is this man a bold-faced liar or simply delusional?
At more than three-and-a-half hours long, Boom! Boom! The World vs Boris Becker perhaps overstays its welcome, but as a portrait of a sporting icon, it is refreshingly unvarnished.