"I just couldn't sleep without it": Becker recalls sleeping pill addiction which prevented final Wimbledon win

Boris Becker recalled the time when he had a sleeping pill addiction that prevented him from winning Wimbledon in 1990 and how it impacted him.

Becker has had numerous problems in his life and at a time he even had an addiction to sleeping pills because he couldn't sleep without them. In his mind, the addiction cost him the 1990 Wimbledon and how that event ultimately drove him to get rid of that addiction which was for the better obviously.

Speaking about it an in Apple+ documentary, Becker said:

"In ‘87 I couldn’t cope with the pressures anymore, I couldn’t sleep. I had two long years where my mind would stop. I was a bit exhausted, I spoke to the German team doctor. He said ‘well, there’s this very soft sleeping pill, you can take it easily and you wake up after six hours and you’re fine.’”

And added:

“Well it’s very addictive and it’s very strong and you don’t wake up after five, six hours fresh, you feel like you’re in a haze. And it made me sleep to a point where I just couldn’t sleep without it. Becker said he wouldn’t take the pills during tournaments - leaving him unable to sleep - and eventually gave in on the eve of his 1990 Wimbledon final."

“In ‘90 I was still very much not sleeping. Before the Wimbledon final I took my last sleeping pill at five o’clock in the morning. Mistake. The practice was at 11, the match was at 2. I woke up out of a day’s sleep at 11:30 in the morning. I had something quick to eat and I rushed to the club, ‘can I hit a little bit?’ so I hit a little bit at 12:30. 1 o’clock.”

Explaining the match, Becker said:

“I start the match. I’m so slow, everything I do the ball passes me. I don’t know what I’m doing. I lose the first set, the second set. I must have sweat enough, I’d woken up. I come back, I am up 4-1 in the fifth set, I get nervous. He ends up winning 6-4. I said, ‘you stupid idiot, you could’ve beaten him earlier. You’ve got to stop the sleeping pills, it’s not going to get you anywhere.’”