"Your whole life has to be about tennis" - Former Grand Slam champion Boris Becker on what it takes to be World No.1
ATP
German tennis legend Boris Becker had an incredible career that saw him reach the pinnacle of the tennis world, and the six-time Grand Slam champion recently revealed the secrets behind ascending to the World No.1 position.
Becker spent 12 weeks as World No.1 in 1991, eventually retiring in 1999 after winning 49 ATP singles titles. The Leimen native captured three Wimbledon titles, two Australian Opens and one US Open trophy during his time on the ATP tour.
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Becoming World No.1 requires a lot of sacrifice, says Becker
The 57-year old was inducted into the ATP’s number one club at the end of the 2024 season. During the event, Becker spoke on the challenges and difficulty of reaching the top position in the sport.
"You have to be a little bit crazy, a little bit egotistic in the sense that your life is tennis," explained Becker. "To be willing to do what it takes, your whole life has to be about tennis.
“There can’t be anything [more] important than winning the next tennis match. To keep that intensity for a long time is difficult, but I think we all have this crazy mentality of doing what it takes to win the match. It’s a great achievement [reaching No. 1], whether it’s one week, 12 weeks, or 350 weeks.
“The trick is consistency, week in, week out. To always reach the final or win the tournaments, that’s ultimately what gets you [there] and makes you stay No. 1. In the 80s, I was still a teenager. I had great tournaments, but then I had average weeks. Ivan, Mats [Wilander] and Stefan [Edberg] were more consistent over 52 weeks. That changed in the early 90s."
“There can’t be anything [more] important than winning the next tennis match. To keep that intensity for a long time is difficult, but I think we all have this crazy mentality of doing what it takes to win the match. It’s a great achievement [reaching No. 1], whether it’s one week, 12 weeks, or 350 weeks.
“The trick is consistency, week in, week out. To always reach the final or win the tournaments, that’s ultimately what gets you [there] and makes you stay No. 1. In the 80s, I was still a teenager. I had great tournaments, but then I had average weeks. Ivan, Mats [Wilander] and Stefan [Edberg] were more consistent over 52 weeks. That changed in the early 90s."
Growing up in a household where soccer was king, my earliest memories are filled with chants from packed stadiums and the rhythm of a ball being passed across neighborhood streets. But somewhere along the way, the quiet elegance and raw emotion of tennis pulled me in. What began as a curiosity became a lifelong passion; not just for the sport itself, but for the stories it tells: of grit, of heartbreak, of improbable comebacks and human resilience.
As a tennis writer, I bring the observational lens of someone who didn’t grow up in the sport, but fell in love with it as an outsider; a perspective that lets me see both its technical beauty and its emotional depth. Over the years working with TennisUpToDate, I’ve had the privilege of reaching more than 3.5 million readers worldwide, with one of my features ranking among the site’s top three articles.
With a background in storytelling and a creative mind always searching for meaning beyond the scoreboard, I aim to craft narratives that go deeper than results and rankings. Whether it’s a rising star breaking through or a veteran fighting off Father Time, I try to capture the heartbeat behind the headlines.
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