Pat Cash visited Boris Becker in prison to discuss the Greek philosophy they both follow

Perhaps it is no surprise that Boris Becker has found an affinity with the Stoic. The former world tennis No.1 was financially undone by an expensive divorce, his “lavish” lifestyle and a renovation on a Mallorcan holiday home. He was declared bankrupt, found guilty of hiding 2.5 million pounds in assets and sent to prison for eight months.

Imprisoned in HMP Huntercombe, Oxfordshire, Becker, 55, was an enthusiastic pupil on a month-long intensive course in stoicism, the four virtues of which are wisdom, courage, temperance and justice. Two weeks ago he was visited by Pat Cash, whom he knocked out of Wimbledon in 1988. Cash, 57, is also a follower of stoicism and is an adviser to the Aurelius Foundation, which runs the prison course.

The courses, which also take place at HMP Morton Hall and HMP Woodhill, offer pupils one to two-hour sessions, four days a week, over a four-week period. “The problems we face in life are almost always created by ourselves,” the foundation’s prison manual states.

Over tea and biscuits, Becker told the group of his arrival at the prison, “about how he was scared and how he had the opportunity to do this course and that he found some comfort and support from it,” said Cash. “The stoicism course made Boris realise that he had to own up to what he had done and find a pathway to recovery.”

Cash said Becker had been helping fellow inmates with German. There have also been reports of Becker teaching yoga and commentating on Wimbledon.

“Boris is very dedicated but tennis players are very stubborn [and] he has made some mistakes,” said Cash. “We were certainly fierce rivals down the years … we aren’t close friends but we are friendly. But he needed support and his tennis buddies should be there.”

Cash won the 1987 Wimbledon men’s singles title but failed to win another grand-slam and retired in 1997. He has since had a career in punditry and appeared in the third season of ITV’s The Masked Singer. “In sport you are flavour of the month one minute and you get tossed aside the next minute,” he said. “The treatment of ex-players is very, very poor in tennis. The problem is everybody is kissing your ass and you don’t develop any self-esteem beyond the praise you get from winning. [Once you stop] there is nobody there looking after you.

“It is soul-destroying. Some athletes will be fine but the vast majority including myself struggle – and I would put Boris in that situation as well.”

At one time Becker was worth more than 127 million pounds. He was declared bankrupt in June 2017, owing creditors almost 50 million pounds. He was found to have hidden property in Germany, a flat in Chelsea and two Wimbledon trophies, and to have transferred hundreds of thousands of pounds from his business account.

He was also convicted of hiding an 825,000 Euro bank loan and shares in a tech firm. Judge Deborah Taylor said he had failed to “heed the warning” of a 2002 suspended sentence in Germany for tax evasion. The Insolvency Service confirmed that Becker was still an undischarged bankrupt and would remain so until October 2031. According to The Sun, Becker’s “services are no longer required at Wimbledon”. He has commentated on the tournament since 2002.

Becker was first held at HMP Wandsworth, a category B prison, on a wing for vulnerable prisoners likely to face attack. He was transferred in May to Huntercombe, a category C prison near Henley-on-Thames for foreign criminals.

“Boris loved Seneca as he related to the Roman leadership role and his position,” said Justin Stead, founder of the foundation. Seneca was known for his oratory, a powerful figure of the Roman Empire in the first century, until he was exiled and forced to give away his wealth.

Stead, himself a former tennis player who is now chief executive of the handbag maker Radley, continued: “Stoicism also brought [Becker] back to his early days in tennis – discipline, focus, critical review, forever improving, see the big picture, control one’s emotions, play the ball not the opponent.”

Becker was introduced to the course by the prison librarian. “He was an excellent student,” said Stead. “He had a hard look in the Stoic mirror and humbled himself.” He began to “support” the tutor in classes, “sharing his experiences and failures from a unique perspective”.

Becker flew back to Germany on Thursday in a private jet, having served eight months of a 30-month sentence. The six-time grand-slam champion was jailed in April, having been found guilty of four charges under the Insolvency Act at Southwark crown court.

As a German without British citizenship, he qualified for automatic deportation through a fast-track scheme. He has “served his sentence and is not subject to any penal restrictions in Germany”, said his lawyer, Christian-Oliver Moser. However, he will not be allowed to return to the UK without permission.

His mother Elvira Becker, 87, told The Sun that her son coming home “is the best Christmas present I could hope for”. The paper also reported that Becker was planning to propose to his girlfriend, Lilian de Carvalho Monteiro, 42, a political risk analyst, who visited him in jail. “She is The One,” said a source.

She would be his third wife. Becker was first married to Barbara, with whom he has two children, Noah, 28, a musician, and Elias, 23, a model and DJ.

The tennis player also has a daughter, Anna, 22, after a brief relationship with model Angela Ermakova in the stairwell of Nobu, Park Lane. His second wife, Lilly Becker, is also a model. They have a son, Amadeus, 12.

Last week Apple TV released a clip of a forthcoming two-part documentary about Becker directed by Alex Gibney and produced by the Oscar winner John Battsek. “I’ve hit my [rock] bottom,” says Becker in the trailer, with tears in his eyes, filmed before he went to prison. “I don’t know what to make of it. I [will] face it. I’m not going to hide or run away.”

Contributors include Novak Djokovic, whom Becker coached between 2013 and 2016, John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg. It will cover his career and “his high-profile, sometimes tumultuous personal life”.

Stoicism, which emerged in ancient Greece, is about accepting the things you cannot change and focusing on how you respond instead. Adherents have included George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt. Liz Truss quoted Seneca on leaving Downing Street: “It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare. It is because we do not dare that they are difficult.”

– The Sunday Times

Originally published as Pat Cash visited Boris Becker in prison to discuss the Greek philosophy they both follow