Boris Becker

I love the winning, I can take the losing, but most of all I Love to play.

I don’t know how many millions of photographs have been taken of me.

When I was a child, I had posters of James Dean in my room. I was a big admirer of his work and was fascinated by him living on the edge. Looking back, my life was kind of the same.

The eyes of some of the fans at Davis Cup matches scare me. There’s no light in them. Fixed emotions. Blind worship. Horror. It makes me think of what happened to us long ago.

Does anyone ask their parents how they are conceived?

The boys are so powerful off of the baseline now that they don’t have to come to the net to finish points. That’s the reason we went to the net. To finish the point. Nowadays, even the big guys can hit winners four feet behind the baseline.

For me, it is important to win titles and for that I need to work hard, stay healthy and be able to compete. The rest, I always say, it comes.

If the plane moves, some turbulence, I am nervous flyer.

I love this game, I love this sport, I love this league. Why don’t I get my own team?

I always wanted to be honest with myself and to those who have had faith in me.

My feeling would be that you lose something of the beauty of the Premiership by joining something not defined at the moment.

You fight, you try your best, but if you lose, you don’t have to break five racquets and smash up the locker room. You can do those things, but when you’ve finished, nothing’s changed. You’ve still lost. If something positive came from that, I probably would do it. But I see only negativity.

I’m getting excited before every single game. The trophy at the end is less important than the process itself.

As a tennis player you can win and you can lose, and you have to be ready for both. I practised self-control as a kid. But as you get older they both – winning and losing – get easier.

We’ll try and be very aggressive, we’ll try and speed up and change gears, and we’ll see who’s going to win.

It is the small steps which bring you satisfaction at the end of the day.

The worst thing is to play too defensively. I need to play with more intensity and be aggressive. If I do that, I’m going to do well because my touch is good.

My goal is to improve my game, stay healthy and be competitive. If I have that, I know I can be able to win tournaments, which in the end is what it counts.

Stay healthy, do sports and above all have fun while doing sport. Competing or just for fun, whatever, simply enjoy and try your best. Working hard, working well with achievable goals normally pays off. Believe in the people that are with you and listen to those who have more experience.

Every year I go to Broadway to see a musical – I like the music. I saw ‘Mamma Mia;’ I saw ‘Les Miserables;’ I saw ‘Phantom of the Opera’ like six, seven times.

Even if I have already peaked, I have to believe I can improve. I wake up every morning, and go to practice, with the illusion that I’m going to get better that day.