​“My career has taken a toll on my body, but it’s a price I’d be willing to pay again,” says Boris Becker at the Discovery Vitality Summit.

“My career has taken a toll on my body, but it’s a price I’d be willing to pay again,” says Boris Becker at the Discovery Vitality Summit.

When Boris Becker took to the stage as the headline speaker at the Discovery Vitality Summit he shed some light on what it’s like to be a tennis superstar at 17. Celebrating 30 years this year since that first momentous grand slam win at Wimbledon in 1985, he also reflected on the journey from player to coach of current world number one and 2015 Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic.

Answering questions from the audience, he spoke at length about the challenges of global fame at a young age, including the pressure of a Winner’s Ball dance with Martina Navratilova.

Flowing through his narrative of lessons learnt and lessons taught over the length of his career were several special nuggets, relevant both on and off field. In offering his advice for any aspiring pro-athlete, he emphasized that one has to be prepared to lose in order to win. “If you want to play at the top of the game, you have to make sacrifices, whether it’s a food choice or a behavior choice,” he said.

“Tennis is a game of instinct and high risk, it’s the ultimate challenge of man against man. There’s no clock, there’s no team. You have to play until you beat the other guy,” he said. “You’re alone on the court, and you’ve got to play until you win or lose – there are no time limits to look forward to.”

Highlighting the emotions of the game, Becker pointed out that Djokovic is at his most effective on the tennis court when he’s in street fighter mode – but that one of his secrets to success is to channel that aggression into positive energy on court.

Equally important competing at the highest level is not to dwell on the past.

“I wear my heart on my sleeve, I say what I think and feel, and sometimes these are taken out of context,” he said. “I have only one life to live, I don’t have regrets, I do what feels right at the time. It’s my life and I’m proud to live it.”

ENDS

Former world number one professional tennis player and previously the youngest player in history to win The Championship at Wimbledon, Boris Becker is now a successful businessman, sports commentator, and coach and mentor to nine-time Grand Slam title winner, Novak Djokovic.