No Holds Barred: Our Five Favorite Boris Becker Posts

By Anusha Rasalingam

Retirement in tennis isn’t an easy thing. It’s hard to go from being the best in the world to being just another wealthy 30-something (sometimes even 20-something) retiree who needs to occupy his or her time. There are countless tales of woe among the recently retired, from Bjorn Borg’s financial woes, to the embarrassing Agassi-Sampras squabble during a Hit for Haiti exhibition. And, until recently, aside from those who were fortunate enough to find jobs as commentators, few of the game’s greats stuck around the tennis scene post-career.

But, with Andy Murray’s hire of Ivan Lendl at the end of 2011, the floodgates opened for a number of high profile coaching assignments for other legends of the game, including Michael Chang working with Kei Nishikori, Amelie Mauresmo and Andy Murray, and Stefan Edberg and Roger Federer. Like with Murray-Lendl, these coaching assignments make sense. The one that had everyone a bit perplexed though, was Novak Djokovic’s hire of Boris Becker to provide inspiration. While I can’t say for sure I know what Boris brings to the team, as a long-time follower of Boris’ social media hijinks, I’m thrilled that there is a larger audience of people to witness Boris’ online game.

Boris, “BB” to himself and his legion of online followers, lives big – whether it was booming, diving Wimbledon victories, or an ill-considered frolic on the back stairway of London’s Nobu – and his online game is no different.

At first, Boris’ Twitter feed was dominated by his retweets of adoring messages from fans. Since joining Team Nole, he’s changed his focus to retweeting messages supporting Djokovic, inspirational sports quotes, and pictures of himself and his family.

Thankfully, however, Boris hasn’t toned down his online presence much, especially when compared to his more cautious, and perhaps, tasteful, colleagues. Here are our five favorite recent postings by BB:

5. World Cup Fever:

Are those flags backwards? Or is it a mirror? BB has me a bit confused here, but there’s no doubting that he’s ready for the game. Except someone should tell him to sit on the other side of the TV.

4. Armed and Dangerous

Snappy suit: check.
Pretty ladies: check.
Finger guns: check.

3. Tennis Legends: They’re Just Like Us!

Nothing to see here, just two old work colleagues hanging out in Paris. How long do you think it took before BB snatched that hat from McEnroe to complete his look?

2. Forever Young

This photo has it all. One of BB’s most endearing qualities is his devotion to being a father, and his love for his kids. Combine that with his penchant for making goofy camera faces, and the strong possibility that he’s the “party dad” among his kids’ friends, and you’ve got a BB classic. He would tell you so himself!

1. It’s All About Love

There are some positions that don’t work in a tennis sweater.

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