Boris Becker was threatened by crazed prisoner who vowed to slit his throat

Tennis legend Boris Becker has revealed a chilling ordeal he endured whilst locked up in English prisons. The three-time Wimbledon champion spent eight months incarcerated after being found guilty of concealing £2.5million worth of assets from creditors. He received a two-and-a-half-year sentence in April 2022, following his bankruptcy declaration in 2017 when he owed nearly £50m to creditors.

Becker completed his sentence at HMP Wandsworth and Huntercombe prison in Oxfordshire, where he came face-to-face with some frightening characters. He lived in constant dread throughout his time behind bars after a terrifying confrontation with a fellow prisoner.

"One day, I was coming back from lunch with my tray of food," Becker reveals in a book being serialised by the Daily Mail.

"As I passed Ike's cell, Zac was in there. 'Hey. What are you doing in Ike's cell?' I said. He came straight at me. 'Who the f*** are you? I'm going to f*** you up. I'm going to break your head. I'm going to slit your throat. I'm going to kill you'."

Fortunately for Becker, he was spared from harm by fellow prisoners, who intervened to calm the situation. He received protection from Ike, whose standing commanded respect within the facility, resulting in a dramatic apology from Zac.

"He started kissing my hand and saying sorry," Becker explained. "He wasn't just apologising to me but to Ike, who was the boss on our wing."

Becker also shared another chilling account of his time in prison, where he found himself embroiled in a dangerous game of poker with gangsters.

"I was told that I owed them £500," he revealed. "It was a shock. That would have been nothing to me on the outside. But inside it was a lot of money, your weekly allowance for about eight months.

"When I didn't pay up, I could feel them staring at me, circling around me. Then, one afternoon, two of them came to my cell. A simple message: when are you going to pay?"

In order to settle his debts, Becker had to arrange a bank transfer after being warned that the gang's leader was 'a little crazy'.

The 57-year-old tennis legend was taken aback to find that the prison was essentially run by the inmates themselves and that forming alliances was crucial for survival.

Becker breathed a sigh of relief upon his release in December 2022, when he was deported from the UK to Germany on a private jet. He later relocated from his homeland to Milan, where he now resides with his wife Lillian.

Becker, who shot to fame after winning Wimbledon at the tender age of 17 in 1985, went on to clinch two more Wimbledon titles, two Australian Opens and the US Open during his illustrious career.

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