Boris Becker was addicted to pills and alcohol, nearly slept through a Wimbledon final, cheated on his wife and German tax authorities, had a costly divorce and almost went to jail.

　　Becker, who was recently expelled from the US after spending a day in an airport detention cell because as an "ex-convict" he lacked a US Entry visa, has done everything possible to destroy his name as a German hero.

　　In his tell-all autobiography entitled, "Wait a Second, Stay a While" published last week, Becker has emptied his life onto 320 pages and will surely become a best-seller.

　　It will also likely give the three-times Wimbledon champion two things he now craves as desperately as the sleeping pills and whisky he was hooked on as a player - money and limelight.

　　"I wanted to give everyone who wants to judge me the chance to read how it really was," Becker, 35, said in an interview with Germany's ZDF television, one of many public appearances he has used to publicise his book.

　　"There are a lot of books out there on the market that are filled with things that are not accurate," he said. "I thought it was time to set the record straight about my life. It wasn't always good. The way to the top is brutal. But I'd do it the same all over again because I'm a fighter and love a challenge."

　　Critics have sniffed that the book, being published in 50 countries, is needed to pay his tax evasion bill and support for two sons by his ex-wife and a daughter by an ex-lover he barely knew.

　　Becker's spectacular Wimbledon victories, beginning in 1985, triggered a German tennis boom and a wave of unparalleled national pride.

　　Becker had six grand slam titles to his name when he retired for the second time four years ago. He also collected an estimated 150 million euros in his career.

　　Messy divorce

　　But his post-career antics have sullied the once-towering reputation and provided late-night comedians and taxi drivers with a rich harvest of joke material.

　　Becker has had a string of failed businesses, his marriage fell apart in a messy divorce, he fathered a love child during a brief encounter in a trendy London restaurant, had a public fling with a rap singer and a number of broken relationships.

　　He escaped jail last year when a Munich court convicted him of evading tax and gave him a two-year suspended sentence. He was fined 600,000 euros and paid US million in back taxes. Prosecutors said he claimed his residence was in Monaco, a tax haven, when he was living in Munich.

　　"I felt the ground moving beneath my feet," Becker says of the moment he heard the state prosecutor in court advocating jail. "I felt something inside me collapsing."

　　Becker compared his showdown in court to a big tennis match and admitted sobbing in his car after "winning" by avoiding jail.

　　"The state prosecutor tried to take my freedom from me," Becker said. "I don't have anything against the man. The insane thing was he was trying to throw me in jail and I was paying for him to do that with my tax money."

　　Becker also offers his philosophy on women.

　　"I don't think men are created to be monogamous for life," he said, adding that he did not understand why women were interested in him.

　　"I'm not especially wealthy, not especially attractive, I'm no Adonis and my masculinity is certainly not over-dimensional but that doesn't seem to bother women," he said.

　　"I've been trying to figure out women for years. The older I get the less I'm able to understand them."

　　Laundry cupboard

　　In 1999, after losing his final Wimbledon match, Becker argued for hours with his wife, Barbara, who was seven months pregnant. She startedshavingscontractions and went to hospital while Boris stayed in the hotel and drank.

　　"What lured me out later that night I don't know," Becker wrote. "In any event I found myself sitting in the hotel bar at 11:00pm."

　　He said he spotted a woman, Angela Ermakova. "She had that look that told an experienced hunter, 'This woman wants something from you'."

　　He followed her to a laundry cupboard. "Five minutes of small talk and then we went at it." He has said the sexual encounter lasted five seconds.

　　"The next morning I drove to the hospital to see Barbara. It was a false alarm on the contractions." In February 2000 he got a facsimile from Ermakova telling him she was pregnant. He confessed to his wife and the marriage ended later that year.

　　Becker also describes his addiction to pills and alcohol.

　　"Sleeping pills were my problem," he wrote, adding that he started taking them in 1987 and did not kick the habit until 1992.

　　"As an antidote to the lack of sleep there was Planum, the antidote to pain were a few other pills. And the antidote for loneliness was women and whisky."