"Did you ask Boris Becker how jail was?" - Serena Williams' ex-coach pokes fun at Andrea Petkovic over her meeting with German legend

Serena Williams' ex-coach Rennae Stubbs recently brought up Boris Becker's time in jail to poke fun at Andrea Petkovic. Stubbs surfaced the subject after Petkovic had told her that she'd recently met Becker.

Boris Becker was jailed in the UK in April 2022. It was a suspended sentence for the German tennis legend's tax evasion and attempted tax evasion dating back to 2002. His initial sentence's duration was two years and six months. However, it was later reduced, and he was released after serving eight months behind bars.

Recently, Rennae Stubbs, a former doubles specialist who took charge of Serena Williams for her 2022 US Open campaign, hosted yet another episode of The Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast. Accompanying her was former WTA World No. 9 Andrea Petkovic.

The pair were talking strictly about tennis when Petkovic suddenly told Stubbs that she'd spoken to Boris Becker in the recent past. Stubbs interjected and hilariously asked the German if she'd talked to her legendary compatriot about his time in jail. Petkovic, taken aback, said that she did not talk about it at all. Go through the exchange between Stubbs and Petkovic below:

"You will be happy I talked to Boris Becker lately, and he said to me...," began Petkovic. (from 26:07)

"Did you ask him how the clinker was?" Stubbs asked, interrupting Petkovic.

"How the what was?" Petkovic asks back, unable to understand what Stubbs said.

"How the clinker was?" Stubbs responds.

"What's a clinker?" Petkovic questions.

"The jail," Stubbs explains.

At this point, Petkovic clarified that she spoke with Boris Becker about reigning World No. 1 Jannik Sinner. According to Petkovic, Becker had told her about some of Sinner's qualities that make him exceptional, even as the Italian faces uncertainty over his still-unresolved doping case.

"I asked him about tennis because he has a great tennis mind and I really like talking to him about tennis and he said he thinks that among the tennis reasons why Jannik is so great and why he is so ahead of the rest, he says he has the perfect team by his side. He says he plays the least tournaments when he feels tired, when he feels injured, he pulls out. He keeps his energy. And he has this black cloud above his head," Petkovic added.

In April last year, Becker opened up about the difficulties he faced during the eight months he spent behind bars.

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"You fight every day for survival" - Boris Becker's grim recollection of time in prison

Boris Becker (Source: Getty)

In an interview with the BBC in April last year, Becker revealed how he had to toughen himself up and even seek "protection" in jail due to the criminal history of the inmates he was surrounded by. The six-time singles Major winner also confessed that behind bars, his illustrious tennis career barely mattered, and it was all about the strength of his character.

"I was surrounded by murderers, by drug dealers, by rapists, by people smugglers, by dangerous criminals. You fight every day for survival. Quickly you have to surround yourself with the tough boys, as I would call it, because you need protection," Becker told BBC.

"If you think you're better than everybody else then you lose. Inside it doesn't matter that I was a tennis player, the only currency we have inside is our character and our personality. That's it, you have nothing else," he added.

The former ATP World No. 1 was deported from the UK in the aftermath of his release from prison in December 2022. Becker returned to coaching last year after he was appointed by Holger Rune. However, the promising collaboration did not last long due to the German's inability to travel full-time with the Dane.