Carlos Alcaraz successfully defended his Indian Wells Masters title, which evoked the social media page of the tournament to share a list of ATP players who have defended their titles. As they shared the names of those who achieved glory, they forgot Boris Becker, and the legendary player came forward to share his name with no hesitation.
Becker has had a long history with the Indian Wells Masters. Aside from winning the championship twice, he also managed to have an iconic moment with Novak Djokovic long after he retired.
Boris Becker steps forward to correct Indian Wells
Carlos Alcaraz recently won the BNP Paribas Open against Daniil Medvedev in what became a rematch of the 2023 final. Alcaraz would go on to win once again and successfully defended his title with the scoreboard reading 7-6, 6-1. He became the seventh player to defend his title in Indian Wells. He is preceded by Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Lleyton Hewitt, Michael Chang, Pete Sampras, and Boris Becker.
The social media page of the BNP Paribas Open shared the list of the players who did it but forgot to name the player who did it for the first time. Becker was missing from the list and jumped in to remind them of the mistake they had made.
The original post read, “🏆🏆 Carlos Alcaraz🏆🏆 Novak Djokovic🏆🏆 Roger Federer🏆🏆 Lleyton Hewitt🏆🏆 Michael Chang🏆🏆 Pete Sampras. The only men to successfully defend a title in #TennisParadise 🎾”. Becker then replied, “And me …87/88.”
Becker has had many iconic moments at the Indian Wells but found himself disappointed with their recent declaration. One of the iconic moments came after he had retired when Djokovic reached the final of the tournament for the first time.
Djokovic shows his admiration for Becker
Despite losing in his first Indian Wells final, the Serb was not discouraged. He remained composed and received the runner-up medal. He began by expressing his excitement because it was his first big speech. Djokovic went on to say that it was a great honor for him to receive a trophy from a legend like Boris Becker. In typical Djokovic form, he joked in his speech.
He first talked about how excited he was because it was his first big speech and how he felt elated at receiving a trophy from Becker. “Thank you very much. You know, when my mother was giving me the milk, I was watching Boris winning the Wimbledon, and now he’s giving me a trophy.”
