Becker's women battle it out

Two women in the life of former tennis star Boris Becker today gave wildly different accounts of him as a lover.

The mother of his illegitimate child poured scorn on his account of their liaison. Speaking for the first time since Becker wrote about their "30 second" broom cupboard affair, Russian-born Angela Ermakova told of her mistrust for Becker and how she had suffered as a result of the incident in 1999 in Mayfair's Nobu restaurant.

Meanwhile, Becker's current girlfriend, ballerina Caroline Rocher, spoke of her love for the thoughtful" and respectful" star.

In Becker's autobiography, published last week, he claimed that he briefly met Miss Ermakova at the bar of Nobu shortly before their clinch in the restaurant's broom cupboard.

He claimed he only had oral sex with her and suggested she had somehow "stolen" his sperm to father her child.

After the incident, he and his wife Barbara divorced, costing the German star £20 million.

Today Miss Ermakova, 35, said Becker had "called me many times" before their liaison. She said: "I have no idea what he's on about. It is really too absurd for words. Maybe he thought it would show him in a better light. I am simply a second class woman to him.

It makes me rage when I read that he left his wife behind in hospital with childbirth pains. Sadly, I am lumbered for the rest of my life with this terrible reputation."

Miss Ermakova, who now lives in a £1 million Kensington flat purchased for her by Becker, said she hated Becker in the days before and after the birth of their child Anna, now three, but said: "Now we are civilised."

She added: "He deeply wounded me. I don't think he planned that evening but he's ruined my reputation for life. He writes of private detectives in his book trawling through my life. They went through my bank accounts, my telephone records, my files.
My lawyers threatened action against them. I don't trust him entirely and I don't think he trusts me entirely. I call him if I have a question about Anna, otherwise not. I have suffered a great, great deal through Boris."

However the former waitress added: "I think he's proud of his daughter and loves her and he is particularly pleased that she resembles him so much."

Last year DNA tests proved former Wimbledon champion Becker, 35, was the father of Anna and she was awarded £5,000 a month in maintenance payments.

His current lover Rocher said on a German TV chat show that Becker remains her boyfriend despite the autobiography in which he also admitted being high on alcohol and prescription drugs for much of his Wimbledon career.

She says they met in a club last December in New York. Rocher, 26, said: "He respects my work. He gives me the space to continue my career as a dancer. He is thoughtful. We were together the whole summer. I often jump on a plane for a couple of days now to come and see him.

"I have got to know his eldest son Noah. Boris is a loving father with a great deal of responsibility towards his children.

"I don't know when or if we will be together full time: my life is mostly in America. Maybe I will move one day to Switzerland where he is.

"Who knows what the future will bring? I am French so maybe some time soon I will move back to Europe."

Asked if marriage was on the cards she laughed and said: " Marriage? Not that I know of."