I don’t spend much time in Germany any more. When I go there to appear on a game show or other entertainment programme, a few people question whether my German will be good enough because they only hear me in English these days. It sounds ridiculous, but it’s true. We’re back to the problem that I’ve moved on with my life, but the German media haven’t. When I first won Wimbledon at 17, my language skills weren’t as good as they are now – it’s hardly surprising, which 17-year-old has those skills when faced with the world’s media? But that was 30 years ago, and many of these people haven’t adjusted their focus. It’s frustrating for me, and very disrespectful, not just to me but to athletes in general because it implies that because I never took my ‘Abitur’ (the German equivalent of A’-Levels or baccalaureate) and only concentrated on sports, I can’t be very intelligent. I sense this really applies more to Germany than anywhere else.

Although I find it disrespectful, maybe I’m a challenge to the Germans’ belief that you can’t make it without decent academic qualifications. Not only did I do well without my Abitur, but to make matters worse I became immensely popular. A lot of kids looked at me and thought that if I could do it at 17, they could too. In that respect, I’ve been subversive because I’ve shown you can be successful without the educational qualifications. People are frightened about that in Germany.

Another problem in Germany is that tennis is broadcast less frequently on TV than it was 20 years ago. It means they don’t see me – British TV viewers see more of me because they show more tennis and I spent more than 10 years on the BBC. Other German athletes suffer from that too. Football is so dominant in Germany that German sports fans miss out on some beautiful sporting moments in other sports, with the result that many German athletes are internationally successful without the German people knowing it because it’s not televised. I don’t think that’s right or fair.

There’s still the question of racism. I like to think I helped Germany become more tolerant – I certainly set an example. But because of economic factors, extremism is coming back into Germany, whether it’s the far right or left, and I think that’s a dangerous phenomenon. My lifestyle and my opinions don’t help there. On the contrary, they see me as an outsider. The German people think ‘He’s not one of us any more, he was married to a mixed-race or coloured girl, he has mixed-race children, he lives in England’, so in many ways I’ve moved away from my German heritage. Whether that ends up in a British passport is another question, but it all contributes to my feeling of being more at home in England.

Furthermore my relationship with England is good. I live in the British capital. I say to my German friends that I like to live in ‘peace and freedom’, and I really feel that living in London is about that. Everyone has their bit of freedom and democracy, and it’s really up to you whether you make it in this city, and therefore in this country, or whether you don’t. There’s a freedom of choice in so many ways, and I think that really fits my character and my family. I hope I can stay here for the rest of my life.