Boris Becker still calls July 7 his second birthday, his personal moon landing, the day his life -- and in some ways tennis -- changed forever. On that date 25 years ago, Becker became the youngest men's champion in Wimbledon history. Only 17, he looked like a boy, baby-faced with floppy strawberry blond hair. But he punished the ball like a man -- aggressive, powerful, Boom Boom Becker even then. The country he represented (West Germany) no longer exists, and the style of tennis he played (serve and volley) is all but extinct. But Becker's run reverberates -- in how unusual his daring net play now seems, in the record that still stands, and in the power game played by Rafael Nadal and Tomas Berdych, who will meet on Sunday in this year's final. 'It was such an extraordinary record that people looked at me like I was from Planet Mars,' Becker said. 'They said I couldn't have been human to do that. I get these looks, still, now. They stare at me in amazement.' Not since Nadal knocked off two obscure opponents in 2003 has a 17-year-old won so much as a first-round match in the Wimbledon men's singles tournament. At 17, Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras and Roger Federer all lost in the first round. Perhaps the public knew little of Becker before Wimbledon in 1985, but opponents took note of his debut there the year before, when he advanced to the third round before tearing ankle ligaments. He hopped to the net on one leg and shook hands with his opponent, Bill Scanlon, before being carried off on a stretcher. Becker played tennis like no one on tour, before or since. He dived, tumbled, stretched and flopped. At Wimbledon, he often looked like a green giant after matches, his all-white outfits stained green, and his knees and his shins bloodied from reckless play. 'German engineering at its finest,' said Mike DePalmer Jr., Becker's coach from 1994 to 1999. In 1985, still too young to drive in Germany, the unseeded Becker was not expected to advance deep into the tournament. His first opponent, the American Hank Pfister, did not think he posed a serious challenge. 'He played out of his mind that day,' Pfister said. 'I assumed he'd lose in the next round.' But Becker said he thought his win at Queen's Club, a Wimbledon warm-up tournament, should have signaled his competitors that 'there is a teenager in Germany who is pretty good on grass.' He did not play like John McEnroe or Jimmy Connors, the men who had won the previous four Wimbledon titles. Becker took the ball early, boomed his first and second serves, and rushed forward as if his tennis life depended on it. Matt Anger, his second-round opponent in '85, compared Becker's play to a 'tidal wave.' But Becker needed five sets to beat his next two opponents, Joakim Nystrom and Tim Mayotte. Down by two sets to one against Mayotte, Becker turned his ankle and reportedly told the chair umpire he was finished. His manager, Ion Tiriac, came down onto the court and persuaded him to continue. 'Tiriac didn't give a damn; he just walked out onto the court,' said John Mayotte, Tim's brother, who was there. 'Tim objected, but it was a nice-guy-from-New-England objection, and Boris got the ankle taped and found a way to win.' Becker said he began to sense fate aligning, answering each 'crisis' with a 'miracle' event that turned matches in his favor. He beat his friend Henri Leconte in the quarterfinals, and rallied to beat Anders Jarryd in the semifinals after the match was suspended because of rain and darkness. In the final, Becker overcame Kevin Curren, a 27-year-old South African who had his own remarkable run, beating Stefan Edberg, McEnroe and Connors in succession. The indelible image of Becker remains that of an overgrown boy in tight, white shorts tumbling on the grass, his serve likened to 'the missiles of the Wehrmacht' by one British newspaper. It began with him rocking ominously into a deep knee bend and concluded, as Agassi once noticed, with his tongue previewing the direction of his serve. From 1985 to 1991, Becker went 40-4 at Wimbledon, winning three titles in six trips to the finals. In that era, conventional wisdom held that the first person to the net won, the idea being to finish points, Becker said. Now, racket and string technology allows players to punish ground strokes with the kind of spin and ferocity that were inconceivable in 1985. Players tend to remain on the baseline on all surfaces. The courts at Wimbledon play slower, the balls bounce higher and tennis continues to evolve. Becker said he thought there would be another serve-and-volley champion at Wimbledon. Statistics indicate otherwise. According to ESPN, in a fourth-round match between Federer and Sampras in 2001, there were 254 serve-and-volley points. In last year's final, where Federer topped Andy Roddick in five long sets, there were 11. Jarryd noted that the same folks who once lamented the lack of rallies during Becker's era may now be waxing nostalgic about the bygone serve-and-volley style. 'It's a totally different tournament now,' he said. Becker, now 42, said he did not think a player 17 or younger would win Wimbledon in his lifetime. Of course, he never thought a tennis match could last more than 11 hours, but that happened two weeks ago. Every year, Becker is asked about his first Wimbledon title, his memories, how it changed him. But until he watched the match with reporters from a German newspaper recently, he said he had never seen it in its entirety. Not all his memories are positive because that tournament set an impossibly high standard. He went from a shy teenager and self-conscious stutterer to a public figure famous enough to secure an audience with the Pope. 'Everybody expected me to win Wimbledon for the next 10 years, which is impossible,' he said. 'At 17, you're still a boy, really, a young man, a very young man. You haven't found your personality. Your character isn't set.' Becker said he struggled with his identity. To DePalmer, Becker always seemed like a duck, calm above the water, churning underneath. Becker was celebrated, followed and chronicled in Germany the way Michael Jordan was in the United States. But although Becker went on to a remarkable career, critics maintained that he never reached his potential. In his autobiography, 'The Player,' Becker devoted more space to the tax-evasion charges that nearly landed him in jail in Germany, his subsequent deportation from the United States, his conceiving a child in the supply closet of a sushi restaurant while his wife was in false labor, his divorce and his addiction to sleeping pills than to his Wimbledon win in 1985. In fact, Becker said he thought his victory helped lead to his off-court struggles. Becker in 1985 sparked a tennis boom in Germany. Tennis schools taught children to dive for volleys, and anything with the Becker name sold. Yet the Becker generation did not produce another champion like him. His triumph at 17 planted seeds harvested much later, though, even at this Wimbledon. From Becker to Berdych, the power game has been amplified, even as the serve-and-volley style disappeared. Becker won Wimbledon again in 1986, a championship that validated him. 'It explained to me that it wasn't a surprise, it wasn't lucky, it was a part of my whole career,' he said. 'It was just the beginning.' 