My Boris Beckerlike: Tennis star's ex-wife is dating his doppelganger

Indeed, no fewer than five of Boris Becker's lovers have borne a striking similarity to his ex-wife, Barbara Feltus.

And now, it seems, she too has acquired a taste for lookalikes.

She has started dating Lapo Elkann, the heir to the Agnelli and Fiat cars fortune and a dead ringer for Becker.

Familiar faces: Barbara Feltus in New York with Lapo Elkann

Not only does the 30-year-old have a shock of red hair, his facial features are also similar to those of the former Wimbledon champion.

The couple were seen shopping in New York before going for a romantic meal - and Mr Elkann even appeared to be wearing Becker's favourite leather flat cap.

The real thing: Barbara's ex-husband Boris Becker

Barbara and Mr Elkann spent the day together in the city's Greenwich Village before returning to his apartment. Earlier this month they attended a fashion party in Berlin together.

Becker's eight-year marriage to Barbara was ended by the tennis player's notorious dalliance with a waitress in a broom cupboard at the Nobu restaurant in London.

As it turns out, Mr Elkann's past is also not without scandal. Two years ago, in an episode which left Italy stunned, the energetic and extrovert young heir was discovered in sordid circumstances, collapsed and clinging to life after a drugs overdose in the Turin apartment of two Brazilian trans-sexual prostitutes, one of whom was 53 years old.

It emerged that he had consumed a potentially lethal cocktail of drugs including cocaine, heroin and alcohol.

He was quickly restored to health after a spell in rehab, but it took longer for the family name to recover.

Italian commentators were astounded that an Agnelli could, as one put it, "roll in the dust".

Eventually, though, the incident was forgotten and the dynasty resumed its place at the heart of Italian business life.

From left to right, 1999: Angela Ermakova, 2001: Singer Sabrina Setlur, 2002: Writer Patrice Farameh, 2003: Dancer Caroline Rocher, Now: Sharlely Kersenberg

For his part, Becker also knows a thing or two about dating lookalikes.

After Barbara came five others who looked almost identical - Angela Ermakova (who Boris met in that broom cupboard in 1999), Sabrina Setlur, Patrice Farameh, Caroline Rocher and finally Dutch model Sharlely Kersenberg, his current girlfriend.