Boris Becker: former Wimbledon star facing deportation after serving eight months of prison sentence

Three-time Wimbledon champion Boris Becker was jailed for two-and-a-half years in April
Boris Becker has been released from jail. Boris Becker has been released from jail.
Boris Becker has been released from jail.

Boris Becker has been freed from prison after serving just eight months of his sentence and now faces deportation from the UK. The three-time Wimbledon champion was jailed for two-and-a-half years in April for hiding £2.5 million of assets and loans to avoid paying his debts.

The former world number one and BBC commentator was declared bankrupt on 21 June 2017 – owing creditors almost £50 million – over an unpaid loan of more than £3 million on his estate in Majorca.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The 55-year-old German, who has lived in the UK since 2012, was expected to serve half of his sentence behind bars but was released on Thursday morning and is due on a flight to be deported from the UK, the PA news agency understands.

He is thought to have been transferred to a lower security jail for foreign criminals awaiting deportation in May – Category C Huntercombe Prison near Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire – after previously reportedly being held at Category B Wandsworth Prison in south-west London.

The six-time Grand Slam champion qualified for automatic deportation because he is a foreign national who does not have British citizenship and received a custodial sentence of more than 12 months.

‘I’m not going to hide or run away’

In a clip for a forthcoming Apple TV + documentary which was filmed ahead of his sentence he tearfully says: “I’ve hit my (rock) bottom, I don’t know what to make of it. I (will) face (my sentence), I’m not going to hide or run away. (I will) accept whatever sentence I’m going to get. It’s Wednesday afternoon and (on) Friday I know the rest of my life.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Director Alex Gibney and producer John Battsek, known for the Oscar-winning documentaries Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room, and Searching For Sugar Man, respectively, have been documenting the tennis star’s life for three years in a series of “deeply intimate interviews”.

Apple TV+ said the two-part show explores the three-time Wimbledon champion and former world number one’s tennis career from the beginning as well as his “tumultuous” personal life.

Boris Becker arrives at Southwark Crown CourtBoris Becker arrives at Southwark Crown Court
Boris Becker arrives at Southwark Crown Court

Also interviewed is his immediate family and tennis rivals like American John McEnroe, Swedish Mats Wilander and fellow German Michael Stich. Novak Djokovic, who Becker coached from 2013 to 2016 when the former tennis world number one won six grand slams, also appears.

Along with Bjorn Borg, former number tennis one who had been the youngest male Wimbledon champion at 20 years before Becker broke his record.

Related topics:

Comment Guidelines

National World encourages reader discussion on our stories. User feedback, insights and back-and-forth exchanges add a rich layer of context to reporting. Please review our Community Guidelines before commenting.