Boris Becker released from UK prison and facing deportation

Ex-tennis star had hidden £2.5 million of assets and loans to avoid paying debt

Three-time Wimbledon champion Boris Becker is facing deportation from Britain after his time in jail. PA

Former tennis champion Boris Becker has been released from prison after serving eight months of his sentence and now faces deportation from the UK.

Becker, 55, a six-time Grand Slam champion, was convicted of transferring hundreds of thousands of pounds from his business account after bankruptcy.

The triple Wimbledon champion was sentenced to two and a half years in jail in April after a London court found he had concealed £2.5 million ($3.08 million) of assets and loans to avoid paying his debts.

His mother Elvira, 87, said her son's release was "the best Christmas present I could hope for".

"I cannot wait to hold my beloved son in my arms," she said.

Newspaper reports suggested he would stay with friends in Frankfurt.

Before the sentencing Becker said he had hit rock bottom.

"I don't know what to make of it," he said. "I will face it. I'm not going to hide or run away. I will accept whatever sentence I'm going to get.

He was declared bankrupt on June 21, 2017 — owing creditors almost £50m — over an unpaid loan of more than £3m on his estate in Majorca.

The 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.

He is due on a flight to be deported, the PA news agency reported.

He is thought to have been transferred to a lower security jail for foreign criminals awaiting deportation in May — the category C Huntercombe Prison near Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire.

He was previously reportedly being held at the Category B Wandsworth Prison in south-west London.

The former tennis star qualified for automatic deportation because he is a foreign citizen who does not have British citizenship and received a custodial sentence of more than 12 months.

"Any foreign national who is convicted of a crime and given a prison sentence is considered for deportation at the earliest opportunity," a Home Office representative said.

Becker rose to stardom in 1985 aged only 17 when he became the first unseeded player to win the Wimbledon men's singles title.